 The Government has made a firm commitment to those who want to study at college and university in Scotland that access must be based on the ability to learn, not the ability to pay. We restored free education for first-time undergraduates, which helps more than 120,000 students studying in Scotland every year. Indeed, the chair of the independent review of student support, Jeane Anne Gadiya, commented that the Scottish Government's focus on funding tuition fees for social and economic prosperity is to be commended. More full-time higher education students than ever are receiving support, a total of 143,110 in 2016-17, up 1.5 per cent from 2015-16. Meanwhile, in the 2018-19 further education budget is at record levels of over £111 million for college bursaries, childcare and discretionary funds, a real-terms increase of 34 per cent since 2006-07. However, I know that there is much more to be done to build a fairer future for all, and that is why the Scottish Government established the review of student support. I would like to formally state on the record my thanks to the independent chair, Jeane Anne Gadiya and the review board members. It was essential for the Government to take some time to consider the recommendations, particularly where there are complex interactions such as with the social security systems. I have already welcomed the report's central premise of creating a student support system around the key values of fairness, parity and clarity. I want Scotland's student support system to be focused on the poorest students, and that complements our wider ambitions to reduce child poverty and to widen access to university. In response to the review that I wrote to the convener of the Education and Skills Committee on 9 June, a number of significant announcements to improve student support, including an additional £21 million per year by the end of this Parliament is to be invested in improving student support over the parliamentary term. As part of that, investment of over £5 million will be provided in 2018-19 to increase bursaries for full-time care experience students to £8,100 per year, as per the review's recommendation of funding equivalent to the living wage. The further education care experience bursary will increase from £4,185 to £8,100, and the higher education care experience bursary will rise from £7,625 to £8,100 per year. This step is of particular significance, as it takes the support available to care experienced HE and FE students to a level that is equivalent to the real living wage. That equivalent of the real living wage was, of course, a key part of the recommendations of the review, and we share the review's ambition to achieve this level of support for all students and are pleased that we have been able to deliver that in the first instance for care experience students. We will also invest £16 million in 2019-20 to increase further and higher education bursaries for students from the lowest income families and expand access to them. I am pleased to provide more detail today. In order to support access to bursaries for students from the poorest families, we will raise the higher education bursary income threshold from £19,000 to £21,000 from 2019-20. We will also increase bursary support for the poorest young students in higher education from £1,875 per year to £2,000, which combined with raising the HE bursary threshold will benefit 13,500 students. Further to that, we will increase bursary support for the poorest independent students in higher education from £875 per year to £1,000 per year, which will benefit nearly 18,000 students. That combined improvements will result in around 31,000 higher education students benefiting from an improved package of support. For students in further education, we will increase bursary support so that in 2019-20 students can receive a bursary of up to £4,500 per year, which will benefit more than 7,000 students. In addition to that, from 2019-20, we will ensure that all eligible further education students age 19 and over receive a guaranteed bursary award. That means that the students will not face the postcode lottery effect, which NUS Scotland has a long campaign to end. Taken together, those changes also increase the total support package that is available to students and represents the first step towards realising the ambition of delivering the equivalent of the real living wage to students. Additional funding will also be provided to support another key area. I have asked the Student Awards Agency Scotland to lead on improvements to information, advice, guidance and financial literacy. The aspiration will be to offer a joined-up approach for further and higher education, as well as to build on the good work that is already under way in schools and for parents and guardians. The ambition is a combined online portal for student finance information during the 2019-20 academic year. I recognise that there will be some students who are unable to access advice online, and I want to ensure that we provide that via other means, too. We will also seek to improve financial literacy with increased guidance on student loans, budgeting and repayment terms. I want to ensure that students are supported not just during their studies but after they graduate too. As part of our programme for government, we committed to raising the repayment threshold for student loans to £22,000 by the end of this Parliament. However, we have gone further than that. I am pleased to confirm that the loan repayment threshold will be increased to £25,000 from April 2021, reducing monthly loan repayments for thousands of Scottish graduates. A number of system and legislative adjustments are required to practically deliver on this commitment, and