Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:19 pm on 26 June 2019.
No, because I'm not responsible and I'm holding the Welsh Government to account, so I want to see the numbers rise here in Wales. But the reality is that is how they feel, having talked to people who want to come to Wales, but feel that there is no welcome for them in that regard.
Then, we had David Rees mentioning a good point about the FE offering, as well. We can't have this debate without mentioning that further education does offer a lot in relation to higher education.
I would say that I mentioned students in my speech, so I think that's integral to what we do in relation to higher education—how they can feel fully included. In Swansea at the moment, when the structures are not happening, how are students supposed to take part in those conversations? When I was student president, those—the court and the senate—were the ways in which we could engage. We sat there and we took part. So we have to ensure that they're not undermined by problems with governance in any of these particular universities.
I'd like to hope that this isn't the end of the debate on higher education. I'm sure after I finish this debate I'll have lots of e-mails from the higher education institutions and from the regulators saying that there's no problem, and everything's hunky dory, and if it's not then I'm hopeful they will be able to engage constructively with us in future as opposed to potentially seeing us as hostile, when all we want to do is improve the situation so that everybody can be proud here in Wales of our higher education institutions.