Conclusion 75

In the view of Karen Watt, Chief Executive of the Scottish Funding Council, the attractiveness of Scotland’s universities to prospective international students will depend a lot on what’s going on in other counties.172 In particular she pointed out that the way in which counties deal with the pandemic will affect how people think about their next journeys.173 Iain Stewart MP, Minister for Scotland, was also of the view that the higher 166 “New student mental health funding”, NUS Scotland, 25 February 2021; Scottish Parliament (Motions, Questions and Answers: February 2021), ‘Question S5W-35512: Education, Communities and Justice’, accessed 8 April 2021 167 Universities Scotland, ‘Internationally Scottish: Creating global communities’, accessed 24 January 2021 168 Scottish Government, The Impact of International Students in Scotland (March 2018), 3 169 Q127 170 Q167 171 Q135 172 Q84 173 Q84 32 Universities and Scotland education sector was a “competitive place” as “all universities will want to attract students from right around the world” and so “we have to be on our toes to make sure that we do not just rely on past successes to guarantee future success”.174 Minister Lochhead told us that: I think it is very important that we remain an attractive destination for international students, and that means that, following Brexit, we have the challenge of getting that message across to the international community. As Scotland, we are doing what we can and will continue to do that, to promote Scottish brands and the fact that Scotland is an open, welcoming and internationalist country that wants to stay at the heart of Europe and, therefore, we want that to be reflected in students and researchers from Europe, in particular, continuing to come to Scottish institutions so that the best brains in Europe are still attracted to come to work, study and live in Scotland. The UK Government have a role there, because immigration policy, the cost of visas and how Horizon will work