AN ASSEMBLY MEMBER’S VIEW
IT’S summer and that Alice Cooper classic is every teacher’s earworm.
I’m wondering whether School’s Out will find a place in the humanities AOLE in the new curriculum as it’s 47 years since it first topped our charts. Given the place that the US seems to occupy in the current history syllabus, I wouldn’t be surprised.
With August round the corner, many young people and mature students will be starting to think about exam results and higher education. On current trends, a significant minority of them will be thinking of studying outside Wales when the traffic isn’t coming the other way to the same extent.
This isn’t the only challenge our higher education institutions are facing.
The university sector in Wales is diverse, inclusive and scores very highly on student satisfaction. However, it is part of a very competitive environment at a time when the number of young people, of traditional HE age, is very low. Some of the incentives being offered to students, by universities across the UK, should now be raising eyebrows; the most talented getting unconditional offers – as long as they put that university top of their UCAS choices; those with the poorest qualifications being lured into debt to follow courses which may not suit them.
What is perceived as the traditional university offer is not for everyone and Welsh universities have been changing to diversify that offer to be more relevant as well as remaining excellent.
Wales has an older and less wellqualified population than the UK on the whole, and degree apprenticeships offer a way for people of all ages to upskill while they are working.
When almost 90% of employers think this is a way to attract higher calibre trainees better equipped for the future, you can see why such apprenticeships are in high demand.
There are over 70 degree apprenticeship standards good to go in England. In Wales this is restricted to a handful of ICT options. There is a large appetite among individuals and employers – and universities – for more of these programmes in other subjects too.
With the apprenticeship levy restricted to priority sectors, and only a dim glow of the Welsh Government green light for degree apprenticeships, carving out this new territory looks like being harder for universities here than elsewhere. And that is a shame when you consider the number of innovative graduate start-ups emerging from our HEIs. We could be talking with much more confidence to our homegrown school and college leavers about the opportunities of degree apprenticeships if only we could offer more of them.
A university’s reputation for research can be a deciding factor in where someone chooses to go. In the most recent Research Excellence Framework exercise, Wales had the highest proportion of world-leading research in terms of its impact in the UK. That’s a stat to be proud of.
However, there is also a correlation between the amount of Government investment in quality-related research funding and the amount that UK-wide research funding that universities are able to secure.
Professor Reid points out that in 2015/16 QR funding in Wales amounted to 3.9% of the UK’s total QR funding, and Wales secured 3.6% of Research Council income. On the other hand, Scotland’s QR funding amounted to 13.7% of the UK’s QR funding and Scotland secured 14.7% of Research Council funding.
Bearing in mind that Welsh universities might be working in partnership with others across the border, and the impact of our world-leading research, how can Welsh Government help Welsh universities get more of that UK pot? And persuade some of that 40% of students who go to England that it’s Wales that’s the go-to place for quality study.
■ Suzy Davies is the Assembly Member for South Wales West