Critical thinking: Does Ben Macpherson have the answers for Scottish education?

Ben Macpherson trained as a lawyer before entering politics. But at school, his favourite subject was history. “It teaches you about perspective and perception,” he says. “It teaches you to think for yourself.” 

It’s just as well that the newly installed minister for higher and further education is an advocate for critical thinking. He has taken on a brief – the fifth he has held in government – that brings with it serious and immediate challenges. 

An Audit Scotland review has revealed a college sector hampered by a real-terms funding cut; a Scottish Funding Council report laid bare the stresses on universities. Rivals across the chamber accuse the SNP administration of failing Scotland’s young people, while sector bodies shout for more resources. With an in-tray like that, how is Macpherson, reshuffled in at the turn of September, feeling about his new post? “I’m really excited to have the responsibility,” he says. 

“Readers will be aware of the significant pressure that there is in our higher and further education system at the moment. There’s a process of dialogue underway with government, other opposition parties, and the university sector on the sustainability of the sector. There are further talks to come on that, sooner rather than later. I’m looking forward to participating in those discussions. I would like to build a similar collaboration with Colleges Scotland, but there will also need to be wider engagement. I’ve reached out in good faith.” 

Macpherson says many underlying issues, such as cost hikes linked to Covid, Brexit, and employers’ National Insurance contributions, are also impacting on institutions in the rest of the UK. “These are external factors that the Scottish Government can’t control,” he says. But there are particular challenges too. For example, the Withers Review was critical of the skills and training landscape, arguing that the country’s systems are not fit to meet the challenges of the future.

Macpherson describes Scotland’s students and institutions as “remarkable”. He has praise for employers too and is concerned that practical and vocational training should be held in esteem. “The closest I came was in hospitality,” he says of his own career history, which includes bar work. “I respect practical work as well as academic work.”  

With just months to go until the next election and political capital at stake, Macpherson denies any short-termism on his part and says solutions must take in the longer view. “Yes, I only have a few months,” he says, “but I have a few months to help us future-proof.” 

Macpherson’s appointment was triggered by the resignation of Jamie Hepburn over ‘seagull-gate’, a post-chamber row between the then-parliamentary business manager and ex-Tory leader Douglas Ross over a statement about a summit on the birds. Stepping down, Hepburn was succeeded by Graeme Dey, who had held the junior education post that Macpherson moved into, ending his short stint on the back benches. 

Appointing the MSP for Edinburgh Northern and Leith, First Minister John Swinney praised his “wide experience across a range of policy areas”. Over a five-year period from 2018, he was variously a minister for Europe, migration and international development, then public finance and migration, then rural affairs, and finally social security and local government. That is, until he left government in 2023 as Humza Yousaf formed his administration – a decision he describes as “very difficult”. So what does that all add up to when it comes to taking on education and skills?   

Macpherson argues that his old jobs relate more to his new one than it may first appear. Take the Europe post, for example, which meant working on the enormity of the Brexit challenge – including a potential hit on international student numbers.  

His second saw him press the case for a Scottish graduate visa – something the UK Government has so far resisted – and the third, he says, was about ensuring parity of opportunity for rural communities, which he argues is equally applicable to education.  

Then there’s social security and local government, which was about systems and delivery. And that time on the backbenches, he says, widened his perspective again. Overall, he says, it’s made him “reflective, thoughtful, and most of all collaborative”. “We can only fulfil Scotland’s potential in terms of developing and applying skills if we work together,” he says. 

Does that mean working across the chamber? “This is a shared endeavour,” he says. “We share a common interest here. I want to work with other political parties. 

“In the round-about six months before the election, we can achieve things for the benefit of all. I’m enthusiastic about it.” 

“The challenge,” he goes on, is that sometimes “people take certain decisions” that are “more about electioneering than policy delivery”. “If opposition members want to do that, I understand and respect it,” he says. “What I keep in mind is that while we may differ in a number of places and a number of issues, my experience with all of the MSPs that I have encountered is we share the same determination to make the country a better place.”