Select committee: Scottish Affairs Committee
Conclusion 29
First Report - Universities and Scotland
Published 28 May 2021
Addressed to Scotland Office
Scottish Affairs Committee Universities and Scotland All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
In terms of the impact of the UK Government interventions, and collaboration between the two Governments, we were told by Karen Watt, Chief Executive of the Scottish Funding Council, that: 66 HMG, UK Government to fund international Covid-19 studies in Scotland, 5 September 2020 67 “More mental health support for students”, Scottish Government, 6 November 2020 68 “Extra funding for student associations”, Scottish Government, 11 December 2020 69 “Financial support for students”, Scottish Government, 23 December 2020 70 “Financial support for students”, Scottish Government, 23 December 2020 71 “Support for students in hardship”, Scottish Government, 26 January 2021 72 “Additional funding for FE and HE to help with COVID-19”, @ScotGovEdu, 16 February 2021 73 Scottish Funding Council, Additional funding for universities in FY 2020–21 (24 March 2021), p 4 18 Universities and Scotland My understanding—and we are collecting data on this—is that there has been a fairly low take-up on the [UK Government] loan schemes, but much more on the [UK-wide] job retention scheme. [ … ] We were part of the UK research sustainability taskforce. We were involved in UKRI’s costed grant extensions, which were very important to make sure that we were keeping some of the staff costs in universities stable.74
From: Scottish Affairs Committee, First Report - Universities and Scotland (HC 54), 28 May 2021
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 27 April 2022 (deadline 28 July 2021).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government's response sets out continued work with the devolved administrations and existing UK-wide policies on international students, immigration, research funding and talent, and states it will submit a response to the earlier Immigration and Scotland report "shortly".
- On the Turing Scheme, it confirmed funding for three years, including "£110 million for the 2022/23 Academic Year". It states the scheme "prioritises pupils, students and learners over staff and inward mobility funding", and says the first year's impact will be evaluated.
- On Erasmus+, it states that President Von Der Leyen "has previously confirmed that association by part of a country is not legally possible".
- On UKRI, it states that Board appointees "are not recruited to represent any constituency, sector or regional grouping", while a legal requirement to have regard to research conditions in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is taken into account. It says Research England's place on the Executive Committee reflects its status as a legal component of UKRI.
- On visa costs, it states that "UK visa fees are broadly in line with our competitors" and that it will "continue to keep visa fees under review".