Shadow Education Minister Angela Burns AM today responded to the publication of a report by the Wales Audit Office into the Welsh Labour Government’s tuition fee subsidy, which concludes:
- The Cabinet was not given access to the full financial modelling prior to agreeing the policy
- Costs of subsidising students between 2012-13 and 2016-17 are ‘substantially higher’ than predicted
- Analysis of uncertain variables such as student numbers and cross-border flows was ‘insufficient’
- The resulting cap on student numbers could deny Welsh-domiciled students the chance to study in Wales
Angela Burns said:
“This report is a scathing assessment of Labour’s knee-jerk policymaking, where a supposedly flagship policy was cobbled together for cynical party political reasons ahead of the Assembly elections.
“It is shocking that the full impact of such a massive financial commitment was kept secret from Cabinet Ministers who were simply expected to rubber stamp a £3.6billion package of student subsidies.
“The Cabinet Ministers who were kept in the dark about this policy should be asking serious questions about the judgement and competence of their colleagues.
“This report lays bare the arrogant and careless attitude of Carwyn Jones and Labour Ministers to spending billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money as well as their reckless disregard for sound financial evidence.
“The handling of this botched policy is a prime example of Labour’s complete inability to effectively manage taxpayers’ money and develop policy in a detailed and considered manner.
“Costs were grossly under-estimated and based on wildly unreliable variables, the policy continues to siphon off tens of millions of pounds to English universities and as the report clearly states, the cap on student numbers could deny Welsh-domiciled students the chance to study at Welsh universities.
“Labour’s tuition fee subsidy has completely failed to widen access to higher education, has starved Welsh universities of vital funding and has made it more difficult for our higher education sector to compete in the global race.
“Labour Ministers have now cynically tried to take the heat out of this report by rushing out their announcement of a review into HE funding, albeit with no terms of reference or detail and purely simple-minded responses to key questions.
“We hope Labour Ministers will study the detailed recommendations of this report, learn the lessons of their sloppy, rushed policymaking and change the timetable of their drawn-out review of HE funding to permit a public debate ahead of the 2016 election.”
