8. When will the Cabinet Secretary publish plans, in accordance with the Diamond Review recommendation, to incentivise graduates to work or return to work in Wales? OAQ(5)0068(EDU)

Thank you, Adam. I published the Welsh Government’s response to all of the Diamond review recommendations on 22 November. I invited anyone with specific proposals on incentivisation to respond to the Government’s consultation. That consultation closes on 14 February. I will then need to consider the responses before I outline next steps.

I’m grateful to the Cabinet Secretary for her response. Has the Government commissioned any research? For example, there are a great many programmes that have this core aim of attracting graduates or retaining graduates within their home nation once they graduate across the world. I’m aware that over 40 states in the United States use different kinds of debt relief, most often—that’s the tool most prominently used in the United States. Of course, there are economic and social benefits to those kinds of programmes. So, could we have some sort of study that would give us an overview so that we can choose the best option for Wales?

Thank you. I think it’s important to point out that Welsh Government is not averse to looking at using incentives to attract people to Wales. We talked earlier about teacher training incentives, and my Cabinet colleague recently announced a new programme that will ensure that student nurses have access to a nursing bursary, which is not available across the border in England, if they commit to continuing to a period of two-year work post qualification in the Welsh NHS.

As I set out in my response to Diamond, I’m keen to work across Government and with others inside this building, outside this building, to look at this issue. However, I should say that Diamond was clear that the best impact and value for Government investment is to support students when they need it the most, rather than continuing to do what we were doing, in effect, which was writing off loans for graduates. We will continue to offer a £1,500 write-off for all Welsh students when they begin to pay off their debts, but I am committed to ensuring a stable and sustainable system of higher education finance that delivers for students, universities and the public purse. But I’m open to practical, sustainable and affordable suggestions of how we may be able to use a system of incentives in the way that you suggest.

I thank the Cabinet Secretary.