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For issues such as the student recruitment position, you do not know where you will finally land in any one year until bums start arriving on seats in September. There is an issue around the predictability of international student numbers. As I have said, we felt that we had made appropriate allowance by looking at 25 per cent with the 35 per cent downturn. Obviously, when the numbers started to come through, it was much more than that.

It appears that, in the sector more generally, some types of institutions ended up suffering more than others in that environment. Often, we are talking about institutions that are not in big metropolitan centres and which are non-Russell group. In that regard, whatever the opposite of a sweet spot is, we were in that place.

Perhaps this question is for Mr Fotheringham more than anyone else. Part of the unrealistic budgets was the betterment gimmickry. In essence, those were fictitious cost reductions. Surely, when you went through the management accounts, you would notice that those reductions were not happening. In financial year 2024, £8 million of betterment was never realised. In financial year 2025, it was £23.3 million. The average business in the real world would not get away with fakery like that. How did you, as a public organisation, get to that stage?

Where did that come from?

You are saying that there is toxicity in the culture or working environment of Dundee university.

Okay, thank you. I have nothing else to ask.

There is no smoking gun, but there is a trigger moment. How did you not reach the point at which you knew that it was not right and was not going the right way sooner? You are an experienced individual and have been there a long time.

Dr McGeorge, with the greatest respect, you nearly tanked one of the oldest universities in Scotland. I do not understand how people like you can get yourselves into that position with all the checks and mechanisms that there are. Surely there is something that you are not telling us that was the issue.

Despite all the time that goes into constant negotiation, whatever deal is eventually reached will not even be the second best deal—it will be the third or fourth best. As someone who was involved in negotiation when I worked in the real world, I find the way in which the UK is going about this bizarre. To me, it feels like continually hitting yourself in the head with a baseball bat.

Good morning, cabinet secretary. I get very frustrated by this debate—I got frustrated when we went on our visit to Brussels last year and when we went down to London last week. When we were a member of the EU, we had influence and could do something about things. Brexit is the political equivalent of hitting yourself in the head with a baseball bat for half an hour, because we now need to negotiate all the time.

I am trying to bring an everyman view to the issue, because the view of members of the public in Scotland is, “Surely we were better off when we were in the European Union. Surely it is complete and utter madness that we find ourselves trying to renegotiate something that we already had when we were a member.” That is the frustrating issue for me.

When we go to Brussels, people talk about having a Switzerland-type deal, but we have already been told by Brussels that nobody is getting a Swiss deal. That is off the table. The only option is to be a member. When we go through all this, does that not show—this is not even a political argument; it is a sensible argument—that being in the European Union was a lot better than the madness that is Brexit?

For the record, I am not happy with the idea. I find it farcical that you would even think that you could actually do that online from the other side of the world.

To be fair, this is the best behaved you have been in the past couple of weeks, so perhaps being online suits you, and not actually meeting people in person is maybe your best way forward.

Your aggressive manner and the lack of respect that you have shown to people who have come to the committee in the past has made the Parliament look bad. I want to put that on the record, because we have tried on numerous occasions to talk to you, take you aside and ask you to do the right thing, but you continue with your behaviour, and quite frankly, I think that it makes you look small and pathetic.

My question is for the cabinet secretary and it is about the UK Child Poverty Action Group. The group has recently spoken about the increasing costs of the school day, which is something that we have been hearing about for some time now.

I have also heard that Keir Starmer is seeking to copy some of the Scottish Government’s good ideas about free school meals. Can you tell me where the Scottish Government is with its ideas to help to reduce the cost of the school day? In a cost of living crisis, parents and families will be finding that an extra burden.