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I and other education ministers will be arguing for our portfolio, and there is a shared interest across the Scottish Government for education to thrive, not just for—although most importantly for—the benefit of the people whom we all serve, but, crucially, to ensure that we fulfil the economic potential and bring forward all the positive impacts that that can have.

You asked how we are going to work collaboratively with the colleges and step into the future and the next chapter together. I am extremely passionate about that, and I want to really focus on that, in my role, in the period between now and the election.

There is—it is cited in members’ papers for today’s meeting—quite a well-developed position with the universities with regard to how they want, collectively, to think about sustainability for the future and work together on what needs to change and how the Scottish Funding Council, the Scottish Government and the sector can work collaboratively.

I would really love to establish that with the college sector. It is about my not only working with the body—Colleges Scotland—but engaging with individual institutions. A great—or significant—number of those institutions have written to me in the past week, as the committee would expect. I look forward to engaging with several of them, as much as capacity will allow, once I am not doing parliamentary business every day—as has been the case since last Tuesday, pretty much.

I am sorry—I cannot hear your question, because of what is happening behind me.

There is, of course, our approach to tuition, which means that the majority of Scottish-domiciled students, either in further or higher education, do not leave university with any personal debt for fees. As the member knows, that has been the Government’s position since it took office; it was a key policy that was delivered and which has been sustained. What that means—and there is survey evidence on this—is that individuals do not have to bring into their consideration or personal analysis of whether university or further education is the right option for them the question whether they will accumulate debt for fees as a result. That is very important.

As for student support, I mentioned in my opening statement that the position here is better, too. Average loan debts for Scottish students are the lowest in the UK; indeed, they are more than £35,000 lower than the average for students from England.

As I said to the Parliament yesterday, the Scottish Government will discuss all issues relating to sustainable funding in the round, except for the introduction of up-front tuition fees as were in place previously under the Scottish executive. We will not discuss the possibility of reintroducing tuition fees. My personal view is that tuition fees have been a bit of a red herring. If tuition fees are a panacea, why are we seeing such difficulties with institutions south of the border, where fees are over £9,000 a year? Unless people are arguing for tuition fees to be higher than £9,000 a year—I think £9,000 is too high, so any higher would certainly be too high—introducing tuition fees cannot be a sustainable funding solution for our institutions. I want to continue the good-faith discussions on sustainable funding, but the Scottish Government is clear that, as long as we are charged by the people of Scotland to be in Government, tuition fees will not be introduced.

As I hope I have emphasised so far, I want to work in lockstep with the sector on the challenges. As you alluded to, Mr Rennie, the situation to date is that my predecessor brought Government, colleges, universities and the SFC around the table to discuss new ways to tackle the challenges. I want to build on that approach. That work will need to include considerations about how we adapt, reform, deliver efficiency, and, most importantly, serve learners. That has been a key area of focus for me with the university sector, and, as I emphasised, I would like to build on the precedent set with the universities to do the same with colleges. I will be seeking to achieve that. I will set out more in the next few weeks about how we will continue to work with the university sector on a new vision for Scotland’s universities. If you can give me time, I would like to set that out in due course.

It is not for ministers to direct which bit of funding the SFC would allocate. It is meant to be an arm’s-length body.

To go back to some of the areas that I touched on in answer to Mr Briggs, we want a system where there is flexibility and efficiency to provide the opportunities that the economy needs and to support people in the different avenues that they decide to take and that are best for their personal development and fulfilling their potential. Through the consultation process and my predecessor’s work, the changes that are being proposed in the bill would help to streamline the process. However, I listened carefully to the reflections that were articulated in the stage 1 debate in the chamber last week and have read the report with interest. I want the committee to be assured that I am listening.

Those points are also relevant to the wider collaborative work with the sector on sustainability. I am grateful for that understanding and I will take the point away.

Those considerations are challenging across the public sector, especially in an environment in which the Scottish Government’s capital resource has been cut, which makes the challenge of delivering on capital projects, whether they are maintenance projects or new builds, more difficult. As you would expect, there is a process to identify where works are required. Stuart Greig can speak more about that.

I emphasise that what has been provided is meant to stabilise the university and is certainly not a licence to cut jobs. We listened with interest to what was said earlier, and Amanda Callaghan has some reflections on that.

That is not my understanding. We are in a section 25 process here, and we have heard the evidence today. The institution is undertaking the work that we need to see it progress, and it is certainly the Government’s intention to play its part, without straying past its position in relation to the section 25 direction, to ensure that we have a sustainable university for the benefit of the people of Dundee and the wider Scottish economy.

In my opening remarks, I talked about the real success—