5. To ask the Scottish Government how it encourages engagement between universities and secondary education establishments. (S5O-02211)

We expect schools and other partners to work collaboratively with one another, and there are many examples of schools doing that effectively with universities, colleges, employers and others to the clear benefit of their young people.

In response to the recommendations from the commission on widening access, the Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council is developing a new school engagement framework to provide more targeted and enhanced engagement with schools. We invest £2.5 million a year through the funding council to support the access to higher demand professions and schools for higher education programmes.

Does the Minister agree that the University of the West of Scotland, which is based in Paisley, leads the way on this issue and that other universities should try to find ways of working with that institution to mirror its many successes?

I very much commend the work of the University of the West of Scotland in this and other areas relating to widening access. As I have stressed before in the chamber, it is imperative that all universities play their role in achieving our widening access ambitions, because it will only be through the schools, the colleges, the universities, the funding council and the Government working together that we will achieve the widening access targets and the ambitions that we all share. I commend the University of the West of Scotland for its great work and encourage it to carry on. I am sure that it is a great source of good practice that other universities can follow.

The Minister will be aware that an innovative way in which universities and other further education establishments interact with the secondary sector is the Dumfries learning town project.

After the summer, pupils will move out of Langlands school, Lochside primary school and my former schools, St Ninians primary school and Maxwelltown high school, and into their new north-west Dumfries community campus. Will the minister join me in paying tribute to the enormous contribution that those four schools have made over the past few decades to the community, in particular that of north-west Dumfries, and wish all the pupils and the staff well as they embark on life at their new campus?

I wish the pupils and staff well in their endeavours at their new campus. The Deputy First Minister will visit the campus, which he is looking forward to.