Select committee: Scottish Affairs Committee
Conclusion 45
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)
Richard Lochhead MSP, Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science, Scottish Government, recommended that: We now have to look at whether [Scotland’s universities] are sustainable going forward, and whether we are overdependent on international 102 Scottish Parliament, The impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) on university funding in Scotland (23 July 2020), p 8 (Figure 4) 103 Scottish Funding Council, The Financial Sustainability of Colleges and Universities in Scotland (11 February 2020), p 20 104 Q101 105 Q54 106 Q4 107 Q5 108 Q4 109 Q247 22 Universities and Scotland students. I do not think that means being less attractive to international students or having fewer international students coming to Scotland, but I think there is a challenge in terms of the overall financial model.110
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".