Part of 3. 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 2:55 pm on 10 May 2017.
Thank you, Huw. As you say, it’s not the only issue that we need to consider, but it is an important one. Just prior to Christmas, I hosted a quadrilateral meeting of UK Ministers who have responsibility in this area, and I repeated all the points I’ve just made to Llyr Gruffydd to Jo Johnson, the then Minister with responsibility for higher education. Who knows whether he will retain that position after the elections in June? I believe that Jo Johnson understands exactly the kind of immigration system that the UK Government needs to be put in place to support the higher education sector, both in Wales and beyond Wales. Unfortunately, he is battling with a Home Office that doesn’t share that understanding and share that ambition. But you’re right—we cannot simply wring our hands and blame it on other people; we must get up off our knees and do what we can to support the sector ourselves. That’s why I’m very keen to discuss with my Cabinet colleague, the Minister for the economy, for instance, when his department are on trade missions across the world, that education should be a part of that. As you quite rightly said, we have a strong offer here in many areas, but we shouldn’t just be talking to foreign countries about our manufacturing offer or, indeed, our airport, but we should also be talking to them about our strong HE base that we have here, and I’m sure that we can make progress on this area.