8. What action is the Welsh Government taking to close the gender gap among higher education students? OQ58490

Llywydd, while headline data reveals a gender gap, these mask a more complex position at a subject level. This Government's commitment is to ensure that every person in Wales has high aspirations and a fair and equal opportunity to reach their fullest potential, through providing a series of different and accessible pathways to learning.

First Minister, recently, a report was released in the House of Commons library showing that white, working-class males are least likely to attend university within the UK. After some digging into Welsh figures, I found that the figures show that Wales's gender divide in this regard, on average, is worse than both the UK and English averages. And, within this divide, white students face the largest gender disparity in attending university, both in Wales and the whole of the UK. Wales's gender disparity is 6 per cent wider than the national average. First Minister, more students are winning university places in every demographic in the UK except for white males, which has decreased by 10 per cent in the last eight years. It is now imperative that we shed some light on this issue and look into the root causes of why one particular group of people in society are getting left behind. We cannot and should not consign a generation of white, working-class young men to the dustbin of history in the name of diversity, or anything else, quite frankly. So, First Minister, what is your Government doing to ensure that this inequality isn't exacerbated in the coming years, and will you agree to setting up an investigation into the root causes of this crisis?

The Deputy Presiding Officer (David Rees) took the Chair.

Well, Llywydd, I deprecate the Member's willingness to turn every single issue, no matter how serious, into a form of culture war. There really is no need whatsoever to do that; it's a serious issue—it deserved a better question than you managed to provide this afternoon. And, as I said, behind the headlines of these figures is a great deal more complexity than the Member was prepared to admit. There are a whole series of subjects where young men, including young, white men, exceed the number of women studying those subjects at universities. She didn't manage to mention that. The Conservative Party this afternoon, Llywydd, is certainly not in a listening mood, is it? It thinks that the way to cover over their deep embarrassments is just to keep talking, despite the answers that are being provided to them. I'm trying to explain—[Interruption.]

It is important that we all hear the First Minister's answers, and I would like to hear them as well, please.

I'm trying to explain to the Member that the issue that she's identified is a proper one; it deserves proper consideration and to not try to turn it into some form of foolish culture war. Because, underneath the headline, the picture is a good deal more complex than she suggested. Some subjects have more men studying them, some subjects have more women studying them; it depends what you count in as an undergraduate degree before you reach the percentages, and that's not the same in different parts of the United Kingdom. So, her comparisons between different places don't stand up once you begin to look at it, and it doesn't take into account other opportunities that people have in different parts of the United Kingdom. Our degree apprenticeship programme will not be counted in the figures that the Member has suggested this afternoon, and yet, we have succeeded there in attracting people from disadvantaged communities to study through the apprenticeship route that simply isn't available in other parts of the country. I agree with her that this is a serious matter that deserves serious consideration, but serious consideration does not mean reducing it to the sloganising that she offered us this afternoon.

I thank the First Minister.