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Sorry. The investigation as to how the situation arose is being conducted independently on behalf of the university, I think. We would expect the SFC to have sight of that, and it is my expectation that it will be available publicly. That is the very least that the staff deserve, and, in my opinion, the Parliament has a role in overseeing that.

There is another balance to be struck here. Yes, universities are autonomous institutions—you said that it is not for the taxpayer to bail an institution out—but they are major players in local economies. The University of Dundee employs 3,000 people, which is hugely important in the city and the wider area. It also plays a part in the wider landscape of our higher education offering for Scotland and helps to attract students from all over. Universities are hugely important institutions.

I do not disagree with you that an environment can be created in which it might be thought that it does not matter how you run an institution, because you will be bailed out by the taxpayer. That is a consideration. It is also the case that universities receive varying degrees of their income from public sources. For some universities, public funds are minimal—I think that roughly 25 per cent of the University of Dundee’s income is derived from public sources.

It is about more than just money, though, Mr Brown. Although I absolutely accept your point, it is about the importance of institutions—not only the University of Dundee—in the overall landscape in Scotland and the economy. Universities play a hugely important part in Scotland, and it is important that we preserve them.

Actually, I do recall that, when I looked at the evidence, I saw that he had said that. That is not my recollection of the reasons. I will look into the matter again, but my understanding is that it was for the reasons that I have just given you.

Again, the difficulty is what the vehicle is for doing that, because of the data-sharing issue. I will give you an insight into the depth that we have gone into on the issue. We have considered whether it might be possible, as a stop-gap measure, for individual local authorities to establish similar relationships with their local universities. The difficulty that arises is that, if it were doable—it would take a bit of resource and time on their part—it would affect only that relationship. In other words, it would not be open to the whole of Scotland, so, for example, the universities in Glasgow or Edinburgh could not dip into the information that Aberdeen holds.

It sounds like I am constantly coming up with excuses—I am not. I am coming up with the barriers that we are all working to overcome. The committee might have thoughts that we have not come up with collectively, and I would be interested to hear those.

That touches on a wider issue that is occupying a lot of my time in the area of reform—the careers advice that is available to our young people. We intend to make some changes to tackle some of the points that you have just made. There is an issue about our young people being entirely equipped to make the decisions that they are going to make about their futures.

On the point about young people not knowing that you can go to university through college, that is the right route for a number of young people. I met a number of apprentices this week in the context of Scottish apprenticeship week, and they were telling me that it was not through the advice that they had been given at school that they had ended up in their current roles—and they were really enjoying them. There is undoubtedly some work to do there.

Mr Mason, both you and Mr Briggs have reminded me that we need to do a piece of work in the context of the forum but away from the forum: to sit and engage with young people on this topic, as you have done, so as to understand their experiences and to help inform our thinking. I will take that point away.

Can I take that question away and reflect on it? It is a fair question.

We talked earlier about the input to our thinking around widening access for young people. We have not talked to young people, but the committee did so on Monday night. We probably need to engage better with that group, especially if their only representative group no longer exists to advocate for them. Let me take that away and think about what we can do in that space, and I will write back to the committee.

Indeed, but that is a wider issue than the widening of access.

The sum of money that you are talking about reflects money that was available from an underspend in financial transactions. That is how the £15 million figure was added. That figure was announced, as it ought to be, to the Parliament first. Thereafter, it falls to the SFC to have discussions with the relevant parties.

We talked earlier with Ms Duncan-Glancy about finite resources. I absolutely understand the commitments that were made to look at that scheme. As you are aware, Mr Greer, a fresh look was taken at it last year for a number of reasons, not the least of which was cost. In some respects, the costs are indeterminate because it is difficult to predict how many estranged students would look to take that scheme up. We know that some universities are already doing something in that space.

It is not possible, principally on financial grounds, to commit to doing that at the moment, but I recognise the need.

That is right.