Select committee: Scottish Affairs Committee
Conclusion 126
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)
Professor James Conroy, University of Glasgow, thought the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) was an “afterthought” in deliberations about how UK-wide funding is delivered.296 In his view: We need to have much more robust engagement between SFC and the English bodies, [and] particularly [with] UKRI, to make sure the funding is level and to make sure that the various additional investments that sometimes come on the back of QR and so on also make their way into Scottish universities at the same level as in English universities.297 291 Q11 292 RSE Young Academy of Scotland (USC0006) p 6 293 Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, UKRI Framework Document, May 2018, p 38 294 Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellows (USC0013) para 26 295 Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellows (USC0013) para 26 296 Q12 297 Q12 Universities and Scotland 49
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".