Kirsty Williams is the lone Liberal Democrat in the new Welsh Government. She will need to make a splash to gain real political footing and it seems that higher education may be set firmly in her sights as a policy agenda to seriously tackle. The far-reaching Diamond Review of Welsh HE is about to issue its final report, and it’s expected to make sweeping recommendations that could reshape the Welsh HE system and potentially move it further away from the the rest of UK HE.
The decisions Williams will take about the Diamond Review’s recommendations will likely dominate the agenda for universities in Wales for years to come, and so the sector is braced for yet another period of turbulence.