Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:13 pm on 7 February 2017.
Thank you for that response. Perhaps the First Minister will be aware, following an item on ITV Wales news, about the story of Emma Stenson, from my constituency, who has turned to crowd funding to try and pay her way through a postgraduate course to become a physican associate in Bangor. Now, Emma has a first class degree in medical sciences, but she is having difficulty in affording the course because of her and similar students’ inability to access postgraduate loans in Wales. The health service needs Emma, and therefore students like Emma need that support now. As well as the pledge for students in the next academic year, and we are grateful for that, of course, how can we look at students who are at risk of dropping out of courses now in an area where we truly need their expertise?