University of Wales

University of Wales
Prifysgol Cymru
Motto	Goreu Awen Gwirionedd (The Best Inspiration is Truth)
Established	1893
Type	Confederal, non-membership university[1]
Chancellor	The Prince of Wales
Vice-Chancellor	Professor Medwin Hughes
Pro-Chancellor	The Archbishop of Wales, the Most Revd Barry Morgan
Location	Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cardiff, Carmarthen, Lampeter, Newport, Swansea and Wrexham, Wales, UK
Campus	Urban and rural and Online distance learning
Colours
Affiliations	Alliance of Non-Aligned Universities Association of Commonwealth Universities
Website	http://www.wales.ac.uk/

The University of Wales (Welsh: Prifysgol Cymru) is a confederal university based in Cardiff, Wales, UK.

It is currently in the process of merging with Swansea Metropolitan University and University of Wales: Trinity Saint David to form a new institution which will be known as University of Wales: Trinity Saint David.

Founded in 1893 as a federal university, it accredited institutions throughout Wales, and validated courses at institutions in Britain and abroad, with over 100,000 students. Its external validation operations are being wound down prior to the proposed merger with the University of Wales: Trinity St David, which will take over some of its operations under a different academic model.

History

The University of Wales was founded in Wales in 1893 as a federal university with three foundation colleges: University College Wales (now Aberystwyth University), which had been founded in 1872 and University College North Wales (now Bangor University) and University College South Wales and Monmouthshire (now Cardiff University) which were founded following the Aberdare Report in 1881. Prior to the foundation of the federal university, these three colleges had prepared students for the examinations of the University of London. A fourth college, Swansea (now Swansea University), was added in 1920 and in 1931 the Welsh National School of Medicine was incorporated. In 1967 the Welsh College of Advanced Technology entered the federal university as the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology (UWIST), also in Cardiff. In 1971 St David's College (now part of the University of Wales: Trinity Saint David), Wales' oldest degree-awarding institution, suspended its own degree-awarding powers and entered the University of Wales. A financial crisis in the late eighties caused UWIST and University College Cardiff to merge in 1988, forming the University of Wales College of Cardiff (UWCC). In 1992 the university lost its position as the only university in Wales when the Polytechnic of Wales became the University of Glamorgan (now part of the new University of South Wales).

The university was composed of colleges until 1996, when the university was reorganised with a two-tier structure of member institutions in order to absorb the Cardiff Institute of Higher Education (which became the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (UWIC), now known as Cardiff Metropolitan University) and the Gwent College of Higher Education (which became University of Wales College, Newport (UWCN)). The existing colleges became constituent institutions and the two new member institutions became university colleges. In 2003, both of these colleges became full constituent institutions and in 2004 UWCN received permission from the Privy Council to change its name to the University of Wales, Newport.

Cardiff University and the University of Wales College of Medicine (UWCM) merged on 1 August 2004. The merged institution, known as Cardiff University, ceased to be a constituent institution and joined a new category of 'Affiliated/Linked Institutions'. While the new institution continues to award University of Wales degrees in medicine and related subjects, students joining Cardiff from 2005 to study other subjects are awarded Cardiff University degrees.

At the same time, the university admitted four new institutions. Thus, North East Wales Institute of Higher Education (NEWI), Swansea Institute of Higher Education and Trinity College, Carmarthen (who were all previously Associated Institutions) along with the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama (which was previously a Validated Institution) were admitted as full members of the university on 27 July 2004.

The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama subsequently left the university in January 2007. More changes followed in September 2007 when the university changed from a federal structure to a confederation of independent institutions, allowing those individual institutions which had gained the status of universities in their own right to use the title of university – these institutions are Aberystwyth University, Bangor University, Glyndŵr University (formerly the North East Wales Institute of Higher Education (NEWI)), Swansea Metropolitan University and Swansea University.

In November 2008, Aberystwyth, Bangor and Swansea Universities decided to exercise their right to register students to study for their own awarded degrees.

