Is there a political mandate to increase tuition fees?
Labour and Plaid Cymru are the coalition partners in the assembly government. Their programme for government, the One Wales agreement, states they will do “whatever is possible to mitigate the effects on Welsh-domiciled students if the Westminster government lifts the cap on fees”. They have already introduced higher fees once in this assembly term by abolishing the grant that was given to Welsh domiciled students. Some Plaid Cymru assembly members opposed the assembly government on that occasion. The Welsh Conservatives and Welsh Liberal Democrats fought the 2007 assembly elections with a promise not to introduce increase tuition fees in Wales. The Welsh Conservatives now say the current level of graduate contribution in Wales is “unsustainable”.
