The following amendments have been selected: amendments 1, 3 and 4 in the name of Siân Gwenllian, and amendment 2 in the name of Rebecca Evans. If amendment 2 is agreed, amendments 3 and 4 will be deselected.

We now move to the Welsh Conservatives debate this afternoon, which is on higher education, and I call on Suzy Davies to move the motion—Suzy.

Motion NDM7387 Darren Millar

To propose that the Senedd:

1. Notes the importance of higher and further education to Wales and its economy.

2. Believes that students deserve value for money in return for the investment they make in their higher and further education.

3. Regrets the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on students in Wales and the interruption to courses.

4. Welcomes the additional financial resources provided to Welsh colleges and universities to support them through the pandemic.

5. Notes that there has been no reduction in fees paid by students to reflect the adverse impact of the pandemic on their studies.

6. Calls upon the Welsh Government to:

a) work with colleges and universities to ensure that fees reflect the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on their courses;

b) ensure that students take the opportunity to access learning either in person or, in the event of unavoidable COVID-19 restrictions, through more live streaming;

c) address the concerns of students, employers, and further and higher education providers in relation to a narrowing of the syllabus of some courses which contribute towards entry requirements for colleges and universities.

Motion moved.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Welcome to everyone who's going to take part in this debate, and I move the motion, which is actually about more than higher education, but it's certainly part of what we'll be talking about today. 

I'm looking forward to an informative and useful debate about something that I think, in essence, we can agree about. There's certainly been no attempt to amend the first couple of parts of the motion, so I get a real sense that, in fact, the other parties and the Government had to think quite hard about how they wanted to amend this motion, for this very reason that we're all sailing in the same direction when it comes to a good future for our further education and higher education sectors. 

But what I think these amendments all demonstrate is this—that they're looking at the importance of higher and further education institutions from the point of view of those institutions. And this time, we're inviting the Welsh Parliament to look at the challenges from the point of view of the student. And I'm afraid that's why we can't support most of the amendments—nothing to disagree with them in particular, but they delete and they detract from the proposition that we need at least one debate where the student voice is to the fore. And in the case of university students, of course, those voices are nervous with the prospect of hefty personal debt.

Plaid, you get away with amendment 4, as you characterise it as a new sub-point. To be clear, just because we welcome Welsh Government's resources, it doesn't mean that we think it's enough. I'm not even convinced that they're additional, but I'll come to that in due course. But let's start with point 2 of our motion:

'students deserve value for money in return for the investment they make in their higher and further education.'

How has COVID affected the college student? Well, we still might be seeing higher numbers of entrants choosing to stay at home at a time of great uncertainty about travel, lockdown and, of course, employment. Some may not want to run the risk of running up the debts that come with going to university just when the jobs market, particularly for young people, is looking more fragile. And what will they get? In the evidence to the Children, Young People and Education Committee, ColegauCymru said that there were expensive challenges ahead, especially if the number of entrants was to go up. The £23 million from the Welsh Government to meet the COVID need will certainly have helped with challenges such as achieving social distancing or meeting IT equipment needs, but you can't summon up more experienced tutors out of nowhere to meet the need that is created by social distancing. The use of some of that money to transfer some teaching online is better than not having it at all, but it's still not the same as a face-to-face experience. And while online learning may suit some students—I don't think we should overlook that fact—how is it going to impact on those courses with a high level of practical teaching or experience in the workplace?

Let's not forget either that Welsh Government was planning to cut the money going to further education's contract partners for work-based learning—something highlighted by the Welsh Conservatives—reducing even further the scope for students to really benefit from building relationships and skills with employers from a wide range of businesses and innovators. If Welsh Government can't guarantee enough funding for appropriate equipment, software, licences, connectivity for students to work on campus or at home, it certainly has no business undermining colleges' own commercial activities, which could be funding them instead.

The value-for-money question is perhaps even more acutely defined for university students. If you are going to accrue a minimum of £27,000-worth of debt for tuition in order to do an undergraduate course, you're going to want £27,000-worth of quality education. And again, blended learning may be part of that quality offer, but, as I say, if you're paying that kind of money, I think you really want to be able to see the whites of your tutor's eyes and to have them there to engage in discussion. And that's why we put the emphasis, in point 6(b) of our motion, on live streaming, which is for colleges as well, by the way. By all means, make lectures and seminars available on catch-up, but, for supervised learning, you need the immediacy of human interaction for it to be worthy of the description 'supervised'. And what we can't have is 10 hours of live tuition replaced by three hours of recorded online lectures, as was recently reported to me is happening in one of our universities. I'm sure that that's a one-off, but it has happened. And while we might all find the fact that QAA frameworks offer quality assurance for university courses, there's not really yet been the opportunity to formally evaluate the effect on quality of the different delivery of those courses.

Meanwhile, the National Union of Students survey told us that 27 per cent of university students couldn't access online learning even if they have the equipment; 15 per cent said they didn't even have the equipment; 38 per cent said that the quality of online provision was not of a good standard; and, unsurprisingly, two thirds of students said that COVID was negatively affecting the vocational elements of their courses. Some of these university students, of course, will also have felt the effect of lecturers' strikes, depriving them of hours of supervised learning for which they have paid. So, it's little wonder that some are demanding refunds. 

