Seòmar agus comataidhean

Yes—we undertake to do that.

No. The plan with the disposal of assets is about investment in infrastructure of all sorts in those colleges. It has been taken forward on that basis.

I absolutely take that point, and I hope that we are demonstrating that. There is the move to bring apprenticeship funding into one location from the current twin-track approach. It is the same with foundation apprenticeships—if we can bring that into the one centre, it will be easier to tie it all together, and I hope that it will be more transparent, as well. Transparency and simplification are driving our agenda.

The 10-year period that you refer to also includes the period of austerity that we have endured. I make that point in passing.

It is true to say that the funding of domestic students has not risen in the way that universities would have wanted. I accept that. International students do subsidise the system. As you are aware, Mr Kerr, one of the problems that we encounter is that there has been an impact on international students because of some of the measures that were introduced by the previous United Kingdom Government and, which is just as important, because of some of the rhetoric surrounding those measures. There have been problems. We are working actively with the university sector to undo some of that damage. That will be only a mitigation, but we are working with universities through the international education strategy.

Alongside that, and despite the financial challenges that we face, there is a small budget for the promotion of Scotland as a come-to destination for higher education. That has been done in conjunction with the universities and the messaging is directed by them. We are trying not only to ensure that Scotland continues to be an attractive destination but to broaden the cohort of international students so that there is less exposure to certain markets.

That is the twin approach that we are taking, in conjunction with the universities, while recognising that it is unlikely that there will suddenly be a significant improvement in finances, particularly those coming from Westminster. We must play the hand that we are dealt and work with our partners to address that.

Could you perhaps expand on that? It would be helpful to me to understand what sort of models you are talking about.

I would characterise that slightly differently. I think that the SFC should have the power to investigate issues that are reported to it. It will not always be the case that what is alleged will have occurred in its entirety. We need to be careful about that in some instances.

You make a fair point. The SFC, as the oversight body, ought to have powers and should be part of a structure so that, when there is an alleged issue in a college, that can be escalated and investigated and, if action is required, that action can be taken.

I return the question to you. Are you telling me that you would rather that we had not facilitated the closure of the deal?

Those that I have mentioned are the two that came to the fore in the discussions that we had with the universities. I have invited them to come up with any other ideas, and I invite the committee to do the same, if members have any thoughts in this area, because collective brain power is needed to find a way to build on the strong foundations that we have.

Widening access is incredibly important. Our latest task has been to look at why Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire have a local data-sharing arrangement, and to ask whether other local authorities could have something similar in place.

That could still be restrictive, because it might be that a local authority would share the data only with a local university: we want to go further than that. I have set out just some examples to give you a taste of what we are doing in this space to try to move the agenda on.

We will indeed.

We need to be a bit careful about the issue of reserves, because some of those moneys are not cash reserves. We must recognise that some will be earmarked for substantial investment in the universities, which will be incredibly important to Scotland and to the economy.

Also, in order to act in the best interests of their institution, universities have to have roughly 90 days’ worth of cash reserves available. It is easy to look at those numbers, total them up and make the point that you have just made—I recognise that point.

We should also acknowledge that our universities are doing a lot outwith the obvious. For example, many are going into schools to assist in encouraging young women to get into science, technology, engineering and maths subjects. That is just one example; there are a lot of outreach projects and the universities are doing a lot of things with their own resources to benefit us. Therefore, I am a bit hesitant to say, “Yeah, it is a rainy day—let’s spend these resources.” We would encourage universities to play their part in what needs to happen, but the situation is not as black and white as it might look.