Vikki Howells, Minister for Further and Higher Education
Today the First Minister and I met with the Vice Chancellors from every Welsh university to continue our dialogue around our programme of higher education reform. Reform is essential for the future financial health of our sector, for the learners studying at our institutions, and for our future economic growth.
As I previously updated, we have already started to transform the tertiary education system in Wales and I want to set out more details on how the Welsh Government, Medr, and the sector will work together to achieve longer-term sustainability.
Today, with the Vice Chancellors and Medr, we have identified a number of priority areas of work to be taken forward.
Enabling greater collaboration in the sector is imperative to ensure there is appropriate provision across Wales and to inform institutional planning of teaching and research. I have asked Medr to lead on this by overviewing subject demand and provision in Wales. This will enable us to consider where and if policy interventions might be necessary to safeguard provision of strategic importance. Welsh Government will also consider whether funding provided to support strategic priority provision is sufficient to for long-term sustainability and growth.
We have been successful in Wales in significantly expanding part-time higher education, particularly through the Open University in Wales. I want to ensure this remains sustainable, so I will be exploring an increase in the part-time fee loan to ensure that universities can continue to deliver sustainably and learners can continue to access part-time opportunities. We want to attract more people back into learning, delivering higher level skills and improving our public services. I will make a further announcement when this work is complete.
I also want to set out the areas I will prioritise in working with UK Government on their plans for higher education reform. I will be seeking clarity from the UK Government on fees policy across the current UK parliamentary term, so that we can give universities more certainty in their financial planning. I also want more clarity on the details of HM Treasury’s rules on our student loans budget, so that we can much better plan for broader policy on student support. I will also explore options for the future of shared prosperity and research funding, to address the significant deficit we are now facing in Wales following the end of EU structural funding. I will also be communicating the views of the Welsh sector on the future of the graduate visa.
Medr will be publishing its first Strategic Plan next week, setting out more detail on how it will drive reform through the tertiary education and research sector. Medr is already developing a new regulatory system for tertiary education and will start consultation on this in April. The system will be in place next year and will be underpinned by a higher education register with associated conditions. These conditions will include a range of requirements in relation to financial sustainability, governance and management, quality, equality of opportunity, staff and student welfare and learner engagement.
I intend to commence Medr’s duties in relation to the development of their funding policy statement in April. This is the first step in developing a system of funding to support the tertiary education sector whilst ensuring we are maximising every pound in our tertiary education system and targeting the right outcomes.
As well as my meeting with Vice Chancellors, I am continuing to meet regularly with the trade unions whose members are affected by the uncertainty in the sector, to hear directly from them. Throughout this period, I have continually stressed the need to work in social partnership. I continue to expect that universities will work closely with trade unions, staff, and student representatives and explore alternative options fully before considering compulsory redundancies.
Our universities are crucial to our ambitions for improving public services, growing the economy, and enabling the wellbeing of future generations. While there are no easy fixes to the challenges the sector is currently facing, I am committed to continuing our programme of reform in partnership with others to ensure that our universities can continue to deliver the education and economic growth we need in Wales.
To that end, I will be meeting all Vice Chancellors with Medr regularly through a series of round tables to help us maintain momentum on the reform programme and make progress against key actions. I will continue to keep Members updated.