This part of the motion doesn't just talk about value for money, it talks about investment, and I hope that we will hear from the Minister a response to the question, if you like, about human investment. Again the NUS pointed out that none of the money coming from Welsh Government was ring-fenced for student hardship. And while I am genuinely pleased that there's been no clawback of maintenance finance, the inability of students to work during this period to supplement their income has resulted in some real hardship, especially for those from poorer backgrounds, those with a poor relationship with their family or who simply live too far away from the family home to leave their university town during lockdown.

Members, I'm going to have to leave point 6(c) of the motion to others, I'm afraid. I hope the Minister will say a few words on it in her response, but if I'm going to progress my final point, and give others a moment to say something, I'm going to have to come back to it at a different time.

My final point is this: colleges and universities need money to provide the best quality education. They have taken a financial hammering over COVID, despite £50 million being effectively reclaimed from the COVID pot by the education Minister, and distributed accordingly to the universities and our further education institutions. That certainly helped with easing cash-flow problems. The student finance brought forward by the UK Government has also helped with cash-flow problems, so it's been a welcome intervention. But the most recent prediction for Welsh universities, for the coming academic year, is a loss of £400 million to £500 million, which is an extraordinary sum by anybody's measure.

The £23 million for FE and £27 million for HE mask the fact that the education budget itself was cut by £47 million to go into the Welsh Government COVID pot—completely understandably—along with various consequentials from the additional UK money found for education. And I hope that the Minister will be able to confirm, hopefully with some evidence, about how much of the consequential for FE and HE has been passed on to those sectors.

The Plaid amendment suggests that the Welsh Government must make sure that the sectors have enough money to do what they need to do and provide that quality education, and, yes, we agree. That is not the same, however, as saying that Welsh Government, and even the UK Government, should be responsible for finding all that money. Both these sectors can, and do, make money for themselves, and Welsh Government decisions should make it easier, not harder, for them to do that. I've already mentioned the threat to one income stream for further education, but Welsh universities are still waiting, after Professor Reid's recommendations all those years ago, for help to facilitate the kind of strategic partnership bids that would give them much better access to a high level of innovation or QR funding from UK Government, and elsewhere.

It would still be fair to say that both sectors have been underfunded by Welsh Government over the years, and FE has been more exposed to that, I think, especially at the end of the last Assembly term and the beginning of this one, because it's more directly dependent on the public purse. Universities have more scope for commercial work, but they've also overborrowed, and that leaves them with a different vulnerability. Some universities, however, may want to explain why they're holding on to such phenomenal unrestricted reserves, some of them more than 100 per cent of their income.

The argument that I expect to hear during the course of this debate will be that giving students a rebate will just add to the financial worries of the institutions. What I want to know is: why should it be students who have to carry the cost of COVID when, despite undoubted efforts by leaders in both sectors, students themselves fear that they are not getting the full education they were promised and so many of them will be getting into debt to do that? Thank you.

Thank you. I have selected the four amendments to the motion. If amendment 2 is agreed, amendments 3 and 4 will be deselected. So, I call on Helen Mary Jones to move amendments 1, 3 and 4, tabled in the name of Siân Gwenllian.

Amendment 1—Siân Gwenllian

Delete point 4 and renumber accordingly.

Amendment 3—Siân Gwenllian

Delete sub-point 6(a) and replace with:

ensure that the higher education sector has sufficient resources to enable institutions to continue to maintain standards and to continue to widen access;

Amendment 4—Siân Gwenllian

Insert as new sub-point 6(b) and renumber accordingly:

work with the further education and work-based learning sectors to ensure that they are adequately and sustainably resourced to provide the best possible learning opportunities, especially to disadvantaged learners, at this challenging time;

Amendments 1, 3 and 4 moved.

Diolch yn fawr, Dirprwy Lywydd, and can I thank the Conservatives for tabling this important debate today? There is much in the motion that we can support, but, as Suzy Davies has rightly highlighted, we are approaching the issues from a slightly different perspective. So, given the constraints of time, Dirprwy Lywydd, I'll confine my remarks to advocating for our amendments.

Our first amendment seeks to delete clause 4. While any additional resources for this important sector are always welcome, the parlous financial state of many of our universities makes it impossible for us to give an unqualified welcome to the extra resources that Welsh Government has made available so far, such as they are. The Wales Governance Centre, back in May this year, were warning of a loss of fee income to Welsh universities of between £100 million and £140 million this academic year. That, of course, was a prediction. As Suzy Davies has just pointed out, HEFCW was recently predicting a loss of over £400 million—a shortfall—in universities' incomes this year, while putting, potentially, up to 5,000 jobs at risk.

This is on top of an already fragile position for some of our institutions. I think it's fair to say they are autonomous institutions, and some of them have to take some responsibility for that. But whether or not they take that responsibility, the impact on our communities of losing some of those institutions, or of losing many jobs in those institutions, would be drastic. The Minister may say that she doesn't recognise this picture. If she doesn't, that's unfortunate, because that's the reality. The £27 million that the Welsh Government have given so far feels like a small drop in a very large ocean, and I'm sorry if the Government feels that it's churlish, but we don't feel that that should be welcomed in and of itself.

Our amendment 3 seeks to replace point 6(a). We do understand, of course, that some students are unhappy with paying the same level of fees as they would in an ordinary year when their learning experience will be very different, and we sympathise. But we do not believe that when the sector is under such financial pressure that this is the right time to further reduce the income that's available to institutions. I take what Suzy Davies says about how individual students shouldn't have to carry the can, and I am sympathetic with that position, but the importance of these institutions in our communities and to our economy is such that we don't support any reduction further of the income that reducing fees would mean.

