COVID-19: Impact on Universities in Wales

Part of 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 2:23 pm on 20 May 2020.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Kirsty Williams Kirsty Williams Liberal Democrat 2:23, 20 May 2020

David, you're right: we have to be particularly concerned about the impact on research. We know that the fees from international students have often gone a long way in providing support for research activities in our universities.

Earlier today, I was very pleased to announce in excess of £1 million to further support the Sêr Cymru programme in supporting research in a direct response to the COVID-19 crisis. As I said in answer to Helen Mary, we continue to have discussions with HEFCW, but I'm sure that David would recognise that the scale of the financial support required to address, potentially, shortfalls as a result of a potential drop in foreign students goes beyond what is available within the devolved Governments' budgets, and that's why I'm very pleased to work alongside Ministers from Scotland and Northern Ireland and the English Government on the research and innovation taskforce. My message to them is very, very clear: universities will be making decisions about their research capability not in the autumn, when indications around student recruitment will become clearer. We need to be able to do that now. There are established mechanisms for where we can hold universities accountable for spending research money, QR money, and we continue to look to work together to be able to respond positively in a timely fashion to address these decisions, which institutions will be making in the next couple of months.