Opposition parties have called on the Education Secretary to apologise for giving “misleading” statements on college waiting lists.
Labour said Mike Russell’s previous remarks, describing waiting lists as “a false concept”, have been contradicted by an audit on the issue.
The Tories and the Lib Dems agreed that the Education Secretary gave a misleading impression of the situation.
A Colleges Scotland survey last year suggested that up to 21,000 students were waiting for a place on a college course.
Mr Russell dismissed the figure and responded to further questions from MSPs at Holyrood by telling them that such waiting lists are “a false concept and a false construct”.
Meanwhile, the Scottish Government ordered an audit in the wake of the survey’s claims.
Speaking in a debate on the issue at Holyrood, Labour’s Hugh Henry said that while the interim report of that audit points to “inconsistencies and duplication”, its acknowledgement of the existence of waiting lists contradicts Mr Russell’s earlier statements.
“The Cabinet Secretary clearly believes that he can say what he likes and only admits the facts when he is wrong,” he said.
“Surely if this Parliament is to have any credibility then ministers must be open and honest.
“Mike Russell owes it to this parliament, and to staff and students, to admit that he is wrong. He needs to admit that that there are waiting lists irrespective of how few, and he needs to apologise.”
Mr Russell responded by suggesting opposition parties fear the final report of the audit.
“I suspect (Hugh Henry) fears, and he should fear, that it will expose as nonsense the highly exaggerated claims we’ve heard about the number of people who allegedly are currently waiting for a place,” he said.
Colleges keep “what are described as waiting lists” to organise their application process, Mr Russell said.
“This a way of managing their application process and not in order to provide a running total of people still waiting for a place at any given moment in time.
“This is a fact. This is what our audit has revealed. This why the claims of 21,000 Scots … sat waiting for a college place is utter nonsense.”