Wales' finance minister, Mark Drakeford, has said Welsh Government support for Wales' cash-strapped universities is "very generous". He also said he hopes his Labour colleagues in the UK Government do something in order to boost student recruitment for universities.
The sector is facing huge pressures, which has resulted in announcements of mass potential staff redundancies. The University of South Wales is to shed 90 jobs and cut courses and research. The news came on the same day that Bangor University announced 200 job losses and just weeks after Cardiff University revealed plans to shed 400 academic posts and shut some academic schools. You can read more about that here.
There are also questions about the future of the Lampeter campus at University of Wales Trinity St David. In the wake of the recent announcements, the Welsh Government said it was giving £18.5m to universities, although there were questions about how that could stem redundancies given it is capital funding.
Asked on BBC Radio Wales' breakfast show if now was the time to give them extra money, Mr Drakeford replied: "There has been three different injections of extra money for a higher education sector over the last 12 months alone including the rise in student fees.
"I think universities in Wales are funded significantly more generously than they are in Scotland, at least as generously as they are in England. For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation, sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here
"I don't think it's a problem facing our universities is simply that they not properly supported through the Welsh Government, because I think they are pretty generously supported and we are doing more.
"Again, there are more fundamental sector problems here. The previous UK Government, the Conservative government, created a hostile regime as far as overseas students are concerned. Overseas students are a huge source of funding for universities across the UK...that is drying up as people think that the deal ministers in Westminster," he said.
He said he "hoped" UK Government ministers are going to do something around university recruitment. "I hope they will do some things to make it clear to the rest of the world that coming to the United Kingdom and coming to Wales to study i a very good investment for them and also for us."
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