Covid: Students 'getting value for money' during pandemic

Students were not receiving the experience they expected, HEFCW's chief executive acknowledged

University students in Wales are still "getting good value for money" despite having to study remotely, according to the sector's funding organisation.

Dr David Blaney, chief executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW), said the "learning experience" in the pandemic "held up pretty well".

The vast majority of students across Wales are still learning online.

However some practical courses have resumed face-to-face tuition.

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Giving evidence to the Senedd's Education Committee on Thursday, 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."

Dr Blaney acknowledged students were "clearly not getting" the same overall experience they would have expected in person, as they were not able to engage in extracurricular activities.

However he explained: "Most of those extracurricular things: engagement in societies, sport and so on are extra to the fees as well - they pay extra for those."

Many students have been calling for tuition fee rebates, as well as rent refunds

HEFCW's deputy chief executive Bethan Owen told the committee that the higher education sector was facing a deficit for 2021 of "about £50m".

She said it was a "managed" position, adding: "Based on the current financial plans that we're seeing, we're not anticipating imminent financial issues, subject to most of the restrictions of the pandemic easing certainly by the start of the next academic year."

Ms Owen also said that whilst the recruitment of UK students hadn't been "significantly affected", there had been a reduction in the number of international students leading to a net reduction in income in 2021.

Universities had also borne the cost of £20m in accommodation rebates to the end of the Easter term to students living in halls.