Can I thank Lynne Neagle and my colleagues on the committee as well as the committee staff, and, of course, the Minister for their part in this inquiry? I hope Members have found the report interesting. We didn't get the opportunity to hear from the education Minister on the department's preparedness for Brexit in that marathon session we had fairly recently, so this is a chance to look at this more closely.

I think what struck me most in the inquiry is that while our higher education sector will undoubtedly be disrupted and hit financially by Brexit, particularly if there's a 'no deal' Brexit, it has recognised the challenges and wanted to get on with meeting them, even in this period of uncertainty. There was a genuine sense that the reputation of our higher education institutions would be strong enough to withstand the buffeting of the storm ahead, but they were likely to need some political help to lever the value of that core asset.

I have no problem signing up to this report because of how it framed its recommendations. One of the questions that have become difficult to answer—or will be post Brexit—is why staff and students if they've come from the EU should be treated differently from staff and students from other countries from now on. Our main selling point should be that the excellence of our research and academic offer, alongside accessibility to those who would benefit from a university experience regardless of their background—as I say, it should be the selling point, not that individuals from some countries can have a financial advantage over individuals from other countries through the former tuition fee grant, which is why I draw Members' attention to the first six recommendations in particular, in which we ask Welsh Government to examine why EU students choose to come to Wales, and to report now on the legacy of Global Wales and to be clear about its expectations of Global Wales II as well, because I think they must be connected.

We will lose EU students. I'm in no doubt about that. So, our universities do need to examine their unique selling points and use whatever Global Wales II can offer to fit their own maintenance and growth strategies, and that will mean Welsh Government talking again to HE institutions to make sure that Global Wales II is compatible with those universities' strategic priorities in this new challenging environment—because it is more challenging. We've already seen a 10 per cent drop in EU students studying here when there's been a 2 per cent rise in other parts of the UK, and we also heard that despite that—despite that—the sector's short to medium-term reliance on EU funding streams for programmes was relatively high, which is why I thought recommendation 1 was very interesting, and I appreciate, as Lynne mentioned earlier, we may not need that now, but I still think it's something to ask ourselves: whether our powers that are incidental to the devolved area of education could be explored to devise a way to apply different rules for permitting overseas students and staff to come here. 

As well as Global Wales, we also took evidence that Welsh Government needs to step up to the plate now in delivering on the Reid review recommendations, and I also welcome the announcement of the £6 million. It's not particularly clear why there's been policy drag here. I think, if our universities need to sell excellence, innovation and specialism to attract the finance staff and students they will need, it can't be Government policy that puts them at a disadvantage. Professor Reid was—well, he was stating the obvious, really, when he said that our universities needed to move on from reliance on EU funding and become more competitive at winning UK funding, and it should remain a cause for concern that we already have a research and innovation gap, which can't get bigger. Whatever the justifiable complaint there may be about the UK's lack of clarity about things like the prosperity fund, that doesn't explain the funding gap nor the slower pace on Reid, but I am pleased things have moved on there. 

I'm pleased also with the First Minister's commitment that any future regional funding won't disappear into the general pot and that will remain multi-annual in nature. That suggests he can do it for other services as well, but maybe that's for another day. It's a shame, I thought, though, that there was nothing earlier in the 2019-20 budget despite that Barnett consequential. It struck me that it did give Scotland that little bit of an edge on us by having early announcements. 

Just finally, Welsh Government has given £6.2 million to HEFCW and £3.5 million to Global Wales to help them respond to Brexit challenges, and while it's quite right that it's up to them how they spend it on what, I, for one, would really like to have a little bit more detail on quite what they've spent it on, because in the case of HEFCW, it seems to be about universities getting some money a little bit sooner than they were going to get it. Well, how are they going to use that? And, with Global Wales, it's subject to continuing negotiations with Universities Wales, which means it may not even have been spent, and yet, we could be leaving in 10 days' time. So, that's the best part of £10 million, the efficacy of which remains a bit of a mystery, at a time when we're facing uncertainty, and at least, I'd like to have some certainty on how that was spent. Thank you.