The third current petition is PE1395, by Jan Culík, on targeting funding for lesser-taught languages and cultures at universities. Members have a note from the clerk and paper 6 refers. There are also submissions. I welcome Jan Culík and Hugh McMahon to the gallery. They have worked very hard on this petition for a number of months. I invite contributions from members.
Official Report · Committee
Current Petitions
Lesser-taught Languages and Cultures (University Teaching Funding) (PE1395)
Speakers
Choose an MSP to read only their contributions- David Stewart Lab 3
- Sandra White SNP 1
- Anne McTaggart Lab 1
The record
5 contributionsI would like to continue the petition. I refer members to the letter that we got from Gillian Morrison of the Government, which basically says that the Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council will provide additional information. That information is not enough for me and I do not think that it clarifies the situation. The letter from the SFC talks about how the language-based area studies programme and the Arts and Humanities Research Council put money in, and about how the SFC itself contributed money to the project. It seems to me that the SFC is saying that, because it contributed money away back in 2006 and in 2010-11, it is not prepared to contribute any more. No assessment has been done, although the SFC said that one would be done. I would like to write to the funding council to ask again what case assessment was carried out and what the conclusions were. I would also like to see a copy of the findings of any investigation.
I declare my interest in that I am a member of the cross-party group on Poland, which has obviously tried to explore the issue. We should explore the issue in greater detail because it is cause for concern—most certainly in the cross-party group. I think, our having received the letter from Gillian Morrison, that it would be interesting to see what evidence there is.
This is obviously a very important petition and it is good that we have spent a lot of time on the issue because it is important to the future of higher education. Are we agreeing to continue the petition, and to seek further information from the Scottish funding council on the basis of the points that have been made by Anne McTaggart and Sandra White?Members indicated agreement.
I thank the petitioners again for going to the trouble of turning up and for their contributions to date. I appreciate that.
In this meeting
Everything on 1 May 2012 →- 14:00 Decision on Taking Business in Private Procedure · 1
- 14:00 New Petitions Petitions · 48
- 14:00 New Petitions Petitions · 36
- 14:00 New Petitions Petitions · 26
- 14:00 Current Petitions Petitions · 4
- 14:00 Current Petitions Petitions · 5
- 14:00 Current Petitions Petitions · 5
- 14:00 Current Petitions Petitions · 4
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