We do believe that the Government should be working closely with the sector to ensure, and  'ensure' is the key word—perhaps we could have said 'enable'. We're not suggesting that the Welsh Government should be funding all of these institutions, higher or further education institutions, but they have to create the right climate where other income can be found, and this, again, is something where we simply don't see that there's enough activity and enough communication. The Government must ensure that there are sufficient resources in both sectors to maintain standards, including teaching standards, and to continue to widen access, and that's where our amendment comes from.

Amendment 4 seeks to strengthen the motion with a further specific reference to further education and particularly to work-based learning. The original motion does mention colleges as well as universities throughout, but we wanted to draw out that further education element a little further. Further education faces particular and different challenges, as Suzy Davies has rightly identified, and these must be addressed; work-based learning providers face different challenges yet again.

I am aware that they are in a different portfolio, but I think that all education providers, all learning providers have a right to expect a consistent approach from the Government across the board. So, work-based learning providers have been told by Welsh Government that all trainees are to return to face-to-face learning from 1 October, in sharp contrast to the Welsh Government's support for flexible and blended learning in higher education and further education institutions. This doesn't make sense. It is, of course, the fact that they won't get paid if their trainees don't turn up.

We hear a lot about parity of esteem between vocational and academic learning. We submit that this is an opportunity for the Welsh Government to engage with the sector across portfolios and to ensure that this supposed parity of esteem of which we've heard so much is actually reflected in how vocational learning opportunities are supported and resourced by the Government, and this is far from the case, hence our amendment 4.

Llywydd, I look forward to hearing the rest of the debate, I look forward to the Government's response, and I commend amendments 1, 3 and 4 to this Senedd.

Thank you. Can I ask the Minister for Education to formally move amendment 2, tabled in the name of Rebecca Evans?

Amendment 2—Rebecca Evans

Delete points 5 and 6 and replace with:

Welcomes the efforts of students, colleges and universities to continue operating safely and effectively in challenging circumstances over the coming term, and thanks them for their efforts.

Notes the extensive work by colleges and universities to maintain opportunities to access learning either in person or, in the event of unavoidable COVID-19 restrictions, through online tuition, assessment, and support.

Notes the guidance issued by Welsh Government to support higher and further education providers to prepare for the new term and open campuses safely. 

Amendment 2 moved.

Formally.

Sorry, I had a problem with the unmute. A lot of what I'll say now will echo what our Conservative shadow Minister for education has already said, but I do think it's important to reiterate some of the points that she made.

The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in widespread disruption to so many sectors of our Welsh economy. Some of the economic damage being inflicted will be irreparable, and for everyone in full-time education, decisions being taken here and now will cast a long shadow. Young people currently taking qualifications get one shot at their education, and the impact on their studies has already caused significant distress.

Students entering universities and colleges this month faced the ordeal of school closures just weeks before they were due to take their A-level examinations, where many of them will have almost concluded five terms of study. Having suffered the emotional turmoil of the results fiasco earlier this month, young people face fresh hurdles as many of them begin further or higher education. Young people have missed out on so many rites of passage, and we all need to do all we can to ensure that they miss out on as very little as possible. One of the best experiences of going to university is learning to live independently and make some new friends, yet the restrictions on social interaction will limit these opportunities.

As point 5 of our motion makes clear, there has been no proposed reduction in tuition fees this year, even though many students won't even be setting foot in a classroom or a lecture theatre. Of course, there are ways to embrace new technology and use of virtual meetings like this as a way to complement learning, but it shouldn't be a wholesale replacement. Students should expect some face-to-face contact, but clearly it's for universities and colleges, with robust guidance from our Welsh Government, to establish the safest ways of operating. The overriding priority has to be ensuring that learning is continuous and that there are rigorous plans in place to ensure continuity of courses, even if COVID regulations become stricter and, in a worst-case scenario, we face another lockdown.

We all recognise the critical role that FE colleges and universities have in upskilling our workforce to meet the gargantuan challenge of rebuilding the Welsh economy in, hopefully, a post-COVID world, and we all need to recognise that Wales post COVID will look and feel very different from what it was before. The growth in online social interaction is almost certainly here to stay, and that in itself represents challenges in ensuring we have a workforce with the skills to meet demand. Nearly half of employers surveyed by the Open University acknowledged that apprenticeship and work-based learning initiatives would be vital to their organisation's coronavirus recovery over the next year. It is essential, therefore, that disruption to our students' education is kept to a minimum.

Point 6 of our motion will call for action from Welsh Government. Students need to have confidence that what they are paying for in fees is fair for what they are actually getting. Critically, we need swift measures to tackle digital exclusion and ensure that all learners have a means of accessing all aspects of their course. ColegauCymru has noted that there continue to be significant shortfalls of provision of ICT equipment, software and connectivity, and when it comes to the risk of increasing the digital divide, that's something that's very apparent and a worry of my constituents, I know, in South Wales East. They go on to say that, despite the best efforts to maintain learning, it is inevitable that some of the outcomes of traineeships, apprenticeships and programmes such as Jobs Growth Wales will be disrupted. A recent survey from the National Union of Students showed that more than a quarter of university students were unable to access online learning, whilst more than a third did not consider that the online provision was a good standard or quality. It's something that we need to be concerned about.

