Mae’n dda gen i ychwanegu at y cytundeb sy’n torri mas yn y Siambr. Rwy’n cytuno’n llwyr gyda’r hyn a ddywedodd Hefin wrth gyflwyno ei araith yntau. Yn amlwg, os gallwn ni gadw draw o borc, gallwn gytuno ar nifer o bethau yn y Siambr yma. Rwyf am ganolbwyntio ar dri pheth y gallwn eu gwneud i sicrhau dyfodol addysg uwch yng Nghymru, yn dilyn y penderfyniad i ymadael â’r Undeb Ewropeaidd, a rhai o’r agweddau eraill sydd wedi cael eu crybwyll gan Aelodau eraill. Dewch inni fod yn glir am ba mor bwysig yw’r sector yma. Fel sydd wedi cael ei ddweud—ond mae’n hynod bwysig ailadrodd y peth—dyma un o’r ‘exports’ mwyaf sydd gennym ni. Rydym yn ail yn unig i’r Unol Daleithiau ynglŷn â’r ymwneud rhyngwladol sydd yn y sector addysg uwch drwy ynysoedd Prydain. Rydym ni eisiau cadw hynny a sicrhau bod hynny yn parhau i fod o fudd i Gymru.

Mae un swydd yn cael ei chreu yng Nghymru o bob tri myfyriwr sy’n dod o’r tu hwnt i’r Undeb Ewropeaidd. Mae un swydd yn cael ei greu o bob pum myfyriwr sy’n dod o’r tu fewn i’r Undeb Ewropeaidd i Gymru. Mae hynny yn gyfystyr â dros £200 miliwn mewn taliadau gan fyfyrwyr rhyngwladol i brifysgolion Cymru bob blwyddyn, gan gynnwys £160 miliwn o daliadau mewn ffioedd dysgu. Felly, mae’n hynod bwysig ein bod ni’n cadw’r llif incwm yma i brifysgolion, yn ogystal â’r ffaith, wrth gwrs, fod nifer o’n prifysgolion ni bob blwyddyn o fewn rhyw 150 i 200 o lefydd i fod yn fethiant neu’n lwyddiant ar y nifer o ‘recruitment’ sydd yn digwydd i’r prifysgolion yna. Mae myfyrwyr tramor nid yn unig yn bwysig yn rhyngwladol ac yn economaidd; maen nhw’n bwysig yn ddeallusol achos maen nhw’n cyfoethogi ein prifysgolion ni, maen nhw’n dod â sgiliau newydd, maen nhw’n dod â phersbectif newydd, maen nhw’n ymwneud â’n myfyrwyr ni, y rhai domestig, os liciwch chi, ac maen nhw’n cyfoethogi’r holl broses drwy hynny.

There are three quick things that we could do to ensure the viability of the sector going forward. First of all, as Hefin David concluded upon, we need to ensure the visa status of EU students and teachers and lecturers in universities, and researchers, who are here with us already. We’re already reading some quite frightening stories about EU nationals being asked to prove their nationality and their right to remain in this country. We don’t want to see any more of that. We need a clear commitment from the UK Government that these students and members of staff are entitled to stay within the university sector in Wales. There are about 1,300-odd staff who are EU nationals in Welsh universities alone, and they really need to be encouraged to remain.

The second thing we need to see is a visa system that’s fit for purpose. On a day that the aptly, or unaptly, named Robert Goodwill said that we’ll have a £1,000 levy for all EU citizens coming to work in this country, I think we need to revisit very quickly how we differentiate between students and workers within those figures, because we do not want to see the already reducing number of students who are applying to Welsh universities—down something like 32 per cent already in the early applications following the referendum result from EU countries—we don’t want to see that developing into a real disaster for our universities. So, a visa system that’s fit for purpose. That, in Plaid Cymru’s view, includes a visa system that’s regionalised within the UK context, so Wales has its own visa demands. That’s nothing new. Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, has called for that, relying on a PricewaterhouseCoopers report produced for the City of London Corporation. Canada has a visa system like that and has been running that visa system for many years within the provinces. Only last week, the all-party group on social integration within the Westminster House of Commons also called for a visa system that had a regional immigration system. We can make use of that then to tailor both students and migrant workers to the needs of the Welsh economy.

The final thing that we need to do to ensure the future of the higher education system and international students is to take international students out of those immigration targets. It’s not widely known, but of the immigration numbers that we always talk about, 30 per cent of them—one in three—are students and they do return home. I have to say to Darren Millar that the numbers—and these are the official numbers—of those who overstay their visas is 1 per cent. That’s the nature of the beast. It’s not worth wasting the 99 per cent in order to deal with that. Yes, by all means deal with failing colleges, by all means deal with exploitation—[Interruption.] I don’t have time, sorry; my time is up. By all means deal with those who are abusing the system, but for the 99 per cent, we need to take them out of the figures and we need an honest debate about the true number of migrants that are coming to Wales and the part that they play, and students are not migrants.