Puff the Magic Dragon: Higher Education Reform in Wales
Rebecca Boden (Roehampton) and Matthew Waring (Cardiff Metropolitan)
Abstract
Wales is a small and largely peripheral country in the UK. It also has a devolved
government, its own higher education system and a surprisingly large number of
universities given the population of just three million — eleven institutions in total, not
including the Open University.
The combination of devolved powers, a government of significantly different political
persuasions to that in Westminster and a distinctive educational ethos has meant that Wales
has tackled the development of its higher education system in a radically different manner
to its neighbour England and, indeed, most if not all of the rest of the OECD countries. As
such, study of Wales affords the opportunity to challenge the globally hegemonic discourse
of HE — a discourse grounded in neoliberal notions of marketisation, competition,
corporatisation and individualisation. Problematically, developments in Wales are
unreported, analysed and discussed.
This paper will map the Welsh university, financial and policy landscapes and explore the
dynamics and tensions that are generated. We identify and analyse the obstacles that the
Welsh Assembly Government has experienced in attempting to implement its radically
different HE agenda. These include: a funding environment still controlled by Westminster
(Wales does not raise its own revenues); the global nature of university competition; a
collection of universities which have grown organically, and often in response to a
challenging physical geography, which results in costly infrastructure; and, university
leaders who promote commercialisation, competition and profit-seeking over the
government's more socially-minded reform agenda.
Presentation Summary (Speakers’ notes)
HISTORY AND CONTEXT
Literary works such as how Green was my Valley illustrate a particular connectedness of
Welsh culture and society to education. This is similarly reflected in the origins of Welsh
universities. These came out of a desire to provide education for families of working people
and a route out of poverty.
A low population of just 3 million people, a relatively large landmass and the difficult
terrain which makes transport and communication problematic, has significantly shaped the
geography of Welsh higher education provision.
As well as geography, universities are very much a product of the industrial heritage of
Wales. For instance, Bangor University was formed by public subscription of the slate and
farm workers in the area. Likewise, what we now know as the University of Glamorgan
started life as a mining school, paid for jointly by the mine owners and the public
subscription amongst miners.
Until the formation of the University of Glamorgan in 1992, the federal University of Wales
(UW) was the only university in the country, acting as an umbrella for a number of
constituent colleges. UW was established in 1893 as a "University for the people" with strong
egalitarian principles and an imperative to promote Welsh culture and identity. Throughout
the 19th and 20th centuries, Wales saw the emergence of technical and vocationally oriented
colleges in areas such as theology, teacher training, engineering, catering, marine studies,
sport, and art and design.
So, by 1992, Wales just had just one university – the University of Wales in a system that
sought to serve regional economic needs but also support and sustain the cultural and social
traditions of the country.
THE ENGLISH DISEASE
The reforms engendered by the Education Reform Act of 1988 and the Further and Higher
Education Act of 1992 occurred prior to Welsh devolution in 1999. As such, it was UK higher
education policy and the funding relationship with the Westminster government that has
shaped Welsh higher education in fundamental respects. Devolution occurred some nine
years later and the story since then has been one of the devolved Welsh government
attempting to cope with

the legacy of UK policy,

an increasingly internationalised and globalised higher education landscape

a funding regime largely determined by the Whitehall government
whilst simultaneously attempting to shape Welsh higher education to suit Welsh needs.
Unsurprisingly, this has generated a number of difficulties, obstacles and tensions.
Key aspects of the 1992 changes were the introduction of greater fluidity in HE provision, as
new institutions emerged and others merged, and the development of a competitive,
marketised ethos in universities. Wales was not exempt from this. In addition, HE was
becoming much more internationalised and globalised.
The immediate effect of globalisation and marketisation was greater competition between
institutions, where previously there had been federal harmony. In 2004 the University of
Wales College of Cardiff merged with the University of Wales's medical school to become
Cardiff University and then left the University of Wales to become a fully independent
institution. Following this a number of the more prestigious members of the University of
Wales began seeking and then winning their own degree awarding powers. As a result, in
2008 Aberystwyth, Bangor and Swansea universities all started awarding their own degrees
– effectively leaving the University of Wales.
As a consequence of such changes, by 2010 Wales had 11 universities in a country with a
population of around 3 million people – a situation that appeared to be increasingly
unsustainable. The Cooke and Bull Report of 2005 argued that nugatory competition
between Welsh institutions was damaging the sector and recommended a reduction in the
number of universities to halt a predicted spiral of decline.
DEVOLUTION AND REFORM
Devolution gave the Welsh Government (WG) power over HE policy but not financial
independence from the UK. Wales has no tax raising powers and money still comes from
Whitehall via the Barnett Formula.
Since 2002 WG has attempted to reform the Welsh HE sector and published two strategy
documents
Reaching Higher 2002
For Our Future 2009
which advocated a distinct HE policy that differentiates Wales from England and stressed
the importance of cultural and social matters alongside economic and business (unlike
England), regional structures, reconfiguration and merger. Significant too is the emphasis on
planned provision rather than market-led, as in England. Welsh students will also benefit
from a tuition fee subsidy to bridge the gap between the current level of fees of just over
£3000 and whatever fees are charged from September 2012, whether they study in Wales or
across the border.
There have been a number of unsuccessful attempts to reconfigure the sector through
merger but the current Minister for Education, Leighton Andrews, appears particularly
determined to succeed where two previous ministers have failed. Following advice from the
funding council HEFCW in 2011 the Minister has called for the reorganisation of Welsh HE
into three regions, each containing one research intensive and one teaching-led, vocational
institution. This would require the merger of a number of institutions leaving Wales with
six universities.
A process of consultation to achieve reconfiguration is currently taking place and the
Minister has stressed that whilst he would prefer voluntary rather than forced mergers he is
prepared to invoke the powers of dissolution accorded to him by the 1988 Education Reform
Act. He has consistently argued the case for a smaller number of larger institutions that will
better withstand the pressures of a global environment.
Whether or not the sector is reconfigured along the proposed lines it seems clear that some
degree of change is bound to take place. Indeed, in south west Wales there has already been
a move to merge Swansea Metropolitan, Trinity St. Davids and the University of Wales. The
aim is to create a distinctive system of HE in Wales emphasising social justice and cultural
values and rejecting the notion that a competitive, market-led system is an appropriate way
to organise HE provision. It will be interesting to see how this experiment develops as HE
continues to face a tight funding environment and global pressures.