Education & family correspondent, Wales News
Kyle GreenlandThere should be changes to a scheme which sends young Welsh “talent” and “money” to English universities at a time when the sector is under financial pressure, higher education bosses have said.
The Welsh government’s Seren scheme is designed to support the brightest pupils to reach their full potential, but critics have questioned its traditional focus on Oxbridge and top universities outside Wales.
Kyle Greenland, 26, from Deri in Caerphilly county said his experience of the scheme a decade ago was “invaluable”.
The Welsh government said Seren helped learners attend “the best universities, including universities in Wales”.
Universities Wales Vice Chair Dr Ben Calvert, who is also the vice chancellor of the University of South Wales, said he hoped discussions involving UK and Welsh ministers about tuition fees and university funding would help the sector in the longer term.
However, other measures also needed attention, he said, including the fact significantly fewer Welsh 18-year-olds were applying to university compared with their English counterparts.
The shortfall amounted to the equivalent of up to 4,500 students, according to Dr Calvert.
If many of those students ended up studying in Wales “that’s a lot of money that’s missing from the system that could be in the system and that could be helping us at the moment,” he said.
Universities Wales is also calling on the Welsh government to consider raising the compulsory age of education.
“I think it seems strange that it’s 16 where in England, it’s 18,” he said.
“It doesn’t necessarily send a signal to people around educational aspiration.”
He said the Seren programme was “aimed at high achieving students who would already go to university”.
“It’s effectively a programme which takes an awful lot of students into Russell Group institutions in England.
“I think we need a programme that works for all, that deals, perhaps more specifically with learners who are asking questions about whether university is for them at all.
“When we have that participation gap, creaming people off the top and potentially sending them elsewhere to institutions in England doesn’t feel right.”
But Mr Greenland, who was one of the first students to be supported by the scheme and the first in his immediate family to go to university, said it gave him confidence to apply for a biomedical science degree at a top university.
After doing an undergraduate degree he is now studying for a PhD at Imperial College London and has started his own tutoring and mentoring business, which includes working with more recent Seren students.
“I think equipping students with the mindset of going out of Wales is not necessarily a bad thing because I think a lot of students will come back to invest their skillset back into Wales,” he said.
“If you go back to the nuts and bolts of what Seren provides it it about giving students exposure and confidence to higher education.
“It’s all about raising aspirations and showcasing to students the range of opportunities they have whether that’s inside Wales or outside Wales.”
Sixth formers in Ysgol Godre’r Berwyn in Bala, Gwynedd, are currently preparing for their exams while looking ahead to the next step after leaving school.
Although Nel, 18, said it was important to encourage Welsh students to study in Wales, she said she was undecided about where she would go and university cuts have had an impact.
“This time last year I was certain I was going to stay in Wales for university but by today because of what’s happening in the news and the media I’ve been rethinking and considering my options very carefully”, she said.
Efan, 18, is hoping to take up an apprenticeship rather than go to university.
“I learn more through working rather than sitting in a classroom”, he said.
“Gaining experience while making money” also appealed and he believed worry about debt could be “a massive factor” for some potential students.
Osian ,18, is undecided between taking up an apprenticeship and going to university, but first he will be spending a few months in Australia.
When he comes back he would like to see what opportunities there could be locally but he “wouldn’t mind taking the jump to explore” further afield.
Plaid Cymru has called for a review of university funding and floated the possibility of changes to maintenance grants so that there was more support for student studying in Wales.
It has called the Seren scheme “ridiculous”.
Former Welsh government special adviser Dewi Knight said attracting more Welsh students, by itself, would not solve the financial challenges facing higher education.
He said universities could do more “to attract those students who are on their doorstep and be competitive not only at a Welsh level but at an UK level”.
“Of course I think it’s a good thing if we can attract Welsh students to be at Welsh universities or come home to do their postgraduates but I think it’s also important that students and their families have the ability to make the decision that suits them.”
He said Seren’s mission was still “all-important” in helping students from all backgrounds to get to some of the best universities in the world.
“Frankly there’s been a tradition in Wales where we don’t push our brightest and best to do as well as we could.
“We focus a bit too much at the middle, and Seren’s been a big part of that culture change,” he said.
The Welsh government said: “Seren supports the best learners regardless of their economic background, personal situation, or location, to attend the best universities, including universities in Wales.
“We are currently looking at ways to further increase opportunities for learners to participate in Seren.”
It added it was important people had the right to choose where they studied and Wales had “the highest levels of non-repayable grant support provided to those most in need”.
