Meeting of the Parliament 08 March 2016
As I said in speaking to my amendments at stage 3, practically every single part of the bill has caused storm and fury. During stage 1, we discussed potential ONS reclassification and concerns about whether the bill provided for too much ministerial control. The cabinet secretary listened to the debate and came back at stage 2 with amendments to remove those elements from the bill. However, the storm and fury continued in relation to other issues in the sector.
I was led to believe in my interactions with the sector itself that it wanted the issues of ministerial control and potential ONS reclassification dealt with at stage 2. When those issues were addressed, that should have enabled us to see a way forward and to work together to progress the bill. However, we ended up in a situation in which other issues continued to arise.
I am first and foremost a back-bench MSP representing my constituency. I went to see Craig Mahoney, the principal of the University of the West of Scotland in my constituency. For the first half-hour of our discussion, we effectively went through the academic argument that has been going on between Universities Scotland and the Government for the past six months. Eventually, however, we talked about how UWS could move forward as a modern institution, how the bill could make a difference and how the university could manage the new structure.
At that point, I believed—I am not putting words into the principal’s mouth—that we had reached a better place than we had been before. What we need to do in considering the bill today is sit back and say, “Right. How will this work practically in the real world rather than here in the chamber?”
During the Education and Culture Committee’s evidence sessions, many positive things were said about our world-renowned university sector. The very spirit of the bill was to ensure democratisation, that the full campus should be represented, and that everyone would work together to make that better. As I said at stage 1, Mary Senior of UCU said:
“No one is questioning that Scottish universities are good—they are good. What we are saying is that they could be so much better if staff, students and trade unions were fully involved in how they operate.”—[Official Report, Education and Culture Committee, 6 October 2015; c 11.]
That is what the bill is all about; it is its heart and soul. We are giving opportunity to the full community. Little as I like to say it, not every idea that I have is the best in the world. However, when we work as a group, we have others with us who have better ideas. That is the ideology that we are talking about just now. We are modernising institutions and bringing them into the 21st century, which is the most important part of the bill.
We have to be mindful that those organisations are getting £3 billion: £1 billion is from the Scottish Government, £1 billion is from the United Kingdom Government, and research and commercial activities make up the other £1 billion. Two thirds of the universities’ budget comes from the public purse and we have to find a way of accounting for that.