Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Education – in the Senedd at 1:49 pm on 30 September 2020.
Thank you, Minister. So, what you're telling the Chamber today is that you will be treating students, potentially, differently from other groups of people. If that's the case, I'm very glad indeed to hear it. I fully support your point about trying to develop a UK-wide response to this, because, obviously, we have a lot of cross-border flow. I would put it to you, however, that if the UK Government acting as the Government for England fail to sort themselves out on this, I do hope that there will be a plan B from the Welsh Government.
If I can turn, then, to students who are currently at university but not receiving any direct teaching or only receiving very minimal amounts of face-to-face teaching, there will be some of those students who would wish to return home and to be able to do their remote learning from there. What's the Government's position on that at the moment? For example, if you're, let's say, a student in Aberystwyth whose home is in RCT, is it permissible for that student to come from Aberystwyth to RCT to study for a period of weeks if that's what they feel they need to do, and is it then permissible for them to return to the university when blended learning and face-to-face learning can start again? It is quite a complex situation, I think, for students, and I think they would appreciate more clarity.
I wonder if you can give us a sense as well this afternoon, Minister, because I know you'll have your finger on the pulse with this, as to how much blended learning is taking place, how much actual face-to-face learning are students getting. I don't support, as you know, the Conservative position that would have students having their fees repaid, simply because I don't think our institutions can afford it, but I do think that if students are only getting very minimal or none at all in terms of face-to-face teaching, they ought to be allowed to go home to be with their families, if we can do that safely, in order that they can get that emotional support. Many of them, especially first years, of course, will be self-isolating potentially with people they've never met before, and that's not a happy place for an 18-year-old to be.