Well, clearly, as has been said, the higher education sector is crucially important to both our society and economy, not least because its research and development projects are crucial in creating a more prosperous economy here in Wales.

Doubts over research funding make this an uncertain time for the sector. Ending our access to money from international bodies could lead to a struggling university sector, which in turn will have a significant negative knock-on effect on Wales. Brexit, and the potential end to overseas research funding could pull the rug, the floor and the foundations from under our economy. With far less to attract bright people to study and stay in Wales, we push ourselves ever closer to a McJob market. The facts speak for themselves: graduates earn almost £10,000 a year more than people without degrees. Llyr mentioned India earlier, and I think it’s important for us to look outside the European Union in this regard. We would be foolish to underestimate, actually, the wealth, not only of talent but the wealth in the pockets of these students who come here to Wales, and the fact that many of them stay and work in Wales and make Wales their home following on from their studies here in Wales, and long may that continue.

The impact of the higher education sector is spread across Wales, supporting even those areas that do not have universities, which contributed a quarter of that total GVA. Likewise, over 25 per cent of the jobs supported by the sector in 2013 were situated in local authorities without a university—areas such as Neath Port Talbot and Bridgend in my own region, where the higher education sector generated over 2,000 jobs.

We should be proud that Welsh universities punch above their weight when it comes to research. We have the highest percentage of world-leading research in terms of impact of any nation in the UK, according to the 2014 research excellence framework, with almost half of it considered to be having a transformational effect on the economy and society. So, given the significant financial support Wales has received from the EU, Brexit will present considerable challenges to research and development. In 2015 alone, almost £25 million of European regional development funding was approved for proposals to enhance research and innovation infrastructure and build capacity across Wales, at the Aberystwyth innovation and enterprise campus, and Cardiff University’s Brain Research and Imaging Centre. The science and innovation bay campus at Swansea University in my region opened in October 2015 and received a €60 million investment from the European Investment Bank. We can’t underestimate the importance of that investment to the South Wales West economy.

Darren Millar mentioned Horizon 2020 earlier, and while it is true that we still can gain access to Horizon 2020 following leaving the European Union, we don’t know at the moment what the negotiations look like or what type of Brexit deal we will have to know whether we will be able to have the same level of access to Horizon 2020 that we currently have. So, it’s important that we make the case to be part of those types of schemes, whether that’s one of many or not.

The Chancellor’s commitment to add an extra £2 billion a year to expenditure on research and development by the end of the current Westminster Parliament could well add up to nothing if European grant funding disappears, considering that the UK’s gross expenditure on R&D in 2014 was just 1.67 per cent of GDP, one of the lowest of the G7 countries, and we are going backwards. But more than that, what does it mean for new projects? What would it mean for a steel research and development centre at Swansea’s innovation campus, for example—a project that many of us have been pushing for for some time now? It follows that if any additional funding is merely plugging holes, running to stand still, then new investment is very unlikely to get a look in, and proposals like the steel R&D plan, which would underpin the area’s viability as a steel-making centre—something hugely important to the economy of Wales—would potentially face stiffer competition at the very least.

This is a very delicate time for higher education, and we must ensure, as law and policy makers, that we understand fully the impact on our institutions of this significant change to the political landscape, if and when, finally, we vote for the Brexit plan to go through.