I'd also like to hear from the Minister about the implications of any changes to the syllabus for key stage 5, specifically for entry requirements for further and higher education, as now is the time that current year 13 pupils will be making decisions about their next steps. The past few months have been a horrendous ordeal for so many of our young people, and as Andrew R.T. Davies said earlier today, it must have had a severe impact on a lot of their mental health. So, I hope the outcome of today's debate is that we can all agree and come up with ways to make it fairer for them. I commend the motion.

Thank you very much for bringing this debate. I think it's really important to both our students, but also to our overall economy. First, I want to congratulate Cardiff Metropolitan University, which has been designated Welsh university of the year by The Times and The Sunday Times, which is focused on its courses that are designed for hands-on learning, including the very important food technology department, which I recall was visited by the vice premier of China. On his very short visit, he decided to go there. That is typical of the type of work that Cardiff Met does. It's very practice-focused, professionally oriented education, which is vital for developing the sort of graduates that we need to regenerate our economy.

I'm delighted that one of its 37 new degrees is going to be in early years education, which is probably the most neglected and most important aspect of pedagogy, yet more traditional universities regard this as not very important. The courses in applied entrepreneurship and innovation management that are going to be starting in the next academic year of course are exactly the sorts of courses that we need to help us tackle our historic low productivity, which has dogged us for all time. So, I have to acknowledge that all universities are reeling from the impact of COVID, but I think it is unrealistic to think that the Welsh Government is going to be able to meet that £500 million gap estimated by the Institute for Fiscal Studies. 

Cardiff University is particularly vulnerable to the massive drop in international student enrolments. Previously, they used to benefit from over two fifths of the overall income coming to Wales from international students. And it's perfectly evident anecdotally that these students have not arrived in the sort of numbers you would normally expect at this time of year, as they normally arrive earlier than UK students, just to familiarise themselves with the area. Cardiff predicts that it will only take in 60 per cent of its original target for international undergraduates and 40 per cent of its postgraduates.

These are worrying figures for lots of reasons. First of all, it will obviously increase pressure on the deficit in the pension funds, and also it means less money for research. And of the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales innovation and recovery fund, none was allocated to Cardiff, presumably because it is, overall, stronger than many other universities. At the moment, Cardiff predicts a £67 million deficit—that comes from its chief financial officer—and it's going to have to bridge it by a raid on its reserves. Luckily it's got those sort of reserves to enable it to do that, but it does make it very vulnerable, going forward, in future years.

Cardiff is our largest university and our only Russell Group university. Overall, Cardiff's contribution to the Welsh economy is very significant. It previously constituted nearly half the £5 billion that it is thought universities contribute to the Welsh economy. And it isn't just the consequences of the COVID pandemic; it is the double whammy of both COVID and leaving the EU, which is really very worrying for the loss of research and innovation funding, which used to come particularly from foreign students, but also the European regional development fund money, which obviously will cease as a result of our leaving the European Union. And the reason why ERDF money is so important—its contribution to Wales has been £334 million, according to Professor Kevin Morgan—is because ERDF money is allocated on the basis of need, and had the overt objective to raise Welsh prosperity to the average for the rest of Europe. In future, the UK research and innovation money that Cardiff and all the other universities will have to bid for could be allocated simply on the basis of open competition, which means that them that have get more. And we know that Oxbridge gets a far bigger slice of the overall pie and takes in far fewer state-educated students.

Lastly, I just want to highlight the crucial role that universities play in our regional economic development. That is a point that was emphasised by Professor Morgan in a recent webinar. If we don't have the research-based evidence of what works and doesn't work, we're going to be in a much more difficult place to ensure that we have the most strategically impactful regional economic policies that we need to have. So we all need to worry about the financial health of our universities, but unfortunately, I think it's unreal to think that the Welsh Government is going to be able to bridge the gap. We face very difficult times ahead.  

Deputy Presiding Officer, I'm delighted to follow that speech from Jenny Rathbone, because I'm proud to say I'm a graduate of Cardiff University. I derived great pleasure and some learning from my time there, between 1981 and 1984, and I'm pleased to say that, since I left, the university has flourished—continued to flourish is what I meant to say. As Jenny has outlined, it is now a Russell Group university and, in terms of research, by some margin our strongest university, with a huge part to play in several areas.

I'm glad that Jenny talked about economics and social sciences and the research that Cardiff will do as we build the recovery after COVID, and it will be incredibly important. But I wanted to look at the research on medical matters, and COVID in particular. I hope Members will indulge me that I'm just going to use all the examples from Cardiff University, because I just think they're so innovative.

In July, Cardiff University announced a UK-wide project looking at COVID and the impact on the diagnosis of cancer, and how often have we heard in our debates the implications of not having early diagnosis for cancer, because people are too afraid to access diagnostics at the moment because of COVID? This study is in collaboration with Cancer Research UK and a couple of other universities in England, and will explore public behaviour and attitudes. What I think is really important here is not only is that hugely significant, but its aim, really, is to facilitate better public health messaging, because what is really important here is that people realise the risks that they run if they do not have significant symptoms investigated. So, I think that's one indicator of the worth of Cardiff University in this specific crisis.

Another project is looking at whether our immune system determines whether we suffer from severe COVID, as does seem likely. And again, we need the wonders of science and really outstanding research to give us the weapons to fight the disease. What we sometimes think intuitively is right is not always right, and that's why we need such in-depth, rigorous science.

