Retaining Welsh students key to saving universities, says Plaid

Cefin Campbell’s first job after graduating was teaching adult learners at the University of Swansea. It was the 1980s and steelworks and mines were closing across Wales, creating mass unemployment and widespread discontent. 

There was a lot of “despair, in terms of the future of Wales”, Campbell said. The university’s programmes helped people to reskill and find new jobs, he continued. 

“I’ve had a passion for adult education ever since because it was an opportunity for me to see how education impacts directly on people’s lives, especially those returning to learning at a later stage in their life.”

Today, as a member of the Welsh parliament and education spokesperson for Plaid Cymru, Campbell has his sights set on transformation through education on a much larger scale.

Since Plaid defeated the Welsh Labour party in the Caerphilly parliamentary by-election last October, the party’s prospects have looked bright. Opinion polling by YouGov in January suggested Plaid is on course to win the upcoming parliamentary elections in May, potentially ousting the incumbent Labour party and pipping Reform UK to power.

If they do form a government, Plaid’s leaders will inherit a difficult financial situation with little cash to spare. Despite this, the party has pledged to tackle the funding crisis gripping Welsh universities, which recorded a £70 million combined shortfall in 2023-24. 

Speaking to Times Higher Education, Campbell said, if elected, the party would launch a review of higher education in Wales focused on funding and governance.  

This review will ask what the purpose of universities is, how they can contribute to the “regeneration” of Wales and how education can be developed to match the nations’ future skills needs, he said. 

A key aspect of Plaid’s strategy to save higher education is increasing student numbers at Welsh universities. In 2022-23, 41 per cent of full-time undergraduates from Wales studied in England, with some encouraged by the Seren programme – an initiative that funds Welsh students to study at top institutions including the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.  

“What we’d like to see is more learners from Wales staying in Wales and contributing to the economy in Wales, improving public services, being the entrepreneurs of the future,” Campbell said.

Plaid has said it will review Seren “to better align it [with] opportunities offered” by Welsh universities, and Campbell suggested that some of the funding could instead be spent enticing Welsh graduates who have moved to England back home.

For centuries, he said, young people in Wales have been told “that if you want to get on in the world, you need to go to England to study and to work”. 

“Now we need to change that narrative and encourage young people to think that their destination is here in Wales where we can support them with good jobs.”

With participation rates in higher education also dropping in Wales – worse than anywhere else in the UK – the story around university study needs to change, he said, adding that the party plans to undertake a “skills audit” to show young people which courses align with the country’s needs.

“Universities need to play their part as well,” he said, particularly when it comes to improving access for people from disadvantaged communities. “We need universities to go out into schools to break down those barriers.”

Unlike some, Plaid’s nationalist approach to higher education is not at odds with internationalisation. 

“It’s a shame that the visa changes by both UK governments have meant that we’ve now got fewer overseas students coming into the UK,” Campbell said.

“That’s had a massive impact on the finances of every university here in Wales, but also it has a wider impact as well because a lot of these overseas graduates decide to stay in Wales. 

“They become our doctors, our scientists; they become our researchers and so on, and they contribute massively to the growth of our economy here.”

Asked whether Plaid would introduce the international student levy set to be applied to English universities from 2028, Campbell said there were currently no plans to do so. 

Ultimately, Plaid’s manifesto says it aims “to make university education free again for all”. 

Campbell is pragmatic about this goal. “We know that will take time. We, at the moment, need to look at ways of supporting students better. 

“On the one hand, universities want the tuition fees they get from students, but the higher the tuition fees are, the greater debt students will carry throughout much of their adult life. 

“We need to get that balance right, but, at the moment, we are trying to look at ways of improving the way we use public funding to support students.

“The long-term goal is to abolish tuition fees, but first of all, we must fix the funding crisis in our universities.”

helen.packer@timeshighereducation.com