Minister for Higher Education, Vikki Howells, said: “There wouldn’t be any additional Welsh government funding available, unless we were looking to cut back from other areas such as the NHS, education, or public services that we all rely on.
Prof Boyle from Universities Wales welcomed the increase in tuition fees by the government, but said: “We, as with many other organisations, saw significant increases in National Insurance, which have effectively wiped out that increase.”
Ms Howells added she was looking at reforming higher education funding with the UK government.
“We will be taking part in their work to look at how we can reform the higher education sector across the UK, so that we can look at issues such as migration, international students, competition law and crucially also HM Treasury rules, which govern student finance arrangements,” she said.
She said she had had a “positive” conversation with UK government higher education minister Baroness Jacqui Smith.
Professor Boyle said that while they are pleased the UK government was keen to review the overall funding system, “this will take time” and it was “not going to solve the financial issues that we are facing at the current time”.
