‘Cutting Welsh university funding would be economic vandalism, not reform’

I have spent more than 15 years working in higher education in Wales. I served as an elected student officer -representing students nationally; I worked alongside staff trade unions; and now I sit as a corporate governor of a further education college. I offer this contribution in the spirit LabourList exists for: honest, evidence-led debate that helps Labour win elections and govern well.

Recent comments from Reform UK about cutting funding to Welsh universities should not be dismissed as fringe noise. They should be challenged head-on, because they expose a fundamental misunderstanding of how Wales’s economy and communities function.

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Higher education in Wales is not peripheral. Universities and colleges support more than 130,000 jobs and contribute over £10 billion a year to the Welsh economy. They underpin NHS workforce supply, regional development, research, innovation, and social mobility. Any political project that proposes cutting this infrastructure is not offering reform. It is proposing managed decline.

Labour understands this because we have seen the consequences of ideological experiments before. Fifteen years ago, the Conservative Liberal Democrat coalition in Westminster tripled tuition fees in England from around £3,000 to £9,000 while cutting direct public investment. Universities were pushed into a marketised model, students were treated as customers, and long-term instability was built into the system.

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Wales chose a different path. Under Welsh Labour leadership, the Welsh Government Tuition Fee Grant protected students, access was maintained, and higher education was treated as a public good rather than a cash cow. That approach was developed in partnership with NUS Wales, UCU and other trade unions, and it reflected Labour values in practice – not just rhetoric.

Brexit compounded the damage already done to the UK-wide sector. Erasmus was scrapped, EU students lost home-fee status, research collaboration suffered, and knowledge exchange stalled. Neither the NHS nor education received the investment that had been promised.

Once again, Welsh Labour responded responsibly. International exchange was retained in a different form. Research capacity and skills pipelines were supported. When universities faced genuine financial risk in 2023 and 2024, undergraduate fees were aligned with England at the request of Vice Chancellors and Universities Wales, explicitly to protect jobs, institutions, and regional economies. That was not an ideological choice. It was pragmatic leadership in the public interest.

This is where Labour must be clear in its political argument. Cutting university funding would not save money. It would weaken NHS recruitment, hollow out regional economies, accelerate brain drain, and hit working-class communities hardest. It would undermine further education to higher education pathways and damage Wales’s long-term growth prospects.

Reform UK offers slogans, not solutions. Loud rhetoric without delivery. Labour cannot afford to let that go unchallenged, particularly in communities where universities and colleges are among the largest employers and anchors of local prosperity.

LabourList readers know that governing is about trade-offs, competence, and responsibility. Defending higher education is not about protecting institutions for their own sake. It is about protecting jobs, skills, research, and the future capacity of the Welsh state.

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After 15 years in this sector, my conclusion is straightforward. A Labour movement serious about growth, fairness, and strong public services must stand firmly behind education. Retreating from that would repeat the mistakes of the past and hand our opponents an opening they do not deserve.

Labour does not win by oversimplifying complex challenges. It wins by showing experience, seriousness, and a clear understanding of how communities actually work. On higher education, that is a fight Labour should be confident to make.

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