Welsh parties ‘lack plan’ for universities despite pledges

The leading Welsh parties’ manifestos fall short of addressing the challenges faced by universities as election campaigning enters the final straight, policy experts have suggested. 

Candidates are fighting for votes in the upcoming Senedd election on 7 May, which, polls suggest, could result in historic losses for Labour and the Conservatives and significant gains by Plaid Cymru and Reform. 

Single-party governments are uncommon in Wales owing to the country’s voting system and the election is likely to see parties forced to form a formal or informal coalition.

However, with the major parties pulling in different directions on higher education policy, this could mean uncertainty for universities already suffering from severe financial challenges. 

If elected, Plaid Cymru has pledged to commission a sector-wide review of higher education and how it is funded, aiming to build “cross-party consensus on a sustainable way forward for our universities”.

“I think that everything should be reviewed periodically and it’s 10 years since the Diamond Review [of Welsh higher education funding], so it’s definitely something to do,” said Huw Morris, honorary professor of tertiary education at UCL. 

This review, named after chair Ian Diamond, lasted for two and a half years and saw Wales’ existing student support funding replaced with more generous means-tested maintenance grants. 

“The problem is that, whereas in 2014, you could do a review with the prospect that people would come out with more money and the students and the universities came out with more money, you can’t really do that with the next review,” said Morris, a former higher education and skills director in the Welsh government. “The next review is going to mean that somebody is going to lose.”

Plaid has also pledged to ensure that more of the money that the government spends on higher education remains in Wales. 

“We want to encourage more of our young talent to stay in or return to Wales, as well as attracting more people to come to Wales to study and work,” the manifesto, published last week, says. It adds that the party will reform the Seren scheme, which provides funding for students to study at top universities across the UK. 

Not only is it unclear if other parties would support these plans, Dewi Knight, director of the Open University’s PolicyWISE thinktank, suggested reforming loans and grants to favour students remaining in Wales would require complex negotiations with Westminster. 

“It’s going to affect the loan book in some way that could use up a lot of political capital, a lot of time, so if that comes after a review, then you’re even further away from making the changes [Plaid] might want to make,” he said. 

He added that there was previously a system where students staying in Wales qualified for more generous funding but it “got changed because it wasn’t popular with students and families”. 

Knight, a former adviser on education in the Welsh government, added that he believes the future Welsh leaders should prioritise working with the other UK governments, given the common difficulties that British universities are facing. 

“We’re all facing similar challenges from different starting points,” he said. “Plaid have said in the manifesto they do want cooperative and productive relationships with the other governments and the UK government. Higher education could be an exemplar of taking that approach.”

Reform, currently polling second behind Plaid, has also pledged to put Welsh universities on a “sustainable financial footing”. 

The tone of the manifesto’s promises to the sector marks a significant divergence from the national party’s often hostile stance towards universities.  

Knight said it was “good to see” Reform “recognise the cultural, societal and economic value of institutions”.

“I don’t get the impression that they see universities as being almost enemies within a culture war, which is perhaps where they have been more historically in England,” he said. 

But analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies has suggested the party’s promises have not “fully faced up to the fiscal realities facing the next Welsh government”. 

“Whatever the vision is of any of these parties, they’re going to realise that these institutions are in a financial pickle,” said Morris. “So what’s the plan? You can advance cash to institutions in difficulty, but they need to change what they’re doing.”

helen.packer@timeshighereducation.com