Meeting of the Parliament 03 June 2015
I say to Mr Gray that, although I have many faults—I am sure that he is familiar with a few of them—complacency is most certainly not one of them.
As I reflected on the debate, it struck me that Liz Smith, in her opening speech, used some uncharacteristically—certainly for her—strong language. She described the Scottish Government, in pursuing the higher education governance bill, as “vindictive”, “bureaucratic” and “meddling”. I would like to point out that the European University Association autonomy scorecard identifies Scotland’s higher education sector as one of the most autonomous in the world. Our proposals are most certainly not about increasing ministerial control. I certainly welcome the fact that most members in the chamber recognise that having diversity, inclusiveness and partnership within the higher education sector is not just the right thing to do, but the smart thing to do.
We are now in a three-week pre-introduction phase for the higher education governance bill, and it is difficult for me to discuss in detail a bill that will be introduced to Parliament in the near future. I am confident that we will demonstrate that we have been listening to principals, chairs of court and—crucially—staff and students. After the bill’s introduction, the Government commits to continue working with partners, and to collaborate across the sector and the chamber. There must be a two-way process, and I want to ensure that where possible those in the sector can work together and move forward as a community.
As we would expect, we have had some discussion about funding, and it is important to stress that, via the Scottish funding council, the Government plans to invest £282 million in core research and knowledge exchange. That modest increase of half a per cent builds on increased levels of research funding since 2007. From 2011-12 up to financial year 2015-16, higher education resource funding has increased by 12 per cent in cash terms and more than 5 per cent in real terms, at a time when the Scottish Government’s fiscal budget has been reduced by 9 per cent in real terms and our capital budget by 25 per cent in real terms. Nonetheless, in response to Mr Gray’s point, we have told the funding council to proceed with firm commitments so that it can make firm spending plans for £1,041 million. We have asked it to hold back £22 million—roughly 2 per cent—so that we have flexibility across the post-16 education budget.