Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Education – in the Senedd at 1:41 pm on 18 March 2020.

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Photo of Suzy Davies Suzy Davies Conservative 1:41, 18 March 2020

Well, thank you for that and for confirming that all the nations are working together on this. I think that absolutely does make sense, particularly when we're talking about exams taken in—it'll be year 13, won't it—for going on to further or higher education where there is greater competition, as we're not talking just about Wales.

On that subject though, I'm quite interested in what conversations you've had with further education and higher education and some work-based learning settings, but in particular higher education—what sort of steer you've had from both vice-principals and the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales about how they're going to be approaching entry requirements for this autumn in a way that's equitable with cohorts in previous years, as regards standards for those entry requirements.

I'm wondering also if you could tell us a little bit about whether you've spoken to vice-principals and the Student Loans Company about their attitude to the finances of students who are going to be deprived of supervised study—and I mean, supervised study—by individual universities' decisions to close.