On 16 December 2010 the Education Secretary Michael Russell launched a green paper on Higher Education ‘Building A Smarter Future’.

The aim was to stimulate a vigorous debate on finding a tailored solution to the future funding of higher education in Scotland. An invitation was extended to everyone with an interest in the future of higher education to respond formally, to attend the public discussion events and to participate online.

The debate that followed attracted interest from almost 2,000 people and over 80 organisations, 1,500 people visited the ‘Building  Smarter Future’ pages on the Engage for Education website.

Many chose to respond via Engage for Education with over 300 people contributing their views to an online survey relating to green paper options on funding, student support, international activity and shape of the sector.

As expected the responses came primarily from the student community with over 60% of those participating online identifying themselves as currently in higher education. 

The resulting report and individual responses are now available on the Scottish Government website.