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I have had good engagement with Universities Scotland in recent weeks on the budget and on the legislation that the Parliament passed yesterday. It is fair to say that Universities Scotland would have liked more resource in the budget, but I think that it is a fair settlement, given the situation that we are in right now.

I will say a little bit more about that.

The sustainability work needs to be progressed. It formally commenced in December, and the first meeting will take place at the end of this month. The conclusions and recommendations that are arrived at will be presented to the next Scottish Government ahead of the budget for the next financial year. Significant decisions will then need to be made, based on the recommendations about what the university sector requires.

The budget provides an increase in funding for universities, and it allows for continued support to be provided during this period. The important period for considering what will be required in the future will be after the sustainability group has made its recommendations, which will be in the next financial year.

Most stakeholders will say that they would have liked more. I do not think that I have ever come across a stakeholder in any sphere of public service delivery who has not said that they would have wanted more. I think that the budget is fair.

What is the context of that question, convener?

Ministers will be involved. I expect that Mairi Gougeon is strongly engaged in those discussions.

It is both. I have been a rural affairs and natural environment minister before, so I have engaged with such points. For context, one of the key reasons why we have skills shortages in many areas is that Brexit has affected the number of veterinary graduates and vets more generally in Scotland. That was a big concern during the Brexit process.

I would want to speak on those points with full information, so I will take the issue away. We need to ensure that we have enough adequately and appropriately trained people, and I would like to engage with the chief veterinary officer on those points.

PFI?

The SFC is involved in those considerations as well as the Scottish Government. I appreciate Mr Greer’s focus on those important issues, and I have appreciated my engagement with him on them in relation to the TET bill, not just around this table but in bilateral meetings, including in recent days.

More widely, the Government is determined to see and deliver more fair work where we can using our soft power, because, unfortunately, employment law is clearly fully reserved under the Scotland Act 1998. If we had such powers in the Scottish Parliament, we could make further impact in such areas. Recently, the Government has been determined to deliver good outcomes for our college staff, whom we deeply value. Lecturers’ pay was settled before my appointment. I am also pleased that, in recent weeks, two unions accepted the pay offer for college support staff, which was sufficient for settlement. That settlement is important, because we deeply value support staff’s role in institutions across the education sector, including in our colleges. All those things matter when it comes to fair work and fair pay.

As we approach stage 3 of the TET bill—and Mr Greer will recall that I gave him this undertaking in recent days—I want to be very clear in giving as much assurance as I can about the Government’s focus on enabling greater fair work in our college sector and about what we can do within the powers that we have.

The cabinet secretary might want to say something further on that. I am grateful to Mr Greer for raising the point. That recommendation has not been pressed with me in my dialogues with unions since my appointment to my current role, but I would be happy to consider that and to write to the committee on it in the new year.

Internationalism creates innovation. The Elsevier report, which was a remarkable piece of independent work, showed that our Scottish universities collaborate extremely well. As far as I recall, we collaborate three times more than the global average and two times more with the business community than the global average. The collaboration of Scottish universities internationally and within the UK is remarkable and one of our strengths when it comes to research.

The intangible benefit of people coming together from across the world and thinking, creating, innovating and collaborating is also enriching for academia, wider society and our economy. That is why international students matter. They are not just financial units that are important to universities, which are, of course, autonomous institutions; they are enriching in the round.

As I said, with regard to the January intakes, I want to get a better sense—beyond anecdotal feedback—of what is happening with other institutions. That is in the context of the UK Government’s intention to reduce the duration of graduate visas from two years to 18 months for most international students, which will apply to applications from January 2027. If that is already having an effect, we need to explore why that is.