3. To ask the Scottish Government what analysis the finance secretary has made of the financial sustainability of Scotland’s universities and colleges. (S5O-04551)

The Deputy Presiding Officer:

Before the Cabinet secretary answers, is Mr Halcro Johnston really outside? I love the background, it is quite glorious.

Although we know that both sectors that the member identifies have been hit hard by the crisis, the financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on our college and university sectors is still to be fully realised. We continue to work with the Scottish Funding Council, which analyses the institutions’ financial forecasts.

The Cabinet secretary is aware that Audit Scotland, among others, repeatedly raised the precarious financial situation that Scotland’s higher and further education sector faced this past year. It is clear that those institutions will be essential to Scotland’s recovery from the coronavirus outbreak, and the use of that sector to deliver training and school programmes is welcome. Can the cabinet secretary guarantee that no further cuts will be made to the core budgets of Scotland’s colleges and that they will be adequately resourced, not only to provide additional responsibilities but to address the underlying problems in the sector?

I agree that our colleges and universities will be vital to our recovery. Our universities are renowned the world over and our colleges will be essential to reskill people and help them to go back into work. The member might have seen our report, “Supporting Scotland’s Colleges and Universities: Coronavirus (COVID-19) Further and Higher Education Sustainability Plan”, which was published on 9 July and highlighted the steps that we have taken to support further and higher education as a result of the pandemic—namely the £75 million to protect research and £10 million for the estates, in order to try to help universities and colleges with some of the challenging costs that they face.

That form of engagement will continue and we will continue to invest where we can. We have a finite and limited budget. As I said in my first answer, we cannot overspend and that is a challenge, but we will continue to work with those institutions to try and help them through this particular storm.

Does the Cabinet secretary agree that it is equally important that students are able to sustain themselves? What would be the impact on Scottish students if they had to pay tuition fees of £9,250 a year, as they would under the Tories in England, or £9,000 a year, as they would under Labour in Wales?

Yes, I agree that that is important.

As Kenneth Gibson will be aware, the Scottish Government is still committed to free tuition. We believe that access to education should be based on the ability to learn, not on the ability to pay. That commitment ensures that Scottish students who are studying in Scotland do not incur the additional loan debt of up to £27,000 that is incurred by students elsewhere. As a result, they continue to have the lowest average loan balance in the United Kingdom. This year, we will ensure that we continue to support students who are going on to university.