System 'broken' and students should pay more, says former Universities Wales boss

Professor Elizabeth Treasure is the former head of Universities Wales. Credit: Sharp End

The former head of Universities Wales has called for an increase in tuition fees and labelled the current funding system “broken.”

Professor Elizabeth Treasure recently retired as Vice-Chancellor of Aberystwyth University, and was also chair of Universities Wales, the organisation which represents all Welsh universities.

Higher education has endured many difficulties over recent years due to tightening budgets, with staff striking and students complaining over a perceived lack of value for money.

Professor Treasure accused the UK Government of failing to make up for the loss of EU funding due to Brexit. Credit: PA Images

The Welsh Government has suggested it could raise tuition fees from £9,000 to £9,250, bringing it in line with England. In an interview with ITV Wales’s Sharp End programme, Professor Treasure backed the idea but added the government should also directly fund universities.

She said: “In the medium to longer term I think the system’s broken. I don’t think this system of the students paying the amount of fees they are doing is working, against a background of an economy that isn’t growing. The system was designed for where the economy grew and students would be able to pay the loan more easily.

“I think society gets a benefit from graduates and I think obviously individuals do because if you’re a graduate you earn more and get a better job. So I think it’s fair that graduates pay something towards it but I also think it’s fair that society does.

"And I think over the next two to three years we’re going to have to look at how we fund universities and I don’t think there’s an easy answer.”

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Professor Treasure also accused the UK Government of failing to make up for the loss of EU funding due to Brexit.

She said: “We’ve seen jobs lost in research and in development. The replacement EU funding that the Westminster government is talking about is just not coming to Wales in the same amounts. It used to go straight from Brussels to Cardiff and was then distributed onto the regeneration areas. 

“We’re just not getting it in the same amount, and those promises are being broken in Westminster and that’s resulting in jobs being lost in Wales.

The Welsh Government has suggested it could raise tuition fees from £9,000 to £9,250 - a move Professor Treasure said she would support. Credit: PA Images

“We need to see the amount of money that Wales is really entitled to. The Barnett Formula is not working and we’re just not getting the same amount of money as we would have done if we’d remained in the European Union.”

Professor Treasure passionately defended the value of universities to the Welsh economy and to the people of Wales.

“There’s a story being spun that there are too many people going to university. Well, why are we saying that? Surely everyone who’s capable of going to university should be able to develop as far as they can to get the skills they need?”

She added: “You look at the smaller universities. They are still turning over more than a million pounds. We’re still employing a lot of people.

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“We know the jobs of the future are going to be graduate level jobs. So whether you do a degree straight out of school or come back to it later, it’s those levels of skills that are going to get you the best jobs.

“If we don’t give everyone who has the ability to go to university that opportunity we’re probably going to have to pull people in from elsewhere.”