Chamber and committees

Is there any number at all?

For clarity, have you asked the Scottish Funding Council to go back to providing the number of places that existed pre-Covid? Is that what you are trying to tell us?

Is it your understanding that, with the reduction in the number of places for Scotland-domiciled students that will happen, there will be financial pressure on universities to take more foreign students? Is that correct?

Mr Carlaw, you made an interesting remark in response to the convener when you said that, as the SPCB sets its budget, one of the underlying principles is that the budget has to ensure that the Parliament is holding the Government to account and is providing proper scrutiny. Do you think that that is the appropriate principle by which we should judge whether we have the correct number of office-holders and commissioners, or do you think that there are other underlying principles that we should be considering?

And the increasing costs that go along with that.

The Scottish Government has always made the case that Scotland-domiciled students are extremely important in university education, which I would agree with. One of the reasons for that concerns the likelihood that they will stay in Scotland to work beyond graduation; that is exceptionally important, as we desperately need well-qualified graduates to stay in Scotland. Will the policies that you are enacting just now undermine our ability to keep many of our best-qualified graduates in Scotland?

Has that made the Scottish Government think about reforming the funding process in higher education?

Cabinet secretary, you said in your budget speech on 19 December—and you have reiterated—that this is a budget for growth. When it comes to growth in terms of improving skills and addressing economic activity, which your predecessor, John Swinney, said at one time was one of the biggest challenges, why have you made substantial cuts to every area of the budget that would help to improve skills and increase economic activity?

You have cut the Scottish Funding Council budget, the employability budget, the enterprise budget and the SNIB budget, and you have increased tax on those whose high-level skills we desperately need in Scotland. That led Sandy Begbie to say,

“It is likely to inhibit the ability of our sector to create jobs and retain and attract the talent that we need”,

and there have been similar comments from Tracy Black of the Confederation of British Industry, Sara Thiam from Prosper, David Ovens from Archangel Investors, Alexandra Docherty from Johnston Carmichael, and David Lonsdale. They are all saying the same thing—that the budget will not do anything to improve the situation with skills.

David Bell told us last week that the budget

“is not really a great budget as far as opportunity is concerned.”—[Official Report, Finance and Public Administration Committee, 9 January 2024; c 8.]

He is right, is he not?

So there will be a reduction in the number of places for Scotland-domiciled students in the first year.

Cabinet secretary, the response from the business community is damning; in fact, it is excoriating in some of its comments. The particular focus is the concern about skills and trying to address the economic inactivity issue. I cannot understand why, if that is the Government’s major priority, you would seek to put pressure on colleges, which do so much work to try to ensure that students have the right skills. They are also involved in retraining, which is just as important for employment and for the economy.

You are cutting things such as employability and enterprise, which are surely critical to the success of the economy. Neil Gray has been very up front in saying that there is a new deal between the Scottish Government and business and that there will be “no surprises” when it comes to that new deal. However, that is not the view of the business community, is it?