A project earlier in the year, I think in April, looked at the levels of mental health concerns among nurses and midwives in the UK. The findings were quite stark: 74 per cent felt their clinical responsibilities put their health at risk during COVID and 92 per cent were afraid that these risks would be passed on to family members. Isn't that an incredibly human finding, as well, that their own health and risk—74 per cent, naturally—? But even more of them—92 per cent—feared that, actually, what could happen, what they feared most, was they'd pass it to a loved one. And then 33 per cent had experienced severe depression or anxiety.

It's in managing the emotional and well-being needs of our health workers that we will get through this crisis. But I think, for the first couple of months, many people in our health services were just overwhelmed by the magnitude of what they were dealing with, and it's really important to remember how they need to be helped to be as resilient as possible—the workforce—and to know where to turn when they have some really tough experiences, and then just need to have that chance to talk about them and know the techniques of at least mitigating them somewhat. So, a really practical study again.

I think many of us will remember the study launched at the University Hospital of Wales on the effect of giving blood plasma to COVID patients, again in collaboration with a major English university, and collaboration is so important. As I understand, that study is going on, and it made worldwide news—something happening here at Cardiff University and at UHW. That's what is really important in our university. I remember with great gratitude my undergraduate experiences. Obviously, I've been outlining postgraduate work and the work of the faculties—some of the finest minds of their generation. Long may it continue, and we will need to look at imaginative ways to sustaining the world-beating excellence at Cardiff University.

Can I thank the Conservative Party for bringing this very important debate to the Chamber today? I shall note at the beginning that we shall be supporting the Conservative motion.

I would also wish to take this opportunity to acknowledge that the coronavirus issue is likely to impact most severely on vocational students, due, of course, to the very nature of their learning practices. So, can we ask you, Minister, to outline what special measures are being put in place to ensure the least possible interruption to elements of their courses that would make social distancing et cetera very difficult or even impossible? This would, of course, apply to apprenticeship courses in particular, many of which are often part or wholly funded by business. So can I also ask what specific support has the Welsh Government offered to those businesses who may already be feeling considerable financial problems due to the COVID restrictions?

We have to acknowledge that the Welsh Government has made huge strides over recent years to reinvigorate the vocational sector. Indeed, we have heard this week that the employer referral service set up by the Welsh Government has just signed up its five-hundredth apprentice. I hope I'm right in assuming that the embargo on this information was removed, Minister, at 12 o'clock today. It would be a great pity—it really would be a great pity—if we should lose the substantial gains made in this sector, Minister, because of this pandemic.

I would like to start with a big thank you to all higher and further education staff and, of course, pupils for their efforts during this catastrophic pandemic, in particular in north Wales. Despite all these difficulties, I have been rather interested to see scientists at Bangor University work with Dŵr Cymru and United Utilities to monitor the background levels of coronavirus in waste water; students like Caitlin Garrett of Coleg Llandrillo continue to look to the future and to practice and develop her skills at home; Busnes@LlandrilloMenai announce that its 50 plus professional training programmes would now be subsidised, up to 100 per cent of the training cost until 31 August 2021. 

Through the most challenging of circumstances, students have continued to study and colleges have continued to be creative. That has to give us some hope for the future. However, it is true that COVID-19 has hit this sector hard. A recent survey from the NUS showed that more than a quarter of university students were unable to access online learning, more than a third did not consider the online provision to be good, and that 15 per cent of students do not have the necessary equipment to access online learning. I regard this as extremely serious and would like some assurances from the Minister today that she is co-operating, that she is interacting with the universities to ensure that steps are in place to enable every student to access online learning if it is required. The need for such action is supported by ColegauCymru, who commented that there continues to be significant shortfalls for the provision of ICT equipment, software and connectivity, and with it comes the risk of increasing the digital divide. So, Minister, would you clarify what measures are you taking to ensure that the £3.2 million provided for digital equipment such as laptops for FE students has actually been effectively used?

Now, undoubtedly, I do welcome the fact that the Welsh Government have allocated additional financial resources. However, concerns continue to be raised, again by ColegauCymru, who have stated that the additional funding agreed to date is not sufficient to secure the futureproofing of the FE sector as well as being able to plan for a potential second lockdown. They raise a very valid point: what lessons have been learned from the first wave that will benefit our students and educational professionals should we face these further impending lockdown measures?

Given my belief that education should be fairly funded, students must have value for money in return for the investment that they're making. The pandemic has highlighted fee inequalities, so there needs to be fairness across the sector. How can it be right that whilst there is an honours degree online course at the Open University for around £2,000 a year, some students will be paying £9,000 for primarily online learning? Welsh Government should work with universities, perhaps, to provide students with a partial refund of some of their fees. Now, this would be a positive boost for the 78 per cent of students in Wales worried about their finances because of coronavirus. However, even I appreciate this is not straightforward. A reduction in fees would result in a reduced income. In fact, tuition fees account for £892 million. That's 54.7 per cent of universities' income in Wales. Similarly, Welsh universities have already suffered very significant income losses in respect of accommodation, conferences and events activity. Nonetheless, there must be fairness, and consideration given not only by the Welsh Government as to how fees could be sustainably reduced, but colleges and universities to reviewing remuneration of chancellors and utilising reserves. Bangor University holds unrestricted reserves totalling 144 per cent of their income. So, there has to be some innovation and some radical thinking here.

