Madam,

Having read Dr Prescott’s letter, ‘Tuition fees must be for study at Welsh university”, I’d like to offer some nuance to his otherwise very valid points.

Indeed, Welsh universities, including Aberystwyth University, offer valuable and varied courses to Welsh students who benefit from Welsh Government grants partly covering tuition fees. However, not all subjects are offered in Wales.

One huge gap is veterinary science, but there are others. Vets practising in Wales will tell you that they all had to study elsewhere in the UK in order to gain their qualifications. They will no doubt also tell you that the help they received from the Welsh Government was highly valued. Some of them might not have been able to afford the cost of those studies without that financial support from the Welsh Government.

This is just one example of how these grants can benefit individual students and the Welsh economy at the same time, despite the fact that, for five or six years, those tuition fees go to universities in England. Maybe this could prompt another push in the Senedd to set up a veterinary training college in Wales? Aberystwyth would be a nice central spot…

Yours etc, Marie-Hélène Thomas, Aberystwyth.

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