Scottish Government officials are engaging with key stakeholders to undertake this work. I will also bring about forward legislation to reduce the maximum repayment period for student loans from 35 to 30 years by the end of 2018. I will now move on to outline the Government's response to some of the other specific recommendations. The review reported unfair and inflexible attendance criteria in colleges. Over recent months, the Scottish Funding Council and NUS Scotland have worked closely to make improvements for this coming academic year. The Scottish Government wants a system in place in which bursary awards are based on students' engagement in their studies, taking clear account of their personal circumstances, be that caring responsibilities or other important factors such as mental and physical health. NUS Scotland has stated that this is a huge win for students and gives students associations the back-up they need in challenging unfair policies at a local level. We have also made clear a commitment to supporting college and university's students' mental health and wellbeing. In March 2018, we confirmed over £250,000 funding to NUS Scotland for their Think Positive mental health project across Scotland's campuses. We are committed also to making university and college campuses places where students can live, study and research free of sexual harassment and gender-based violence. We have provided an additional £396,000 to implement a new toolkit to address gender-based violence on campus. We are also clear that there is an essential role to be played by college and university staff in providing valuable advice to students to access financial support, and we want to see that face-to-face support and advice continue and to grow. The review made clear that there are a number of areas that it was unable to consider, and as a result there are some recommendations that I am committed to further investigating. A new approach for students who are eligible to remain on social security benefits while studying was recommended. Negotiations on this is required with the Department of Work and Pensions, and work has commenced in this area with early exploratory discussions with DWP Underway. The aspiration here is clear, ensuring that no prospective student is disadvantaged or discouraged from undertaking studies due to a potential loss of social security benefits to which they are entitled while studying. On the review's recommendations, we are also committed to reviewing all non-core and discretionary support. We are already provided over £7 million in discretionary funding for further education students in this academic year, and over £16 million will be invested for higher education students in 2018-19. We will also look at support for part-time and disabled students and for carers. That will take account of significant investment that we already provide to support students with additional needs. Universities receive funding from the Scottish Funding Council to ensure that institution and course provision is more inclusive for students with additional needs. A total of £20.8 million was allocated to the universities in the academic year 16-17. Colleges have access to a £50.5 million access and inclusion fund to help them to achieve parity of outcomes for all students at college. The student voice is essential in this process, and we will launch a consultation to hear the views of learners. I would expect this work to commence in the new academic year. The review called for parity across further and higher education with the introduction of loans to further education. It gathered valuable evidence, including highlighting the cases of students using credit cards or payday loans to supplement income. This cannot and will not be ignored. Independent research focuss on distinct groups of students. Independent research focusing on distinct groups of students will commence soon and report by the end of 2018. That will provide an evidence base on demand and concerns. I will be able to consider their recommendation further once we have a solid evidence base to underpin that consideration. Finally, we have noticed the review's findings that students want more choice over the timings of their payments. Higher education students in particular would like 12-monthly payments rather than just over term time. That will require engagement with the student loans company and with the Department of Work and Pensions to ensure no negative consequences for students receiving social security benefits. I am pleased to have been able to share with the chamber our commitment to improve student support for our most disadvantaged students and to provide more detail on care experience bursaries. I recognise that there are a number of areas that require further work and have outlined how those will be taken forward. As I have made clear throughout the statement, any changes being introduced or considered are with the poorest students at the forefront of my thinking. I want to ensure that any prospective student, regardless of their background, is equipped with what they need to fulfil their potential. I absolutely agree with Jeane An-Gadda, when she said that education has the power to transform lives. I believe that the changes that we have introduced and are considering will help to do just that. That was quite a detailed statement from the minister, and I am conscious that the previous statement overran. To be aware, it will not affect the opening questioners, but I ask all subsequent questioners to make sure that their questions are succinct and, similarly, perhaps the minister in her answers. I thank the minister for early sight of the statement. I welcome many aspects of that statement, particularly in the context