It's true to say, as the Minister said, that this area has been one that has been politically contentious and complex over the years, and now that I'm finishing my elected office, I would like to reminisce and say this is how I started, by being student president at Aberystwyth University and campaigning against the introduction of any fees here in Wales, notwithstanding top-up fees that were eventually introduced sadly by the Labour Government, and that has meant the slippery slope towards more marketisation in higher education institutions whether we like it or not. In an ideal world, I'd like to see universality again, I'd like to see students not having to pay for their education, but the reality is we are where we are and I do believe, Minister, that you have gone further than many other Ministers in making sure that we can look at how students are supported, their living costs, and taking children out of poverty, and I will say that, from my perspective, I would like to congratulate you on that, and to say it will be for other people in future years to take on the mantle to carry this on when we have both gone to other places, should I say.

We've also supported many of the changes in the Diamond reforms, and I think it's important to say that it had quite a lot of cross-party support, especially with regard to part-time learning and flexible learning. I'd like to see that developed post pandemic, because it's a decision people want to make, and I think it's clear that people want to do that and they want to be able to be as flexible as they possibly can with life changes or family situations as they are at the moment.

But I'd like to focus on a few key areas, if that's okay. You told me in an education question response in 2019 that university recruitment was not a question for you, yet we have a situation where almost half of new Welsh undergraduates leave our country every year, and I simply don't think that that's acceptable, and we would like to be able to reverse that. I do recognise that you've done that, and you're working towards doing that with postgraduate study, but when we are seeing so many young people leave Wales, I would want to be trying to look at alternatives to at least try and encourage them back, potentially through postgraduate study, but also to think about staying in Wales in the first place, and I genuinely believe that a Government should have more leadership in this regard and not leave it  to the higher education institutions to do that. We want to see a Government take major steps forward. Yes, people will have their own choice of where to go, but if we want to develop our economy, if we want to develop the communities around our HE sector, academics and those in higher education institutions tell me that it's necessary for students to feel that they want to study more so here in Wales, so that whole community network can be progressed here in Wales. So, I'd like to hear your opinion. I think it probably will differ from mine, but we are where we are.

On the resilience of the HE sector, we can't ignore some of the issues that have arisen or come to light in relation to COVID. The fact is that many Welsh universities are struggling financially, and it's not just regarding COVID. Many institutions are struggling to compete in a heavily marketised HE environment. Three of the 21 UK universities identified as most at risk of insolvency are in Wales. So, when we're talking about resilience, what more can we do to ensure that universities here in Wales are protected into the future?

And my final point is that I agree that much has been done to change the outlook in higher education, but we have seen cuts to further education and, of course, many HE courses are delivered in a further education environment. So, I would like to hear your opinion as to how we can try and reverse that decline in the future, albeit I understand that you came to an agreement with Plaid Cymru for additional money in the last budget. But I think further education has been somewhat forgotten sometimes in the debate around these issues, and I would like to see more emphasis on that. But, thank you for all your hard work in this area.