Interview: Shirley-Anne Somerville has been on the road

Unlike many of the new intake of MSPs, Shirley-Anne Somerville is no rookie, having previously stood in both Fife and Edinburgh in subsequent elections, and spent four years as a Lothians list MSP after Stefan Tymkewycz quit only three months after being elected.

Since missing out in the 2011 election, Somerville remained busy as Yes Scotland’s director of communities and the SNP’s deputy chief executive, until she finally won the Dunfermline seat from Labour’s Cara Hilton in May.

As such a prominent and active member of the party, perhaps it should not have been a surprise, then, when Somerville was called to Bute House to be named Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science on Nicola Sturgeon’s new front bench. 

Somerville, however, tells Holyrood she was surprised. “You can never expect or presume these things at all,” she says.

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“I’d just employed my first member of constituency staff who was on his second day. Then I disappear down to Bute House and St Andrew’s House and didn’t come back for a couple of days.”
Despite having to set up her constituency office while taking on the ministerial responsibilities, this employee is still with her, she says.

“He was very understanding. He’s still with me, thankfully, so it must have been OK. I just said I could be gone for some time, as they say.”

Education, of course, is what Nicola Sturgeon has named as her “top priority” for this parliamentary session, something Somerville is all too aware of. She has three universities on her CV, studying Economics and Politics for her undergraduate degree at the University of Strathclyde before achieving diplomas at the University of Stirling and Queen Margaret University.

“Obviously, it was an honour to have been asked, and then when you’re sitting with the First Minister and she asks you to be a minister, that’s great, and then you wait to find out what you’re going to get, and to get education, when you know she’s made it her number-one priority, and you’re working for the Deputy First Minister, is just an absolute honour, so I’m loving it. Absolutely loving it.”

Somerville is no stranger to either Sturgeon or John Swinney, having been active in the SNP’s youth wing as Sturgeon was its convener. 

But while she says it has been “great to be working with them in a different role”, she has had to hit the ground running, with the higher education sector facing a huge period of uncertainty in the wake of the EU referendum result.

Academic bodies and institutions have warned about the huge damage to research following a ‘hard Brexit’ which would see Britain leaving the single market and tightening immigration controls, an approach seemingly favoured by Prime Minister Theresa May.

And even if the Brexit process does prove to be kinder on the sector, current uncertainty means students, researchers and technical specialists may already be put off coming here, with associated risks to EU funding, infrastructure and collaboration.

“It’s such a concern,” says Somerville. “Straight after the Brexit vote, one of the first things I made sure I did was speak to every principal from the universities to gauge how it’s been affecting both the research, their research staff, which is equally as important as their research funding, and obviously then their students too.”

She points to evidence given to Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee by Edinburgh University principal, Tim O’Shea, in which he warned Home Office visa restrictions had already damaged UK universities.

“If Brexit isn’t appropriately negotiated then it could be damaged in a very serious way,” he said.

“Yesterday, the PM said helpfully that perhaps a special sort of relationship might be necessary for workers in the City and for highly skilled labour in the car industry. So, God help me, if the City and the car industry deserve a special deal then universities do.

“They are more dependent on the mobility of highly-skilled labour than any other sector.”

It is a message endorsed by Somerville. “I can’t sum it up any better than Tim O’Shea,” she says.

Surely the Scottish Government can do more than back up Scottish university leaders with warm words though?

“We’ve got to do all we can within government and that’s why I took action to speak to the principals and following from that, we then had a joint statement with Universities Scotland, which I launched at the University of Edinburgh to specifically prove Scotland is open for business,” says Somerville, adding that both ministers and the new Chief Scientific Adviser, Sheila Rowan, have been to Brussels to represent Scottish institutions there.

As we speak, the UK Government has just pledged to underwrite funding distributed through the EU’s flagship £80bn Horizon 2020 research fund. Somerville points out researchers will already be looking at putting together applications for future projects.

“Fine, that’s very good, and welcome,” she says. “But when I’m speaking to the university principals what they’re saying is we’re looking at projects just now and putting in funding applications just now for future projects, and that’s not covered.”

With some collaborative projects rumoured to be leaving UK teams off funding applications already, Somerville insists Scottish institutions should not just be taking part, they should be leading them. 

“Yes, a Scottish institution should be leading, because we are as world-leading on research as we were at the start of June. That hasn’t changed. 

“So our ability and our place within the research community on a global level is still exceptionally high, and our research is of global standards. That’s where the Government comes in, to support the institutions to continue to support that research, and to make sure the message is going out.”