of what I think the lessons are to be learned from Professor Ian Diamond's report on similar issues in student support in Wales and, obviously, from the report from Jeane An-Gadda. Student support is never an easy area of policymaking, especially in an increasingly complex world of further and higher education, and I think that we need to be mindful of making hasty comparisons across the board. That said, however, I want to ask the minister three key questions. First, in relation to the increase in bursary support for the poorest students in higher education, the minister is stating that this will rise from 1,875 to 2,000, but in 2013 the figure was 2,640, so the 2,000 will still be 640 below what it was five years ago. Can I ask whether the minister really believes that that is acceptable? Secondly, could I ask the minister to explain why the full range of changes are not going to be made until 2021, when the Scottish Government has the power to make those changes before then? Thirdly, in relation to part-time students who have made very earnest representations to the Scottish Government that they should receive greater focus, not least because of their importance in expanding the flexibility of the economy, it is disappointing to see that they receive only scant mention at the end of the statement. Can I ask the minister to at least explain the principles that she is examining for part-time support? Can I begin with the aspect around part-time students? It is a very important one. The review that was chaired by NGN Angadia did not look at part-time students, and that was something that they could have done, but they had a great deal, as the member has said. It is a very complex area, so that is an area that they did not get round to, and they have asked the Scottish Government to look at. We will do that during that consultation process that I mentioned that will begin later this year. I am afraid that the member is incorrect. We simply do not have the powers to be able to enact much of those changes themselves. Many of it will require changes from the student loans company. Some of it will require changes at a UK Government level. That is particularly around looking at the loan that we are looking to build for Scottish students, because that will have to be a distinctly separate offer. We simply do not have the ability within the legislation powers that are devolved to the Scottish Parliament to be able to do that. When it comes to the level of higher education, bursary changes were made in 2013-14, which focused on the level of funding in its totality that was made available to students. That was something that was done at the time with the support of NUS Scotland, but I recognise that times have moved on from that. That is exactly why we are taking the steps today, to increase the bursary for the poorest students moving into higher education, listening to some of the concerns that have come from NUS Scotland. My thanks to the minister for early sight of her statement. There are indeed some things to welcome here, the raising of the care leavers bursary and more consistent support at last for FE students. The review wanted to see a shift in balance from loans back to grants for HE students, but the Government told them that they must abide by financial restraints. However, they still have a core recommendation, which was that all students should have access to the equivalent of the real living wage £8,100. That was not an ambition, minister. That was a hard recommendation of your review. Why has the Government refused to provide that support for students in general? Meanwhile, as Liz Smith pointed out, the increase in HE grants does not even restore them to what they were in 2013. In real terms, in fact, over £3,000 when the Government slashed those grants by 35 per cent, no matter how you dress this up. This is the Government that promised to abolish debt and doubled it instead, and yet again it is going to pile even more debt on to students. Why won't the minister just do the right thing and restore grants to the levels that the SNP found the map when they came to power? I think that I would have some more time for Ian Gray's statements and questions about this. If, during the budget negotiations that we went through this, the Labour Party came forward with one call to actually make this happen, and not based on the fantasy figures relying on numbers where we couldn't even raise the money that the Labour Party had wanted. When the Labour Party comes forward with credible options for public finance, I will take more seriously their call for the Scottish Government to spend more money. We are delivering on the Scottish Government's manifesto commitments that we made at the last election, which was based around the income threshold and was based around the terms of the loan. That is being done. We are looking very seriously at how we can help those, as I have said, once again during the statement and in questions to Liz Smith about how we can address the concerns around some of the poorest families about how they can access higher education. That is why we are taking the steps of introducing more than £21 million additional support for financial support during this parliamentary term focused on those poorest students, and that will have an effect and a reassurance to them that we are taking their concerns very seriously. Jenny Gilruth is to be followed by Alison Harris. As the minister outlined in her statement, NES Scotland has long campaigned against the postcode lottery effect in terms of further education bursary support, can she expand any further on how today's announcement will put an end to that, and, crucially, how those changes will be communicated to our students to