Bethan Jenkins AC/AM Blog

Bethan Jenkins:

Thank you for the statement on progress on this issue. I would like to reiterate that I have concerns about this policy, given that a large cohort of students will no longer receive any support in Wales due to the fee grant being changed in this manner. I thought that we had a Wales-based policy that would help any students facing financial barriers, but that does not seem to be the case today. I welcome that Welsh students will have an enhanced Assembly learning grant and a higher rate of it, but can the Minister tell me how much more students will benefit financially under this new system than they did under the old one?

Will the new system cover courses that are not available in Wales, such as dental technician courses? I have a constituent who is one among three students on a dental technician course in England, but he cannot get any financial support from Wales to sustain him through his studies.

I believe that there is concern from NUS Wales, as has been mentioned earlier, about the future of the national bursary scheme and whether it will be scrapped or appears to be scrapped under this new arrangement. As I understand it, the NUS agreed to this change based on there being a national bursary framework, so will you clarify once again what this new arrangement will mean for the bursary structure? If HEIs still choose to offer bursaries, it could mean that the present postcode lottery continues.

The top-up of the ALG is not a bursary system and could introduce a more complex system, which no-one in this Chamber, or in Wales, wants. I would also like to reiterate the questions about the top-slicing of HEFCW’s budget. Can you give us assurances that moneys will be ring-fenced for widening access within those bursary criteria? Will HEFCW have a role in monitoring those criteria so that we can ensure that the money is given to the students who need the support the most?

I would also like to ask about progress on the student recruitment grant, because I would have thought that it would have been strategically pertinent to discuss that scheme today alongside the bursary scheme. As I understand it, there is little detail on that. I know that there may be some problems with EU law with regard to administering that particular initiative, but I would have liked to have seen that discussed today, as well as progress in relation to part-time students.

I would also like to ask about the effect of the Browne review, which is currently happening under the UK Government. If Cardiff, as part of the Russell Group, decides to raise fees after 2011, will any additional bursaries be available to students, and how will the Welsh Government adapt plans to any new announcements on a UK level, as they will obviously affect Wales?

Can you finally answer my question on when, or if, regulations on this policy will come to the National Assembly, because it is important that Assembly Members are able to vote on this issue?

Leighton Andrews: What we are doing here today is fulfilling the commitment given by my predecessor to publish plans for a national bursary scheme in spring 2010. This is virtually the last week of spring 2010, so at least we have managed to achieve that commitment, which is what I wanted to ensure.

This is a bursary scheme, and we have found a simple way of administering it by integrating it with the Assembly learning grant. We are not changing the principles set out in announcements by my predecessor, other than to pay the sister scheme in this way. This is a Wales-based policy, which means that, dependent on income, students will be eligible for up to £600 on top of the Assembly learning grant. Bethan asked whether it will be available to students who are pursuing courses that are not available in Wales, such as dentistry. As I said in the statement, all students who are eligible for the Assembly learning grant or the special support grant will receive an increased level of award wherever they study in the UK.

Much as I would like to have a slightly more dirigiste higher education system than we have in Wales, we cannot stop or control higher education institutions from offering bursaries They may choose to do that. What we can try to do, working with the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, is to ensure that they are focused on the key elements of our agenda, including support for STEM subjects, widening access and so on. That is clearly our objective, and we will work towards it.

I am not in a position to make a statement on the issue of the graduate recruitment grant that Bethan referred to. There are difficult legal issues that we have been trying to resolve, which is why I have not been able to bring anything here today on that subject. Those legal issues are not simple—if they were, we would have brought proposals forward to you today.

We made our submission to the Browne review some weeks ago. The new Government is now taking that discussion forward and I will be looking to have conversations with the Minister for higher education in the new UK Government about that. The Browne review focuses on the situation in England, but it will have implications for us. I note that the Scots have a different approach to the question.

There is a series of issues that we have still to resolve, some of them currently unknown to us because the Browne review has not concluded, although we see a lot of lobbying by higher education institutions. As I said, when I bring forward the regulations on the Assembly learning grant, a discussion on the bursary scheme will be incorporated.