Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Education – in the Senedd at 1:48 pm on 28 September 2016.
I’m assuming that the Member was in the Chamber yesterday for my statement on the Diamond review, where I stated quite clearly that the Welsh Government have accepted the underlying principles contained in that report. I want to ensure that Welsh students will be supported in a system that is unique in the UK, in that it is fully portable, so that students can study in other parts of the UK and indeed around the world, and that the mode of study is also supported, regardless of whether you are part-time, a full-time undergraduate or postgraduate. Those are the recommendations by Sir Ian Diamond. I know that UKIP don’t like to take the advice of experts and live in a post-fact world, but having received the report from Sir Ian Diamond, who is one of the UK’s pre-eminent academics, a report that was also written and supported by people such as the vice-chancellor of Cardiff University, the director of the Open University, the president of the National Union of Students and esteemed ex-colleagues here in this Chamber, I think that UKIP should be very careful about casting aspersions on the quality of the people who have considered that report. I’ve considered it and the Cabinet are backing the principles contained within it.