ensure that the most vulnerable do not miss out? I remind members that I am the PLO to education secretary. It will be a welcome development that we are looking to ensure that we have a guaranteed bursary that is available for further education students. Part of the concern that came through, not just from NUS Scotland but from other members of the review group, was the postcode lottery effect. That is why we have taken the decision to ensure that all eligible full-time students in further education that are over 18 will have that guaranteed bursary, and that will make a great deal of difference to them. It will only make a great deal of difference to them if we can highlight to them the availability of that funding, which is why we are also investing in improving the information advice and guidance that is coming through, because the review once again heard how very complex the system was and how that put people off coming into courses, particularly within further education. The work that SAS is undertaking for online portal for student finance will be very important as we develop that and encourage students and their families to have up-to-date information about what is available for them. I welcome the commitment that was made to look at providing more support for disabled students and carers. Can the minister outline what principles will underpin that commitment and whether that will affect their access to existing support, such as the disabled students allowance and the loan parent grant? I am very much looking forward to the consultation that will happen later this year, because we are looking at all the barriers that will impact on disabled students and on carers. Some of them will be financial, but not all of them will be. It is important that we look at for each demographic of students to find the specific barriers that are affecting them. The principles behind that consultation are to ensure that we are looking at the specific needs of individuals and within groups of students. We already, as the member said in her question, support students with disabilities through further and higher education, but we need to ensure that they are getting that money in the right way and in a timely way, because one of the other issues that has been brought up is that students are perhaps receiving that support too late once they start. That is why I am very determined to look at all the barriers and not just the level of funding that is in place. I note the minister's comment that she shares the ambition of the review to achieve student support at the level of the real living wage. Can she outline the timescale and staging posts on the way to her realising that ambition? Given the financial pressure right now when people are making a decision whether to go to college or university, can she explain why the changes in bursaries will not be implemented until this time next year, and will she explain why the important and straightforward issue of raising the threshold for the repayment of student loans to £25,000 will not happen until 2021, a full three years away? Why are those changes being implemented— That is too many questions, please, minister. It is simply not a straightforward decision for government to be able to take this forward, because, as I said in my response to Liz Smith, it requires an entirely different student loans package to be built up by the student loans company. That is therefore not our timescale, but the earliest opportunity that the student loans company has said that it would have to do it. England did it last year, as Ian Gray said, and it has a much higher interest rate to go with that. It is simply unachievable to be able to do this at a different time frame, unless the Labour Party are suggesting that we take that higher interest rate, which is already impacted on students. However, I will ensure that this is done in as quickly a way as we can deliver on it. The year that is required to introduce the bursary changes is, again, a legislative requirement to ensure that that is done, and then that will be done for the next academic year directly after that. The decisions for bursaries and for loans for future years will be taken as part of the budget process. George Adam is to be followed by Andy Wightman. Can the minister tell us what discussions the Scottish Government had with the commissioner for fair access regarding further work on student finance? The commissioner did not look at student finance as the commissioner for fair access had requested that he did, because there was a significant review on going under Jane Angadia's chair. The commissioner did meet with Jane Angadia a number of times during that review. However, he will now consider whether further work is required in that area, but, as the commissioner is independent for Government, his work plan and his timetable for that will be for him to advise Parliament rather than me. I welcome the minister's commitment to more support for higher and further education students with additional support needs. Following her response to Liz Smith, does the minister agree that more part-time college courses are a key means to making access more inclusive? Can she confirm that the specific question will be part of the consultation with learners? Part-time college courses are exceptionally important, particularly for more mature learners, and that is exactly why they continue to hold the majority of courses that we raise in our colleges. The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that part-time students have the advantages both within further and higher education to be able to take up those courses. That is something that we are determined to look at within the consultation, because I am very determined