Reform promises Welsh universities sustainable funding model

Reform UK has pledged to put Welsh universities on a “sustainable financial footing” and achieve parity with English funding levels if victorious in the upcoming Senedd election. 

Noting that both the higher and further education sectors are “in crisis”, the right-wing party said it would support a sustainable funding model for Welsh universities, although it stopped short of explaining how it would achieve this. 

In its manifesto, released on 5 March, the party said universities must “not be structurally disadvantaged compared with England” and that fee levels “should remain aligned for the foreseeable future”. 

In 2024, London Economics found that Welsh universities receive 9 per cent less funding per full-time domestic student than their English counterparts. 

Reform also promised to review the capital funding needs of universities “to ensure modern teaching, research and digital infrastructure can be maintained”. 

It comes as Welsh institutions experienced a combined shortfall of £94 million last year, despite the government stepping in with £19 million of extra funding. 

University leaders have called for a funding review – something that Reform’s main electoral rival in Wales, Plaid Cymru, has already promised to do. 

Despite Reform’s often adversarial approach to higher education, the right-wing party was broadly positive about Welsh universities in its manifesto. 

The document says universities “educate a highly skilled workforce, support regional economies, engage with business, attract international talent, and carry out research that addresses major economic and societal challenges”. 

The party also promised to recognise universities as “central to Wales’s economic future”.

However, it said too many university courses represent “poor value for money”, although it did not detail how it would change this. 

Reform also said it would “defend” free speech and academic freedom, including “legislating for a statutory tort against providers that don’t defend free speech”.

The free speech laws that came into force for English universities last year do not currently apply to Welsh institutions. 

It follows a spat between the party and students at Bangor University in February, after a student group declined an offer from Reform officials to speak at the university. 

In response, the party’s deputy leader Richard Tice suggested the university’s government funding and students’ access to loans should be removed “if Bangor…does not believe in free speech”.

Critics have since pointed out that declining an offer to speak is not the same as actively suppressing free speech. 

In the manifesto, the party writes: “Institutions that curtail open debate will not be rewarded with public funding”. 

The Welsh Conservatives, who were polling fourth in February, also released their manifesto earlier this week. 

In it, they pledged to work with the UK government to cut excessive interest rates on student debt and reduce public funding for degree courses with poorer job prospects. 

They also said they would pilot a £1,000 tuition fee discount for students studying STEM subjects and work with Welsh universities to introduce intensive degrees that can be completed over two years. 

Plaid Cymru, the current electoral frontrunner alongside Reform, has yet to release its manifesto, but has pledged to commission a cross-party review of university funding within its first 100 days in government. 

helen.packer@timeshighereducation.com