Students Still Receiving Value for Money

According to the chief executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW), university students in Wales are still getting good value for money, despite having to study remotely.

Dr David Blaney argued the learning experience during the pandemic had held up well even though most students in Wales are still learning online.

During an evidentiary hearing to the Senedd's Education Committee, Dr Blaney said: "What students are paying for is the learning opportunities and the assessment, and I think the universities have worked exceptionally hard to make sure that they are as high a quality as is possible given the kind of legal constraints that apply during Covid."

"The course and tuition fee pays for the learning opportunity, and at a systemic level...it looks like the view of students is that the learning experience has been pretty good actually, it's held up pretty well."

"I think in terms of the specific quality of the tuition and the learning opportunities that they're getting, I think they probably are getting good value for money."

However, it was acknowledged that students were not getting the full student experience they would have expected prior to the pandemic.

Commenting on the finances of the sector, HEFCW's deputy chief executive Bethan Owen said they were not expecting imminent financial issues, subject to most of the restrictions being eased by the start of the next academic year.