Can I declare that I have one son in a university in England and one in Wales also, currently? As Angela Burns said, the future of the HE sector is of critical importance, driving the economy and social mobility. But, as Professor Diamond’s interim report into HE funding said, the current system is not sustainable, with evidence suggesting the Welsh Government needs to revisit the tuition fee grant policy. This follows findings from Universities Wales, the Learned Society of Wales and the University and College Union, all of which emphasise the policy’s unsustainable nature. As Angela said, if the trend continues, this will put Welsh universities at even greater risk. But the Welsh Conservatives would support an innovative widening-access programme.
Aled Roberts said that if cuts to HEFCW go ahead to fund Labour’s tuition fee grant policy, other priorities will fall by the wayside and provision will be decimated. Simon Thomas noted that the current policy cannot be maintained. Paul Davies emphasised the need to measure the impact on widening-access initiatives. He said that the needs of students are not being met by the current system, and that the current funding model is unsustainable for the future. Keith Davies: brave try; you need to get out more. William Graham: higher education is a major contributor to the Welsh economy. We need to ensure that Welsh universities receive the resources they need to compete in a UK and international marketplace, and there are concerns over cuts to part-time students.
Jenny Rathbone emphasised the benefits of mathematical models for decision making—hurrah—and highlighted the risk of money moving away from Wales. Suzy Davies emphasised the need to defend our universities’ reputations to attract students and keep talent in Wales, but Welsh Government policy is making them vulnerable and students’ decisions are being affected by non-tuition-fee debt. The Minister, Huw Lewis, completely failed to address the unsustainable nature of current Labour Welsh Government higher education funding, as highlighted by Welsh universities themselves. As he said, he wants young people in Wales to fly—apparently to England.
But it was Labour, as we heard, who introduced—
Huw Lewis
Will you take an intervention? Could you—
Y Dirprwy Lywydd / The Deputy Presiding Officer
He has to give way. Are you giving way?
Mark Isherwood
I’ll give way.
Y Dirprwy Lywydd / The Deputy Presiding Officer
Minister.
Huw Lewis
Thank you. I appreciate it. Can we have a definitive—? The Welsh Conservatives are playing with language here this afternoon. Let’s have a definitive statement: are the Welsh Conservatives saying that they would no longer support students to study outside Wales? We’ve heard it clearly at least from Plaid Cymru. Come on, let’s have a clear statement from the Welsh Conservatives.
Mark Isherwood
As the shadow education Minister said, that was not the case. It was Labour that introduced tuition fees. It was Labour that introduced variable tuition fees, which is why a Welsh Conservative motion defeated Labour in the second Assembly to introduce a top-up fee grant. We introduced that top-up fee grant, working with the then First Minister. In the third Assembly, Labour then scrapped that top-up fee grant. But when the UK Government accepted the Brown review’s recommendation—the Brown review appointed by the last Labour Government, when they were talking about tuition fee rises—when the new UK Government accepted that, Labour cynically introduced its own tuition fee subsidy for Welsh-domiciled university students, wherever in the UK they chose to study, with all the flaws warned against by Rhodri Morgan and accepted by all party leaders in 2005. It was so transparent it was see-through. Three years later the auditor general said that there were limitations—[Interruption.] We’re a bit short on time, but I will briefly, yes. [Interruption.]
Angela Burns
Mark, do you not think that it is a matter of regret that the Minister could not hear us when, earlier on in this speech, we said, ‘Do not misinterpret us. We absolutely defend the rights of students to be able to study in the university of their choice, and if they are eligible for support, it doesn’t matter if they’re in Cardiff or Cambridge’?
Mark Isherwood
Yes, I regret that Welsh Ministers in this Government often fail to hear things said, and that’s no denigration to people like myself who are hard of hearing; it’s simply a reflection of the fact, a matter of choice rather than nature.
The Welsh Government, as I said—. The auditor general, three years later, said there were limitations in the Welsh Government’s appraisal of its tuition fee options, at the time in 2010. The impact of all this is that record numbers of students started university this year as the cap on university places in England was lifted, including a 4 per cent rise in the number of young disadvantaged students. However, whilst England had a 3 per cent increase in students finding places, the increase in Wales was only 1 per cent.
As we heard at the annual meeting of the court of Bangor University last Friday, one of the biggest challenges is the funding of higher education, with the increasing differential between England and Wales causing pressures. The cutback in HEFCW, we heard, on behalf of the Welsh Government, they said, is the biggest in over three decades as the cost of the tuition fee grant increases. They said that, of over £350 million of Welsh higher education money, £100 million is going to fund English universities, and they’re working with vice-chancellors across Wales to address this. Glynd?r University said the Welsh Government proposals would mean an 81 per cent reduction in the higher education budget since 2010, and that the budget cuts to Glynd?r and Bangor universities would potentially have a huge negative impact on north Wales.
So, let us replace the tuition fee grant with a progressive system of living costs support that enables students from all walks of life in Wales to study at university, recognising the statement by Universities Wales that the consequence of drawing the funding for Labour’s tuition fee grant from the higher education budget is that it will become increasingly difficult for the Welsh Government to provide public funding for research, part-time and high-cost subjects and its own priorities, such as the Coleg Cymraeg.