Any plan to implement the manifesto promises for Scotland’s NHS must also be accompanied by a plan for Scotland’s universities.

Across all parts of Scotland, from our major cities to regional, remote, and island communities, universities are not a peripheral support to our health and care system — they are one of its foundations. They educate the NHS workforce, power medical research and innovation, deliver care in communities, and generate the evidence that improves outcomes for patients. If universities falter, the NHS follows.

By training people in and for their own communities, providing flexible and geographically dispersed courses, and supporting rural clinical placements, universities reduce our dependence on fragile and expensive recruitment from elsewhere. They help keep nurses, midwives, allied health professionals, doctors and researchers where they are most needed.

They also help ensure those who care for Scotland better reflect the Scotland they serve. Years of work to widen access to higher education have enabled people from underrepresented backgrounds, like rural students, first-generation students, and students from lower-income backgrounds, to enter health careers and stay rooted in their communities. That is not only socially just; it is essential for tackling health inequalities.

Yet this vital system is under growing strain.

Universities are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain students across many health disciplines. Demographic change is shrinking the pool of applicants. The cost-of-living crisis is forcing prospective students to think twice about the........

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