Whilst it can be a character-building experience attending higher education, the rush to turn every subject and vocation into a degree course has been a character-destroying experience for many young people. The jobs market has been flooded with graduates to the extent that their wages are lower than ever before, their debts are higher, and the taxpayer is footing a much larger bill for the administration of a loan system as fewer graduates are hitting the repayment threshold when expected. Employers are largely filtering candidates between those who have a 2:1 and those who don’t. Some larger organisations are now saying that there are so many graduates that they’re now treating Master’s degrees as the new honours degree.

The sustainability of the Welsh higher education system depends not just on Government funding, but also on its reputation for research and development and on the standard of education and other experiences that higher education establishments can offer here. It would be wrong to just blindly adopt the judgments of the EU when it comes to spending on HE when looking at funding support. The EU has not been known for its thriftiness or its accountability. The Welsh Government needs to exercise its own judgement on whether such funds bring good enough return on investment before replacing the funds. It is better placed than any other to know what is affordable and to react to the needs of the Welsh economy.