5. Statement by the Minister For Education: Update on Education Provision

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:25 pm on 3 June 2020.

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Photo of Kirsty Williams Kirsty Williams Liberal Democrat 3:25, 3 June 2020

Okay. First of all, with regard to FE colleges, I'll repeat what I said in my statement: further education colleges will open for more face-to-face teaching on 15 June. That is slightly earlier, because, in discussions with the college principals, ColegauCymru and the unions, they think they can move more quickly to do that. And she is absolutely right, in agreeing some priorities, that group of students to whom Helen Mary Jones referred are a priority. So, these are the one set of learners—this is the one large set of learners for whom we have not been able to come to an alternative way of allowing them to complete their course with a grade. So, we've been able to do it for mostly everybody else, but this group of learners need to demonstrate their technical competence to gain their qualification—and rightly so. If you're thinking about gas fitters or builders, they need that technical certificate and we want to make sure they have an opportunity to complete, so they are indeed the priority for colleges to get that work done so that they can complete their qualification and move on to next steps.

With regard to higher education and student number controls, we agree that the situation that HE finds itself in means that we have to introduce student number controls. Indeed, it's been agreed by the sector that this is one important way in which we can inject an element of stability at a very, very challenging time for the sector.

What came as a surprise, having agreed that we would all introduce some student number controls, and I would do that in Wales with our institutions, was to find, then, that the approach that England was taking was not simply to introduce student number controls for their own institutions, but actually to apply that to other jurisdictions, which I think is highly regrettable and is not necessary, because we intend to act to introduce stability here in Wales. We do not want to see our universities behave in a way that destabilises either each other within Wales or destabilises other institutions; we need to work together on this. And it is highly, highly regrettable that this has happened. You will be aware that I wrote to the Minister last week, as did counterparts in Northern Ireland and in Scotland. I spoke to the Minister on Monday morning, and the Government was not prepared to change its mind, which is a source of regret to me.

HEFCW have been carrying out the consultation for us on how student number controls would work in the Welsh context. That consultation came to conclusion on 1 June. I think we're on 3 June now, so I'm awaiting a report from HEFCW as a result of their conversation, and then we will make announcements for Wales. But it is regrettable, because there was an agreement between both Governments that we would act to introduce student number controls. We could have provided the stability within our own nations. We did not need to encroach and extend student number controls to institutions outside our own nations, and it's a source of regret to me that we find ourselves in this situation. But I will reflect on HEFCW's consultation and make an announcement as soon as I am able.