We have welcomed the opportunity to respond to the Scottish Government’s post-school education, research and skills: interim purpose and principles exercise.

We have engaged with the Scottish Government during the consultation phase, which closed on 24 March 2023, culminating in our formal response to their draft.

Our response highlights that the final document should:

• Recognise the fundamental university contribution to the common good more widely, as powerful regional, national, and international forces for change and for building a better world.
• Understand that major externally-driven structural reform of higher education should not be the response to short-term austerity. Externally-driven reform will not realise savings in the short term.
• Recognise that universities, individually and in collaboration with each other and wider partners, should be the drivers of their own change.
• Set out how Scottish Government policies can support the success of the sector, and its contribution to Scotland’s success.
• Accept that it is not possible to have a high-performing higher education sector that is substantially under-funded.

Our response then comments on the principles as currently drafted with commentary and evidence.