Also, released on the morning we sit down with Somerville, figures from UCAS show a drop in the numbers of EU students applying to study medicine in the UK – the first such in recent years. 
Until the UK Government clarifies its position on the immigration status of students and staff, they will be looking at opportunities in “Frankfurt or Madrid or wherever”, says Somerville. “They could do that now. And you do get the feeling, as other ministers have said, they will get to that at some point.”

The problem is not restricted to EU students and staff, according to Somerville. “You then look at a global context. We should be attracting the best and the brightest globally, not just in the EU,” she says. “The Scottish Government can’t solve that problem, but it is about doing all we can through our networks, and that’s why the meetings happening in Brussels, both with ministers and the CSA, are so important.

“I’ve made it plain to all the principals if there’s an aspect the Scottish Government or I can do as a minister to support them with their work with particular institutions, either at an EU or global context, then we’re there to do that.”

But while support is offered on an international level, political orthodoxy within the UK remains divided. In a recent interview with the Times Educational Supplement, Somerville indicated continued austerity meant funding cuts could be ahead, particularly for further education. Should universities also be worried? Her response to Holyrood is no more reassuring.

“It is a difficult financial time for us, and we’ll learn more after the Autumn Statement,” she says.

“It doesn’t look like there’s a dramatic change of heart coming from the UK Government, that we should change the austerity agenda. There’s still time for them to have a change of heart, but you know, the Scottish Government lives in challenging times, and that goes for all the ministers we have. We will have to work with the universities and colleges to deliver.”

Where the Scottish Government does differ, she says, is in joining up government departments. Theresa May’s first cabinet reshuffle saw higher education being brought under the education brief for the first time, while research funding and innovation falls under the new Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

“Luckily, up here, we have a joined-up way of looking at innovation. You can see that coming through the enterprise and skills review about how we declutter the landscape, how we want to ensure innovation is central to the Government’s economic strategy,” she says, adding, she has already worked closely with Paul Wheelhouse, Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy on Scotland’s innovation centres.

The UK Government has also established a new overarching body, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), which will encompass all seven of the current research councils and Innovate UK. 

The fact it will also take on the research and knowledge exchange functions of the Higher Education Funding Council for England has led to some concerns the new body may have a southern focus. 

This would impact on Scottish science particularly, which gets a far bigger share of the UK’s science budget than population size might suggest.

Somerville says she, Swinney and Wheelhouse met with the body’s interim chair, Sir John Kingman, that week to “build close relationships” within the new set-up.

“We have a very good relationship with the research councils as a government,” she says.

“We’ve been ensuring we’re also working with the new people coming in through UKRI to talk through any concerns stakeholders have about that new institution and how the research bodies sit within that. I think we have a very good basis over the last couple of years, due in many ways to the groundwork John put in when he was moving the agenda forward as finance secretary.”

Science remains a priority outwith research and innovation, too, with Somervlle pointing to the appointment of Rowan as Chief Scientific Adviser. 

“It’s been an absolute delight to see someone who is so respected in the scientific community, so enthused about not only the work she’ll do on science and scientific advice within government but also about the role she’s keen to play promoting science and the STEM agenda.”

The appointment of Rowan took some time, however, with the post remaining vacant for over 18 months. Somerville says she wasn’t involved in the build-up. “It’s a big role, and it’s important we get the right person, and with Sheila we have got that,” she says.

Somerville says Rowan will have the freedom to pursue her own priorities and agenda in terms of advising government. 

“It’s one of the great things about having someone like Sheila in the position she’s in. She can have her own ideas and drive that forward. I am certainly keen that it is not set in stone,” she says.
Somerville has hit the road since being appointed, visiting many universities and colleges, sometimes alongside Rowan.

“I have definitely not just sat in the office at all!” she says. “I did make a very big push to make sure I went out and about as much as possible to the universities and the colleges, and the science centres, to meet the senior staff, the staff and the students. 

“Meeting the students away from the principals as well, to make sure you’re getting a frank discussion.”

She describes the experience as “exceptionally rewarding” because of the variety of voices she can engage with. 

“The conversations you have with frontline staff and with students are absolute dynamite when you then come back to the office and read the briefings. It’s that which brings it to life.”

Highlights for Somerville include visiting Rowan’s ground-breaking School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Glasgow, and a NASA robot at the University of Edinburgh. “I did meet the robot. The robot didn’t move, which was a bit of a disappointment.”

A visit to Dundee and Angus College saw Somerville leave with a 3D print of her head and shoulders, which she says she then gifted to her private office. “I’m not sure they still have it,” she adds.

Holyrood points out it might prove quite an ominous presence for the staff, sitting in the corner, watching, as she jet-sets around the country visiting institutions. “It’s a bit small!” laughs Somerville, indicating the size between her thumb and forefinger. “I think that was one of the most surreal gifts I will ever get.”