Hansard

I thank Elaine Murray for bringing this important subject to the chamber. As the first non-South of Scotland MSP to speak in the debate, I will discuss the national importance of the Crichton and consider how we can make progress and find solutions.

The debate so far may have been blighted by a number of negative factors. I think that an impasse has been reached in relation to the funding council and that there has been some brinkmanship by the University of Glasgow. I also think that there has been a degree of abdication of responsibility by the Executive. I do not expect the minister to deliver instructions to independent universities—I do not think that he can do so, but he can reflect leadership in Scotland by bringing all the partners together to consider possible solutions to an important problem.

We must start to look at whether institutions and universities in Scotland should only be centrally based. We will have a desperate need in the future: 40 per cent of teachers are due to retire in 10 years, a similar situation will arise in respect of social workers and we have an aging population in general, but particularly in Dumfries and Galloway. We must find a national solution, not only for education but for social provision and for the economy. That is ministers' responsibility. In that context, the minister could easily intervene to bring all the partners together.

We must also consider the issue of wider access and participation. One of the current shortcomings in Scotland is that education is seen as individually and institutionally driven. I know that provision is co-ordinated in the east and west of Scotland, but if we saw wider access and participation in a national context—as the funding council can and should do—we could provide solutions.

What is striking about the Crichton campus, with its liberal arts degree, is that it aims to provide broadly based, interdisciplinary education. We want our future teachers, social workers and so on, who have been talked about in the debate, to have a broad-based degree that they studied for in their locality. If they do not have such an education, we cannot expect to have an appropriate workforce in the future, given that we will have an aging population and fewer graduates under the age of 25. Perhaps Crichton is leading the way in providing what could be a national solution.

The approach that has been taken to the supply of Gaelic teachers has involved outreach and part-time work, for example. People in the peripheral and rural parts of Scotland deserve the same education, and access to education, as anyone else, but that will not be achieved through distance learning.

I feel passionately that we should see the issue in the round. The minister can bring people together, and that is the responsibility that we want him to take up. We want creative solutions, and the solutions are in our hands. We need to nurture and develop the Crichton because it is a precious stone in the landscape of Scottish higher education that should be burnished. However, it is being allowed to fade because a variety of partners will not take responsibility for it. We in this Parliament must have the political will to say that we will not allow the situation to continue. The University of Glasgow should maintain access and take responsibility, and we should co-operate with it. We should look at the university's access and retention role as it relates to Scotland more widely.

The funding council should not be so narrow in its view of funding solely vocational education in the south-west of Scotland. If we are to have the teachers and social workers of tomorrow that were mentioned earlier, people in the south-west need access to a rounded education.

The Scottish Government needs to start thinking of the periphery as the centre of Scotland. If it does not, it will treat Scotland as only parts, rather than as a whole nation. If we were to treat the peripheral and rural parts of Scotland as though they were at the centre of the country, we might have a different perspective on what is important and start providing solutions for Scotland as a whole, rather than as parts. In that spirit, I hope that all parties will come together to intervene under the strategic leadership of the Executive. It is not over by any means; the Crichton is not going. Let us make it the best that it can be, rather than all that it has to be in the current circumstances.