1. Will the First Minister make a statement on financial support for universities? OQ55755

Llywydd, we have provided more than £213 million to the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales during this financial year. That includes an additional £27 million to establish a higher education investment and recovery fund in recognition of the impact of the pandemic on our universities.

Thank you, First Minister. With those figures, I think we can see that universities are operating against a background where they don't get the full benefits of the full Barnett consequential for research and innovation. So, I'd be grateful to know how much of the £27 million COVID response payment you refer to has been used to support and retain postgraduate research students during this time, particularly as the number of overseas students who cross-subsidise some of that work will be lower this year? And, in particular, what, in practice, are they being given towards living costs and mental health support from this fund, and is this being replicated amongst undergraduates, who are obviously supposed to get support from this money as well?

Well, Llywydd, the employment of postgraduates is a matter for the universities, not for me. On the mental health point that the Member raises, of course, that is a very important part of what we need to attend to as young people come back to their studies, or begin their studies, here in Wales. We've provided £10 million, over and above the initial allocations provided to HEFCW, specifically for mental health and well-being amongst students. I'm very grateful to the National Union of Students for everything they are doing with us and with higher education institutions to make sure that that money is spent in the way that has the maximum impact upon the well-being and the mental well-being of those young people. I know that HEFCW is adding money to the £10 million that we have provided and that universities right across Wales will benefit from that fund. 

I'm sure the First Minister will agree with me that, for the medium-term future of our universities, it's vital that they get sufficient access to funding for research. Does the First Minister share my concerns that at no time during the whole of devolution, over the last 20 years, have our universities ever got what would have been their Barnett consequential from the research councils? And does the First Minister agree with me that it may be time to look at devolving that funding and that responsibility so that we can be making decisions here in Wales about what research we should be prioritising and how we can support our universities to further develop their research excellence?

Llywydd, I thank Helen Mary Jones for that. She's right, of course, to say that Welsh universities have not received a Barnett share of UK-wide research council income, and we are in continuous conversations with those research councils to make sure that applications from Welsh institutions are properly considered and are not overlooked in historic patterns of funding institutions elsewhere in the United Kingdom. I'm sure, as well, Llywydd, that Helen Mary Jones will agree with me that the loss of Horizon 2020 funding to Welsh universities is a particular threat to our research base here. Welsh universities, in contrast to their ability to draw down money from research councils, have punched far above their weight in getting Horizon 2020 money into Wales. We do far better than our population share there. The failure of the UK Government to guarantee that the United Kingdom and Welsh institutions will be able to go on participating in successor programmes to Horizon, and to be able to benefit from them in the way that we have, poses another threat to the research base of our higher education institutions.

First Minister, you've just picked on an area I was going to ask you about—Wales's European funding. Now, our universities have benefited from European funding—not just Horizon 2020, but other streams of European funding. What assurances have you had from the UK Government that any funding stream that universities would have benefited from for research—for example, the coal and steel research funding projects—will be actually reallocated to Welsh universities and not into a central pot and spread into other areas, so that our universities can still continue to benefit from the funding that would have been available under the European Union?

There's no guarantee of any sort, Llywydd. I bitterly regret the fact that the UK Government has refused to put inter-territorial co-operation programmes on the table for post-EU-membership funding. Our universities in Bangor, Aberystwyth, Swansea have benefited enormously from inter-territorial co-operation funding; over €100 million in that programme with southern Ireland. And that has been a real catalyst for really important research in the marine environment, in renewable energy—20 years' worth of investment between our higher education institutions and higher education institutions elsewhere that now will not be able to be taken forward. And we've made the case, Llywydd, repeatedly and repeatedly, and with other parts of the United Kingdom, that we should continue to be members of those co-operation programmes, and the UK Government has simply been deaf to all the arguments that have been made to them.

Caroline Jones. No, I'm sorry—

—question 2, Russell George.