Mr. Pat Doherty:

The cross-Border survey.

Second, I understand that the universities in the South are independent and, therefore, the Minister can have influence but not necessarily control. The recognition of A level qualifications of the North in the system in the South needs to be resolved so that we have a broad understanding of how it works. There are some specifics that keep being raised in our constituency offices which we find difficult to deal with.

Third, there is a programme of promoting Southern institutions in the schools in the North and we hope to build on that. I am not aware of any such programme in the South promoting the two universities in the North.

Finally, and this may be anecdotal rather than survey based, the education systems on these islands are broadly rated as follows: Scotland is the best, the South is the second best, the North is the third, Wales is the fourth and England is the bottom of the heap. In his introductory remarks, the Minister spoke of dropping from fifth to seventeenth place and the efforts needed to move both North and South further up that list.