Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Education – in the Senedd at 1:41 pm on 5 June 2019.

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Photo of Suzy Davies Suzy Davies Conservative 1:41, 5 June 2019

What a warm answer. I wasn't suggesting for a second that we should be following England's lead in this. I just wondered what the impact or what you thought the impact would be on Welsh universities of this particular review, and I don't think I've learned any more from this. One thing that Augar does say, though, in his review is that there are already differences between the nations' funding systems, so further divergence shouldn't be a problem. One of the areas where there isn't any divergence, as far as I can tell, is that the terms of repayment for student loans, even though the loans themselves are different here, especially in the way that maintenance costs are covered and subsidised—. If there is no divergence at the moment, and whether we agree or not on Augar's particular proposals, one thing he is trying to address is this question of the number of loans that are effectively written off or not paid off in full over time, and I'm just wondering what your current thinking is on this problem—how it can be addressed in a way that doesn't adversely impact upon university income or deter attendance.