Part of 4. Questions to the Minister for Education and Welsh Language – in the Senedd at 4:28 pm on 14 March 2023.
Well, I thank Joyce Watson for that important supplementary, and I recognise there's a particular challenge sometimes, as she was saying, for people going back to education perhaps later on in life. I know that she shares my pride in the fact that we are committed to making sure that, whether you're studying full time or part time, you have access to the same support pro rata, which I think has meant that many more students have been able to study part time and manage to balance the competing demands that she referred to in her question. I am in ongoing discussion with the sector to make sure that all options to support students impacted by the cost-of-living crisis are considered. I met on the weekend with the president of the NUS in Wales to discuss some further concerns that they were raising with me.
Joyce Watson will know that in addition to having the most supportive student finance regime in any part of the UK, perhaps a less well known aspect of that is that we make provision to cancel up to £1,500 of maintenance loan debt for each undergraduate student, so we always look at finding the most supportive and progressive way of spending the funding that we have. She will also know about the funding that we made available through the Higher Education Funding Council Wales to higher education institutions to fund some of the well-being pressures that have arisen in the context of the cost-of-living pressures. But we will continue to work with the sector to do all that we can together.