Chamber and committees

Can I push you to say what the disadvantages are? All three ways of assessing have their merits and their different areas. Is there any merit in having one body that could encompass all the different areas? Would that be more helpful?

Thanks, Karen. Professor Boyne, do you have anything to add to that?

We are agreed. Thank you.

The public part of today’s meeting is at an end, and we will consider our final agenda items in private. Thank you, and good afternoon.

Thank you.

Research excellence framework results for 2021 show that Scotland’s universities presented research that was judged to be world-leading or of four-star quality; 86 per cent of what was submitted was world-leading or internationally excellent. Could either or both of you share some examples of good practice and of what has led to that success, so that we can learn from that and build upon it? If anything can be done better, it would be helpful for us to hear about that.

Thank you.

Karen, do you have anything to add to that?

Welcome back. Our next agenda item is consideration of subordinate legislation—the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 (Rules of Procedure in Children’s Hearings) Amendment Rules 2022. The instrument is subject to the negative procedure and seeks to ensure that the rules about the composition of pre-hearing panels are consistent with the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011.

Does anybody have any comments to make on the Scottish statutory instrument? No one is indicating that they wish to make comments. Does the committee agree that it does not wish to make any recommendations on the instrument?

Members indicated agreement.

I would like to celebrate the amazing work that universities do in the area of research, in particular, so I will ask a couple of questions about research. I want to get an idea of what the experience of postgraduate researchers is in the current climate. As we know, the SFC has identified a gap in research funding. Initially, I would like to hear about the postgraduate experience of that. Perhaps Ellie Gomersall could go first.

Could the universities provide any more support to research students? I have visited facilities at the University of Glasgow where some amazing joint work is being done in partnership with charities. Could that be expanded?

Thank you for that.

The UK and European Union trade and co-operation agreement includes provisions that allow the UK to continue to participate in some EU programmes, such as horizon Europe for research and Copernicus for space. Horizon 2020 has been worth €711 million to Scottish organisations since 2014. We know that no agreement has been reached since the TCA was introduced in January. Has that impacted on research already? Do you anticipate that it will have an impact? What can be done to get that moving?