The committee also heard from student representatives, including Garry Quigley, president of the University of the West of Scotland Students' Association and Christina Andrews from the University of Stirling Students' Union.

BBC: Scotland politics

Ewan Crawford of the University of the West of Scotland, and Charles McGhee, formerly of the Record and The Herald, who is soon to join Glasgow Caledonian University.

BBC: Paper Tigers

The facility is Scotland's first multi-institutional campus, providing a base for the University of the West of Scotland, Dumfries and Galloway College as well as the University of Glasgow.

BBC: Saved Dumfries campus 'worth ?300m-a-year'

Teacher training places are provided at eight universities - Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling, Strathclyde, West of Scotland and the Open University.

BBC: Teacher addresses class

Prof Henry Maitles, head of the education department at the University of the West of Scotland, agrees that 18 is an "arbitrary" age to decide on adulthood and says that some places have gone further in order to ensure responsible behaviour.

BBC: The strange status of 16-year-olds

Prof Andy Miah is director of the Creative Futures Research Centre at the University of the West of Scotland, and an authority on how emerging technology will affect performance in sport.

BBC: Testing times: Injecting reality into the war on doping

Ewan Crawford, of the University of West of Scotland, a former senior SNP adviser, thinks the party will recover quickly from any perceived setback.

BBC: Scottish council election: Administrations take shape

It will become the University of the West of Scotland.

BBC: Part-time students currently have to pay fees up front

Bellshill-based Lamellar said it was working with the Vision Sciences Unit at Glasgow Caledonian University and the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre in its development programme.

BBC: Lamellar Biomedical website