to ensure that it is not just young learners who can access part-time courses but returners to education as well. Willie Rennie to be followed by Ruth Maguire. I, too, welcome aspects of the report, including the provisions on mental health, but also raising the repayment threshold. We have heard about the level of debt and how it has increased in recent years. Does the minister think that there is a connection between that and the access from pupils, from students, from disadvantaged backgrounds to university? Is that the reason why it has fallen? It is very important that we look into what we can do for the different demographics of students, as I said in earlier answers. That will also ensure that we are responding to the needs of students who are coming from families who perhaps do not have a background in higher education and perhaps from some of the poorest families. We have focused our work therefore and the Government's response to that in ensuring that we deliver for students who are coming from some of the poorer households. That is why the increases that we are making to busery and to the income threshold are so important in that process. Ruth Maguire to be followed by Murdo Fraser. I warmly welcome the Government's commitment to increase support for our care experience students, acknowledging the significant barriers that they face, not just accessing but remaining in education. Would the minister agree that we have a special responsibility to our care experience young people, since, for many of them, we will continue to have a parental role in their lives after they leave care? I very much recognise the challenges that have been faced by care experience students when they are accessing further and higher education. I would like to put on record my thanks to Who Care Scotland for the time that they have spent with me and for the time that the care experienced students have spent with me in talking through the difficulties and the challenges that they have faced in accessing further and higher education. I am pleased that they are satisfied with the work that is on-going so far. That does build on the First Minister's commitment to care experience young people. We recognise that within the Scottish Government and our agencies that we have to recognise our responsibilities. That is why the Scottish funding council and SAS are taking that on to ensure that, when we are developing new services, we are doing so with care experience students and care experience applicants taking part in the processes in which we make those changes so that we can deliver on something that benefits our young people as they go forward into our colleges and universities. Murdo Fraser, to be followed by Ivan McKee. The minister talked about her party's record in government on student support. When will the 2007 manifesto commitment to wipe out all student debt to be delivered, or was there just another empty pre-election promise? The Scottish Government was elected with commitments to decrease the terms of loans and increase the threshold for loans, and we are delivering on that today. Ivan McKee, to be followed by Kezia Dugdale. Can the minister outline what impact the education maintenance allowance, which was scrapped south of the border, is making to those from our most disadvantaged communities, such as in my constituency of Glasgow Proven? We widened the eligibility for education maintenance allowance in January 2016 to ensure that more students from lower-income households could take advantage of the financial support and remain in education. As a result of those changes, the widened criteria has made a real impact on the number of young people who would otherwise not have been supported. There has been a big increase in the number of EMA recipients from the 20 most deprived areas, so 36.8 are now from those areas up from 34.9 previously. Kezia Dugdale, to be followed by Tom Arthur. It is cater's week, minister, so I am wondering why there is nothing in the statement for our students with caring responsibilities, but why the delay, and when will she fulfil the promise that she made to students with caring responsibilities? That was also an area that the review of student support did not look at in detail, and that is why I have committed to ensuring that the Scottish Government will take on consultation later this year. However, that does not mean that we are not looking to see what we can do to improve the situation. Indeed, this morning, I attended a fair access conference run by the Scottish Funding Council, and it heard directly from individuals with caring experience and the impact that that has been having. That course was widely attended by many people from across the university and college sector. We are looking to see what can be done in the short term, but we will look closely at what comes back from the consultation to see if there are other changes to policy that require to be made. Can the minister outline any plans that the Government has to highlight those changes to our students to ensure that they are receiving the support that they will be entitled to? That is where the Students' Awards Agency Scotland will do a great deal of work with students as they apply for funding in future years. It is very important that we make this complex area further in higher education support as simple and as accessible in relation to information as possible. I will look forward to the online portal that will provide that later in the next couple of years. Thank you very much. That concludes our statement. I thank the minister and members for their succinct questions and replies. We will move on to the next item of business, but we will take a few moments to change seats for the minister.