To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support the Universities Scotland 40 faces campaign. (S6O-03344)

I very much welcome and support Universities Scotland’s 40 faces campaign, and I look forward to hearing the views of students and graduates. It had been planned for either the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills or me to attend the official launch event in May, but it has since been postponed. However, one of us will absolutely look to speak at it when it takes place.

I will be looking in detail at the findings. The student support offer and our continuing commitment to free tuition are ensuring that more people can access our world-class institutions, whatever their background. The campaign supports the progress that we have made collectively to ensure that 20 per cent of university entrants come from the most deprived backgrounds by 2030. There is more working in partnership to be done, however, and the campaign’s findings will contribute to our making the progress required.

Indeed, the Universities Scotland 40 faces campaign highlights the access stories of students and graduates at Scotland’s universities and other higher education institutions from underrepresented groups such as students from the most deprived 20 per cent of postcodes, those from low-participation schools, students with care experience and/or those who are estranged from their families. Does the minister agree with Universities Scotland and the commissioner for fair access that transitioning towards using individual-level indicators of socioeconomic disadvantage further strengthens the widening access agenda, as opposed to using SIMD20 from the Scottish index of multiple deprivation alone?

I do. In fact, my officials have been working with institutions in Aberdeen to set up a pilot project to share data on applicants who are eligible for free school meals in order to identify individuals living in socioeconomic disadvantage. I am keen to explore all options for measures that could be used to reach people living in deprivation. One potential measure that has been suggested, as I mentioned in the debate on the subject a few weeks ago, is the school clothing grant. My officials are exploring whether that is feasible. I will shortly host a round-table event at which stakeholders will be invited to share any constructive ideas that they have.

Widening participation is a fundamental pillar of the 40 faces campaign, and the University of the West of Scotland is Scotland’s leading university in widening access. Last week, the Scottish Funding Council published its indicative allocations, and the UWS will have the number of its funded places cut by a staggering 734. Of those, 220 will be reallocated to another institution. The UWS wrote to you on 19 April, detailing its concerns that that will limit its ability to continue to lead in widening access. When was the decision to reallocate the places from the UWS to another institution brought to the attention of the minister? Will you meet the principal and vice-chancellor of the university to discuss the unintended consequences of the decision?

Speak through the chair, please.

I acknowledge receipt of that letter, and I will respond to it in due course. I understand that the UWS is unhappy about the decision that the SFC has taken, but I will offer a bit of context. The 220 places that were moved to another institution have gone to an institution that has been overproviding. We had places that were not being used and that are now being deployed to support delivery in another institution. Surely it is a good thing that we are supporting young people to be educated.

The other point to make is that, even with the change that has been made, the UWS still retains a substantial number of places beyond what it has been delivering over the past two years. I will be happy to discuss the matter further with the UWS. It is important to realise that it will still have the scope to make the contribution that we all hope it will make to the widening access agenda.

In the past hour, the principals of the University of Aberdeen and Robert Gordon University have sent a scathing letter that highlights the huge financial pressures that they are under. They say that universities cannot continue to deliver the wide-ranging contributions that are expected of them with the continuing downward trajectory of funding. Does the minister understand that the financial crisis that they are in will impact programmes such as the 40 faces campaign?

I go back to a point that I made earlier. We have a funding envelope that we have to work within. I reiterate that I do not remember Douglas Lumsden or any other member in the chamber suggesting, during the budget process, that we should do things differently and that we should find more money for universities. There was a lot of hand wringing, and there continues to be a lot of hand wringing, but there has been no actual action from the Conservatives.

I say gently to Douglas Lumsden that funding is, of course, an issue for our universities, but if we talk to them openly and honestly, they will tell us that the biggest threat to their future is not lack of funding from the Scottish Government but what has been described to me as an “existential threat”—that is, the on-going migration rhetoric coming from Douglas Lumsden’s Government in Westminster.

Question 6 was not lodged.