Any change has to be introduced carefully, because it is a fact that Welsh universities generate a knock-on impact of over £5 billion for the Welsh economy and they support almost 50,000 jobs in Wales. This cannot be threatened, which brings me to my final point: the future of the arts cannot be threatened either. Now, the Minister has admitted concern about some music activities within schools. This could have an effect on students pursuing these creative courses. As such, I support calls to address concerns in relation to a narrowing of the syllabus of some courses, which will then contribute towards allowing a better entry requirement for colleges and universities. Thank you.

I thank the Welsh Conservatives for bringing forward this debate on the impact COVID is having on further and higher education and I will be supporting them today. The coronavirus pandemic has affected everyone's lives, but perhaps none more so than our young people—young people who have had their education put on hold, their social development hampered, and who are facing one of the toughest job markets experienced for generations.

In spite of the setbacks faced by many, many young people following the GCSE and the A-level fiasco over the summer, this week will see them starting college or university. Freshers' fairs across the country will be unrecognisable from the events of the past. University is not just about gaining academic achievement, but also teaches young people, giving valuable life skills and aids in their social developments. Restrictions designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 will mean a very different semester for students. Gone are the social events, gone are the cultural events and gone are the sporting events. Even classes aren't safe, with many going online. All these changes, although necessary, have left today's students short-changed.

Students have to pay the same tuition fees for a lesser experience, and this is why I will not be supporting any of the amendments. While I have sympathy with the universities, it is the students who are suffering the most. My biggest concern is the impact on the mental health of students. Rules mean students will have to stay within their accommodation groupings, stay with people who may not share their interests—academic or otherwise. This could lead to large numbers of students feeling isolated and lonely and particularly overseas students. Welsh Government and the higher education institutions need to place a greater emphasis on pastoral care for all students, not just those deemed vulnerable. Students will find this academic year one of the toughest ever faced. Everything is being done to ensure students don't suffer academically, but not enough is being done to ensure and protect their mental health well-being.

Lockdown created a mental health crisis in the wider community, and now measures to stop the spread of COVID across university campuses threaten a mental health crisis in the student body. University authorities must ensure weekly mental and physical check-ups for all students. They must also do everything they can to facilitate and encourage a wider variety of virtual social engagements. All students will find this academic year extremely challenging, and it's up to the Government and the university authorities to ensure that all students are equipped to meet those challenges. We owe it to our young people to take every possible measure to make this academic year as painless as possible, and I wish each and every one of them very good luck and all the best. Thank you. Diolch yn fawr.

Thank you. Can I now call the Minister for Education, Kirsty Williams?

Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. And I'd like to thank colleagues for the opportunity to discuss our higher and further education sectors, both of which I am incredibly proud to have worked alongside during these most difficult of times. And that is why, Deputy Presiding Officer, I am tabling the Government's amendment, which extends our thanks, as a Parliament, to the efforts of students, colleges and universities in Wales, for their resilience, their adaptability and their persistence in meeting the challenges created by this pandemic.

Like our schools, colleges and universities did not close during the initial lockdown period. Since March, they have continued to deliver teaching, assessment and research remotely. But they have also gone above and beyond to support our national response to COVID-19, through new training programmes with local health boards, providing accommodation to key workers and providing vital equipment and PPE to our hospitals. And I'd like to thank David Melding for his contribution, highlighting the research that has been going on, throughout this period, to help us as a nation and, indeed, the United Kingdom to better understand the impacts of COVID-19 and what we must do to support our nation as we continue to face these challenges. 

We fully recognise the disruption that has been caused to learning, particularly in further education colleges, and that is why we have provided an additional £11 million to colleges to cover the additional costs of teaching support for learners who may have missed learning earlier in the year. And that is coupled with a further £4 million to school sixth forms as well. And I have to say to my Conservative colleagues that catch-up money in England deliberately excluded the FE sector, and we have not done that here in Wales.

We have also allocated a further £5 million to support vocational learners to return to college to help them achieve their licence to practice qualifications, and another £3.2 million for post-16 learners in colleges and adult learning to provide digital equipment to facilitate online learning. And I have to say that during the pandemic, in my many meetings with vice-chancellors, they spoke very highly of their ability to engage learners online, and they told me, ad nauseam, that they were very proud of the fact that they were able to deliver and engage so many of their learners in online activities. And that's what college principals were saying in the height of the pandemic. 

And in higher education, part of our additional funding will be for investment in learning technologies and blended learning facilities to help universities maintain a high quality of student experience. Now, I understand that some students will have concerns about their university and college's ability to ensure continuity of a high-quality, equitable and enriching education as a result of the disruption that has come, and is likely to come, as a result of this pandemic. In colleges we were already on the road towards a vision for post-16 learning that blended face-to-face and digital activities well before COVID-19. I want this to accelerate during this academic year, building on the many examples of exciting and innovative teaching that we have seen during the lockdown period.

Our universities have committed to providing an innovative and supportive learning environment this term, through a mix of online and face-to-face provision. And I am very confident, even if some people in this Chamber are not, that they can deliver on this commitment. Given the national student surveys have shown in recent years that Welsh universities lead the way in student satisfaction, indeed, surveys during the pandemic showed that students domiciled in Wales felt that their university had supported them better during the lockdown than students in other parts of the United Kingdom. And can I make it clear to Laura Anne, all Welsh universities, every single one of them, will deliver blended learning during this period?

