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It is not yet known whether UK ministers will allow university tuition fees in England to rise with inflation.

Measures regarding widening access to universities will be brought forward in a wider package of reforms on post-16 education, as mentioned in my response to S4W-696 on 23 June 2011. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Working with the Scottish Funding Council, we will review the balance between fees only and funded places in due course.

As outlined in the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning’s statement to the Parliament on 16 June 2011 and in my own speech to the colleges at their annual conference on the same date, a wider package of reforms on post-16 education will be set out later this year.

The issues for inclusion are currently being developed, but will be framed around the key criterion of improving outcomes for learning, and will take into account commitments and the resources available in the context of cabinet decisions about the Spending Review.

We will work with local authorities, schools, parents and learners, to develop a new languages model that will increase the opportunities for young people to benefit from learning two additional languages and to develop the confidence and skills that they need to be successful in an increasingly globalised world. This model will have flexibility to enable local authorities and schools to agree the nature and content of language provision for the children and young people in their area, but it is envisaged that languages available would include both European and Asian languages.

The Scottish Funding Council is in the process of mapping provision across further and higher education, at local, regional and national levels, and will be presenting their findings to the Scottish Government in due course.

The information requested is contained in the following table.

Scottish-Domiciled Students Studying for a Qualification in a Modern Language at the Scottish Higher Education Institutions, 2007-08 to 2009-10 (1,2)

Source: Scottish Funding Council (SFC).

Notes:

1. For this table, modern languages excludes the following subject areas: English studies, ancient language studies, Celtic studies, Latin studies, Classical Greek studies, Classical studies and others subject areas covered by linguistics, classics and related subjects.

2. Students might be studying for a qualification in a modern language in combination with other subject(s).

Students studying for a qualification in a combination of subjects are counted as one regardless of how many figures are derived from individual student returns collected by the Higher Education Statistics agency (HESA).

The Scottish Funding Council uses a different standard population to that used by HESA and these figures might differ from any published by HESA.

Figures in this table have been rounded to the nearest five. Zero, one and two have been rounded to zero.

The information requested is not held centrally. This is a matter for individual institutions.

The additional £15 million announced for college student support in February 2011 reinforces our commitment to protect college students from the impact of the UK Government’s decision to reduce the Scottish block grant by £1.3 billion. We intend to consider the future of financial support for college students as an important part of our wider plans to review post-16 provision by colleges and others.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-117 on 31 May 2011. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.