Chamber and committees

I want to bring in Stephen Pathirana, who is online. He will be followed by Pam Gosal, who wants to ask a supplementary question.

The committee has requested the data on that, which would be extremely helpful.

Mr Hepburn will be aware that I am very concerned about the issue, given that my constituency includes not only the University of Glasgow but eight institutes of higher and further education—nine including the Open University. That puts particular pressures on the area and means that, as well as the area being welcoming and accommodating towards students, there can be tension with the resident population. It is a complicated picture. I am aware that the minister has been working closely with the University of Glasgow, as have I.

It might be useful for us to understand the bigger picture. Can the minister give us an indication of the pressures on student accommodation across Scotland and how that fits in with the picture across the United Kingdom? I am trying to get to the bottom of whether it is a uniquely Scottish issue, a Glasgow issue or a university town issue, or whether the pressures are being felt up and down the country.

Thank you, minister. We are about to move on to a set of questions led by Michael Marra, and he may wish to come back on that last point.

Michael, you are going to talk about completion rates, but you might have a follow-up question on that point.

Welcome back. We will now have a short session about universities. I welcome back the Minister for Higher Education, Further Education, Youth Employment and Training, Jamie Hepburn, and Stephen Pathirana, the director of advanced learning and science at the Scottish Government. I also welcome Shazia Razzaq, strategic lead for university policy, governance and equalities, and Roddy MacDonald, head of the higher education and science division, who join us from the Scottish Government.

As with the previous panel, I expect that most, if not all, of our questions will be directed to the minister. However, anyone else who wishes to come in on any of the questions should put an R in the chat bar. The clerks will monitor the chat bar and I will bring you in whenever I can.

Members and witnesses should be aware that there is an active case in court relating to the Universities Superannuation Scheme and that, therefore, the case is sub judice. I ask members and witnesses to refrain from referring to matters relating to that case.

We will begin with questions about student accommodation from Graeme Dey, and I will also come in on that topic.

Did you hear the question, Mr Hepburn?

Ruth Maguire will ask questions on articulation.

Thank you, Stewart. I think that Carrie Lindsay wants to come in.

Thank you, convener. The screens have gone blank.

I want to ask about quality assurance. Obviously, we want to ensure that childcare of a very high standard is provided consistently across all local authorities for all our children. At the moment, we have a mix of processes involving Education Scotland, local authorities and the Care Inspectorate. I am interested in how valuable that is and how easy it is to manage. Would there be a simpler way to assist continual improvement in quality and assurance?

The background to that question is that we are looking at a review, and Professor Muir commented that we should look at how we assess standards. I will direct that question to the quality improvement officers—Carrie Lindsay and Stewart Westwater—but I am also interested in hearing from Wendy Brownlie.