Now, in line with other Governments, we would advise higher education students, who may feel that their provision has not been of a sufficient quality during this time, to consider their institution's own processes for redress, and those of the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education. And I and my officials maintain a close working relationships with the OIAHE, to monitor the volume and the nature of any students' complaints coming from Wales.

I would also like to remind Conservative Members that both their colleagues in the UK Government and the Westminster Petitions Committee have rejected calls for a universal reduction in tuition fees as a result of the pandemic. The reality is that a universal reduction in fees or debt cancellation would only harm—harm—the quality of education and student services that our universities can provide, unless, of course, the UK Government would be willing to provide the necessary funding to offset any fee reduction, and I don't see any of that coming soon.

Furthermore, we know that, by themselves, fee cuts or debt write-offs primarily benefit the wealthiest students and the highest earning graduates. It does nothing to put money in students' pockets in the here and now, unlike our new reformed student packages, which put grant funding directly into students' pockets to support them with living costs.

I have to say that, despite all the uncertainty, we are seeing record numbers of students from disadvantaged backgrounds benefit from this support, with the average Welsh-domiciled student getting £7,000 a year as a non-repayable grant. The same students would receive nothing if they lived across the border. On top of that, only this morning I was hearing from the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol, which has allocated a record number of scholarships to Welsh students to allow them to pursue their higher education through the medium of Welsh—in excess of 300 scholarships paid for this academic year.

Helping students deal with hardship now is what student representatives in Wales are telling me is their priority. We know absolutely that some students have suffered financially during the pandemic. That is why we have asked HEFCW to ensure that some of the additional funding made available to the sector supports institutions to provide hardship funding to students, based on where we see a clear need for such funding.  

We are very fortunate in Wales that, during a great time of financial difficulty for many, we have recently implemented the most generous student maintenance support package in Europe, which will particularly support adults, part-time students and postgraduates to enter higher education to improve their knowledge and skills in a challenging labour market environment. And that's before we talk about the extension of the individual learning accounts, which we will now push out across the whole of Wales, allowing those people who have had their job prospects—or, indeed, their income—affected by COVID-19 to be able to undertake additional learning.

Despite how different and unusual the student experience might be this year, I'm encouraged that 18-year-old entry rates for higher education have surpassed 30 per cent for the very first time for Welsh applicants. We have also seen a 2 per cent increase in the number of students placed through UCAS at Welsh higher education institutions. That is a real vote of confidence in the quality of Welsh higher education. When we still see a dip in the demographic of 18-year-olds, we've still been able to increase the number of people that have chosen to come and study here in Wales.

These encouraging numbers will help our sector to improve its financial position, which will be further bolstered by the £27 million higher education investment and recovery fund that we have recently remitted to HEFCW. Plaid Cymru might not welcome it, but I can assure you that HEFCW, the institutions and vice-chancellors certainly do welcome it. I expect this funding to maintain critical teaching and research capacity where we are seeing a temporary downturn in revenue, and to support research and education activities that will contribute to our wider economic recovery.

This additional funding brings our total HEFCW funding this year to £203 million. That is up from £117.5 million when I first became the Minister for Education. Suzy Davies talked about consequentials from the Westminster Government in regard to HE. Let me tell Suzy: money that had been made available to English institutions has been on the basis of loans. We are giving hard cash to our universities, and we don't expect them to pay it back, which again is very different from the attitude taken across the border.

Looking ahead, we know that the coming term will be a challenge for universities and colleges. We have co-produced guidance with the sector so that they can operate safely. Colleges have notified us of a small number of staff and student cases that have already occurred this term, but I have been absolutely confident that they have followed to a tee the protocols for test, trace, protect to keep these cases under control. The feedback that I've had from colleges is that students are generally complying very well with rules around social distancing, hygiene and face coverings. Many, if not all, of our institutions have now put in place social contracts or added COVID security measures to existing social and behavioural contracts to make it clear that our students have a personal role to play in helping keep themselves and others safe. But, clearly, we will monitor the situation in universities closely as students return to campuses this week. I'm delighted to say that a testing centre on the grounds of the University of South Wales in Pontypridd is being built as we speak, Deputy Presiding Officer, to provide additional testing facilities in that institution and that area. 

I conclude by urging everyone involved in higher education and further education to stay safe, maintain social distancing, wash your hands more often, wear a face covering, avoid socialising indoors with people outside of your household, and stay home if you or anyone else in your household has symptoms, and if you do, then please get yourself a test. But, as someone said, I wish all of our students, whether they be in schools, FE colleges, or coming to our universities, the very best of luck for the new academic year. Diolch yn fawr. 

Thank you. As communicated to Members, I'll now call those Members who've requested to make an intervention of up to one minute. Suzy Davies. 

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Just briefly, Minister, I'm still very curious to know why you've decided you want to delete part of our motion when actually the points that you raised were things that we could have supported had you not deleted them. Perhaps I could ask you, though, if you would undertake to write to Members with the evidence to support the claim that we know that a fee rebate would benefit students from wealthier backgrounds rather than any others. So, I'd appreciate it if you could make that commitment. 

I'm very happy to make that commitment. What we know is that, actually, a very small proportion of students will ever pay back the loans that they have taken out to pay for their higher education—they are the top earning graduates, and actually a fee cut at this stage will benefit those individual students—[Interruption.] Well, no, it is a fact. 

