Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:37 pm on 6 November 2018.
Well, there's no doubt that the changes in student finance policy will have had an effect. It was very generous, of course, for EU students; that's not the case any more in the same way. That may well be part of the reason why we've seen a decline in Wales, given the situation with our own student finances. Those changes, of course, were made following an independent review. It is, though, encouraging to see an increase in EU applicants to Welsh universities for early deadline courses, which include most medicine and dentistry courses—that's to commence study in 2019. But, of course, we will continue to work with our universities in order to make sure that it's understood that Wales is an attractive place to study.