Controversy and Potential Closure

In February 2011, plans were announced to transform the University of Wales into a new super-university by merging the University of Wales Institute Cardiff, Swansea Metropolitan University and Trinity Saint David.^[2] In June 2011, a report commissioned by the Welsh Assembly Government said the university had become too reliant on income from validating degrees awarded by overseas colleges. It recommended that the University should “change radically”, and that if the planned merger did not go ahead then it should either be reduced to a service provider for the rest of the Welsh higher education sector, or wound down completely.^[3] In the same month, the university was advised by the Quality Assurance Agency to review its partnerships with foreign colleges following an investigation by BBC Wales which suggested shortcomings in its system of validation.^[4][5]

An investigation by the BBC in October 2011 suggested that its validation program was being used to fraudulently offer degrees, to allow students to get visas to work in Britain. The uncovering of fraudulent practices in private colleges attempting to usurp UK immigration and regulations was a matter which the university took seriously, informing both the UK Border agency and the police, strongly rejecting the accusation of its involvement.^[6]

In October 2011, the university made the decision to adopt a new academic strategy and to withdraw its current validation model in response to changes in higher education in Wales, including the university's merger with Swansea Metropolitan University and the University of Wales: Trinity Saint David.^[7][8][9]

In October 2011 it was announced that the new unified university would be merged under the historic 1828 Royal Charter of the University of Wales: Trinity Saint David, rather than the 1893 University of Wales Charter.^[10][11][12]

In October 2011, the University of Wales announced that it would cease to be an accrediting body for other universities in Wales, and would bring to a close current validated programmes offered at centres in the UK and abroad, thereby only awarding degrees to students on courses designed and fully controlled by the university directly.^[7][8][9] It was reported that the university would be effectively abolished: its constituents University of Wales, Newport and Glyndŵr University were to become independent universities, while Swansea Metropolitan University would merge with Trinity Saint David and operate as University of Wales: Trinity Saint David).^{[7][13][6][14][15][16]}

The university reports that it is supporting its previously existing students who are continuing to study for a University of Wales degree.^[17][18][19]

HRH the Prince of Wales will continue as Chancellor until the proposed merger, when he will become Chancellor of the merged institution. The Archbishop of Wales, Barry Morgan, is Pro-Chancellor. The current Vice-Chancellor is Professor Medwin Hughes who is also Vice-Chancellor of University of Wales: Trinity Saint David.

Central services

The administrative office of the University of Wales is located in Cardiff's Civic Centre. In addition to its work with the accredited institutions in Wales, the university also validates schemes of study at some 130 centres in the UK and across the world, though it is currently in the process of bringing this current validation model to a close. It runs a highly rated research centre, the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies (incorporating the Welsh Dictionary Unit), which is adjacent to the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth.^[20] The first edition of Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru (The University of Wales Dictionary), which has the same status for Welsh as the OED does for English, was completed in 2002, eighty-two years after it had been started. The University of Wales Press^[21] was founded in 1922 and publishes around seventy books a year in both English and Welsh. The university also has a study and conference centre at Gregynog, near Newtown.^[22]

Former accredited institutions

In September 2007, three universities applied for a change to their Royal Charters to give them the power to award their own degrees, instead of University of Wales degrees. Aberystwyth University, Bangor University, and Swansea University now all award their own degrees.^[24][25]

The University of Wales: Trinity Saint David already has its own degree awarding powers, inherited from Saint David's College, Lampeter, which were put into abeyance when Lampeter joined the University of Wales in 1971. From then on, Lampeter awarded Wales degrees, but its own licences and diplomas. When the merger between the University of Wales: Trinity Saint David, Swansea Metropolitan and The University of Wales is complete, the new unified institution will award degrees under the historic 1828 Royal Charter of Saint David's College.

Former affiliated institutions

Cardiff was once a full member of the university but has now left (though it retained some ties) having previously merged with the University of Wales College of Medicine (which was also a former member). Cardiff has awarded its own degrees to students admitted since 2005, except in Medicine and related subjects which continued to be awarded University of Wales degrees until 2011.

Former validated institutions

A number of institutions were not accredited by the university, but had some of their courses validated by it.^[26] There was some publicity and questioning of the quality of these external courses,^{[27][28][29][30]} and in October 2011, in response to changes in Higher Education in Wales, including the University's merger, the University announced that it would launch a new academic strategy which would see the institution only award degrees to students on courses designed and fully controlled by the University. All existing students at validated institutions are able to continue the remainder of their studies for a University of Wales award and will have continuous support.^[7][8][9]

Former members

• Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama
• University of Wales College of Medicine (now merged with Cardiff University)

Notable alumni

Bibliography

Official Histories of the University

• The University of Wales: A Historical Sketch D. Emrys Evans, University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1953. Published to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the University of Wales. It is illustrated with black-and-white photographic plates, and contains appendices listing 'Authorities and Officers of the University' and 'Professors and Other Heads of Departments' since 1872.

• The University of Wales: An Illustrated History Geraint H. Jenkins, University of Wales Press, Cardiff. 1993. Published to mark the centenary of the University of Wales.

See also

• Academic dress of the University of Wales
• List of modern universities in Europe (1801–1945)

References

External links

• Official website

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