Welsh Liberal Democrats Debate: Investment in Further and Higher Education

Speech by Peter Black delivered to Plenary on Wed 3rd Feb 2010

Peter Black: I thank Paul for his support for the motion. The Welsh Liberal Democrats are starting this debate from a position of strength in many ways, because, when the Assembly's budget came before us last year, we tabled amendments that demonstrated how we would pay for what we are proposing in this motion. We believe that the higher and further education sectors are crucial for the economic recovery of this country and for upskilling the workforce and getting people back to work as we come out of the recession. Without the necessary investment in those sectors, we will not be in a position to do that. We have tabled this motion today in the hope of highlighting once more the importance that we attach to this sector.

The Assembly Government spends approximately 16 per cent per head more on health services than England, and yet it invests 15 per cent less in each student undertaking university education in Wales. On the face of it, universities do not appear to be doing so badly: their 2008 accounts show that they made an operating surplus of £43.3 million. However, the reality is that, if the cost of capital and infrastructure are taken into account, which are crucial to the student experience and to delivering the research and development that we expect of our university sector, the sector actually recorded a deficit of £46 million.

The Push Student Debt survey, released in August 2009, shows that students in Wales are graduating with an average debt of more than £12,000. Worryingly, the report also revealed that debt is creeping up year on year, with undergraduates coming to the end of their first year of study expecting to owe £21,200 by the time they leave, compared with the £13,874 owed by those about to complete their third year of study. Compare this with Scottish students, who average only £2,194 of debt per year of study, and the previously mentioned university funding gap becomes more and more obvious with regard to what we expect of our students and the burden that we place on them as they go through their education. That is another reason why we believe that we need to deal with the issue of fees, particularly in order to help students to complete their studies and stay in Wales to deliver on them.

In his response to the Finance Committee's report on education, the then Minister for Finance and Public Service Delivery stated that these efficiencies are about

'delivering more from existing budgets-not reductions to budgets'.

Although I am happy that the Government is encouraging efficiency-I wish that it would do the same in the health sector-it is doing just what the Minister suggested it was not: reducing the budget, or the amount of money that colleges have to spend.

The situation for further education colleges is equally difficult. Having already applied efficiencies wherever it can, the sector has been forced to shed around 375 jobs as a result of the 2009-10 settlement. There have been 249 voluntary redundancies, 59 compulsory redundancies and 67 jobs have not been replaced. At the same time, demand for courses in September and October 2009 grew significantly, with an increase of 6.9 per cent in full-time courses. These colleges are the engine room where we are building our economy by building the skills that we need for the future. People want to go on these courses; they want to acquire the skills; they want the education; they want the training. If we do not fund that properly, we will not achieve that recovery.

Call it what you will, but if you force a sector to cut back by 5 per cent, you are cutting its funding in real terms, as has previously been admitted by Ministers. The Welsh Liberal Democrats are urging the Government to look again at the budget it has provided for further and higher education. We should be investing in those sectors if we are to achieve a recovery. We want to see the funding that is going into other parts of the budget restored to the further and higher education sector budgets. I urge the Government to take note of the debate today and to start to address some of the damage that has been done over the past few years.