Cost of uni would have put me off, says Welsh government minister
BBCA senior Welsh government minister says he would have been put off from going to university if it was as expensive as it is now.
Cabinet Secretary for Transport Ken Skates told the BBC Wales Your Voice live debate programme he was the first person in his family to go to university but "wouldn't have gone" if he was still in education.
It comes amid growing concerns at the cost of student finance after thresholds that some students repay their loans were frozen in England.
Wales has decided not to copy that decision - Skates told the programme his government was "doing all we can to limit" student debt.
BBC Wales held the first in a series of debates on Tuesday ahead of the Senedd election, taking place in seven weeks time.
The panel, drawn from Wales' six biggest parties, were asked by a member of the audience what they planned to do to help support young people so they are "not racking up obscene amounts of debt".
Skates accepted "it's incredibly challenging for young people today".
"It's very different to the time when I went to university as the first person ever in the history of my family to go to university".
He added: "I wouldn't have gone there had I been in education today, looking at whether I should go to university or take an apprenticeship because of the cost."
Skates said Wales has the "most generous package in the UK" and has retained the education maintenance allowance for 16 to 18 year olds.
"We have with Welsh students average lower loans than English students," he said.
Sam Rowlands, of the Conservatives, said university was "brilliant" but said students should not be burdened for the rest of their lives with their loans.
The party's finance spokesperson said his party would refund those who train in Wales as a "doctor, a dentist or nurse" if they "commit to Wales for five years after you've been trained".
"We will commit to you, and we will refund your tutiton fees for you," he said
Carrie Harper of Plaid Cymru said her party's "long-term vision" would be "to abolish tuition fees," she says, but she adds universities are in "crisis" in terms of funding and there needed to be a review.
Challenged by presenter Nick Servini on a policy that would see a £1,000 grant cut for students that go to England, the party's director of communications said the "best talent" needed to be retained in Wales.
Skates in response said students "shouldn't be artificially persuaded to be in any party of the country".
Tim Sly of the Welsh Liberal Democrats said he did not want to "defend" former party leader Nick Cleggs's stance on tuition fees - his party was part of a government which raised them after pledging to oppose an increase.
The Welsh party president said the party would "significantly increase the threshold at which you start the repayment".
Reform's James Evans says it was important to support young people "whatever route they decide to take".
The Brecon and Radnorshire MS said there were "no easy answers" to student debt.
"We do need to look at how we fund our universities across Wales, we need to look at tuition fees, but it has to be done in a fiscally responsible way," he said.
Lee Lavery of the Greens said university was a "great leveller".
"It's not just about how productive you're going to be economically once you've graduated. I met a broad range of people from all walks of life at university, and I think we're all missing that as well," he said.
Are there too many health boards in Wales?
Earlier in the programme, Reform's Evans said the number of health boards in Wales should be cut from the current seven to reduce bureaucracy.
It came after audience member Toni Wood said she had given "40 years of service to the NHS" and was "so saddened to see the sorry state we find ourselves in".
Asked if he believed there were too many health boards in Wales, Evans said: "I believe so, yes."
"What we have is a seven health board model with too much duplication," he said.
Calling the current structure "fundamentally broken", Evans added "it doesn't work, you need to reduce it down."
Harper accused Reform of "looking to bring in insurance-based healthcare", to replace the current NHS system funded entirely by taxation. Evans said her claim was untrue.
According to opinion polls Plaid and Reform are vying for first place in May's Senedd election, with Labour facing the prospect of being ejected from office after 27 years in power.
Asked what a Plaid Cymru Welsh government would do with power, Harper said: "We would introduce 10 new surgical hubs across the country, we would introduce 100 new salaried GPS to tackle out of hours care and take pressure off A&E and we'd also invest in tackling corridor care as well."
Defended the Labour Welsh government's handling of the health service, Skates insisted "better health requires spending, it requires investment and for far too long we had a lack of investment from UK government", referring to the previous Conservative administration at Westminster.
"But, as a result of having a UK Labour government, the taps have been turned on," he said.
"In return, we're able to deliver month in, month out, reduced waiting times, seven months in a row of reduced waiting times in the last 100 days alone."
Rowlands said the Tories would "declare a health emergency".
In practice he said this would mean "every effort of government will go towards getting our health service fixed".
With Conservative Welsh ministers, he said, there would be "investment in community hospitals", and said the party would "look at surgical hubs in more areas across Wales" and "community care with our GPs".
This would mean getting "those contracts right for GPS so they can open over weekends as well as in the week, so we can unblock those A&E departments, get those patients out of those ambulances".
Praise for Wrexham's Rob and Ryan
One audience member quipped: "Three men have done more for the economy in north Wales than anybody, from my view, in the Welsh Senedd, and that's a gentleman called Thomas Telford, Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac".
His comments are applauded by other members of the audience who cheer at the names of the Wrexham AFC co-owners Rob Mac and Ryan Reynolds.
