Minister for the Environment, Sustainability, Climate Change and Education, Prof John Cortes, and the Welsh Government’s Education Minister, Kirsty Williams, held a video meeting yesterday (Monday) to discuss higher education and university fees for students from Gibraltar attending Welsh universities after Brexit.

With education being a responsibility for devolved governments of the United Kingdom, HMGoG has been engaging with the relevant authorities in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland after HMG confirmed that it would continue to treat Gibraltar students attending English universities on an equal basis to UK based students and charge home fees. Student tuition fees are a devolved matter in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Ms Williams confirmed home fees will continue for Gibraltar students in Wales and that this decision was being formalised by the Welsh Government. She and Prof Cortes also discussed ways of building educational bonds between Gibraltar and Wales including links with the University of Gibraltar and Welsh universities.

The ministers discussed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their respective education systems and agreed that it was important to continue to build generally on the relationship between Wales and Gibraltar.

Last week, in the build-up to the Joint Ministerial Council of the Overseas Territories, Baroness Sugg, then Minister for the Overseas Territories, in a letter to premiers confirmed that all the devolved administrations had agreed to continue to charge tuition fees on the same basis as at present.

ENDS