Can you not have a conversation across the Chamber, because it's not fair to those who are not in the Chamber, to have that? So, that's fine. Can I now call on Angela Burns to reply to the debate? Angela.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Well, that was interesting. Minister, you were so affronted that I had to skip back and reread our motion because I thought that perhaps we had put in it things that I had missed. But, no, I don't see anything there that says that we do not think that higher education and further education institutions haven't stepped up to the plate. I mean, we do—they've been outstanding, they have delivered an enormous amount for our students over the last few months. You seem to think that we were basically tabling this entire debate to have a serious pop at them and to say that everything is pretty bad. Yes, I think our motion says, 'Well done, Welsh Government, for giving money.' We absolutely welcome that, are delighted to see it, and think that it's going to make a difference. But, I think the real point is that Suzy Davies caught you on the hop, and she caught you on the hop because you thought it would be about that, and actually it's about our students—it's about the young men and women, girls and boys throughout Wales who've been caught with this pandemic and have struggled and suffered so much. 

I want to pay absolute tribute to Caroline Jones. I thought that her contribution was outstanding because, Caroline, you got right into the nub of it, the nub of what these young people are going through. They're living through a time that they never expected. Their education's been disrupted, and, as you rightly said, education is more than just about the books or the numbers; it's about that whole learning experience, that whole social experience, having your sharp edges rubbed off you, learning how to interact with other people, how to live with people.

And we know that mental health has been a really major issue for a lot of our students. Some of the ones who are perhaps less robust have found it very difficult, and even those who pride themselves on being pretty tough have found the whole thing very, very distressful. The ones who've moved from A-levels to go into university or further education of some form or other, in particular, they've sort of had a double whammy of it, if you like. And I think that we mustn't underestimate that mental health impact, and that's why Suzy tabled this debate on behalf of the Welsh Conservatives that was very much focused from the students' point of view. 

Now, I don't disagree, Minister, with much of what you said about the whole of the FE sector and the higher education sector—their ambition, your ambition, where you're trying to go. And, you know, I want to pick up on one of the points that David Melding made: Cardiff University constantly amazes me with their research and development; they are utterly fantastic. And in the medical sector, they have come out with extraordinary—extraordinary—advances that we need to celebrate. And in order to do that, they need the money—of course they do—they need the stability and they need to know that they are sustainable going into the future.

But I don't think there's anything wrong with the Welsh Conservatives gently reminding you and some of the institutions within Wales that they've got an awful lot of money, some of them, squirrelled away in their pockets, and we're in a crisis. You know, you haven't got an endless pocket of money, the UK Government doesn't have an endless pocket of money and our poor students certainly don't, so those institutions that do have money, now is the time to start deploying it, now is the time to start reinforcing some of those courses, sustaining some of the teaching staff and making sure that we are fit to exit this coronavirus pandemic with a strong sector and with a strong student workforce.

David Rowlands, you also picked up an exceptionally good point that I thought was lost in the mix, about the fact that vocational courses are going to be one of the big areas that get hit. I've talked to a number of students in my constituency who are on such vocational courses, and it's very difficult for them; they can't go out and do the fieldwork, they can't go out and work in certain types of business. It's very difficult for them to get the things that they need in order to be able to move forward and I think that we shouldn't forget that at all, and realise that, for those individuals, it's going to elongate their entire education process and not give it the richness and the depth that many of us were fortunate enough to have.

All we've asked is that our students should be spoken to and talked to about the financial elements and other associated costs of being able to do their courses. We've certainly talked to them, Minister, and they are really concerned. We have many, many students who can't do online learning because they don't have the digital infrastructure at home, or they don't live in a convenient part of Wales that has a great digital infrastructure. Over 15 per cent of the students that were in the survey were very clear that they don't have the IT at home, and that's a lot of students who are unable to access online learning. Some students just simply can't cope with that kind of process. And that's what the whole point of this debate was about—that was what we were trying to encourage you to look at and encourage you to put into the mix when you think your way forward and about where you're going to go.

So, our three quick asks: we want you to ensure that the fees reflect the impact that the coronavirus is having on them and their courses; we want you to ensure that students are given every support, funding availability and encouragement to access learning, whether it's through live streaming, other online methods of teaching, or, wherever possible, in person. I mean, I was written to by one student in my patch who is doing archaeology and he's going to have real difficulty in going on an archaeological dig from over the internet—good luck to him, poor soul. And finally, we do want you to address the concerns of students, employers and further and higher education providers in relation to that narrowing of the syllabus that we talked about, of courses that contribute towards the entry requirements for colleges and universities. This is what this is about. Ultimately, our No. 1 priority shouldn't be about preserving the big institutions ad infinitum; it's about growing our youth, it's about protecting the young people of Wales, it's about giving them that education, helping them develop into robust citizens who can do the jobs of their dreams, can become robust adults, can hold down jobs and can have a good life going forward. We owe it to them, because, do you know what, it's called 'their future'—we must support it.

Thank you. The proposal is to agree the motion without amendment. Does any Member object? [Objection.] Thank you. Therefore, we defer voting under this item until voting time.

Voting deferred until voting time.

We will now suspend proceedings for a short break to allow changeovers in the Chamber and also for some cleaning if necessary.

Plenary was suspended at 18:09.

The Senedd reconvened at 18:16, with the Presiding Officer in the Chair.