Select committee: Scottish Affairs Committee
Conclusion 99
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)
Looking ahead to future years of the Turing Scheme, and collaboration with the devolved administrations, Rebecca Hackett, Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland, told us that: 223 “New International Learning Exchange programme to make good the loss of Erasmus+”, Welsh Government, 21 March 2021 224 Q240 225 Q284 226 Q285 227 Q291 228 Q241 229 Q241 230 Q285 40 Universities and Scotland [ … ] the Turing programme [ … ] is a flexible and iterative programme. It has received a year of funding already, but the Department for Education is already working very intensively with the devolved administrations to ensure that the scheme does deliver on what it is seeking to deliver and can evolve to address any issues. Clearly, it is going to be a different stage in year one with all of the impacts of covid and so on, but we are aiming for it to receive the same brand recognition as Erasmus+ in the longer term and we will be working hard with the devolved administrations to ensure that.231
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".