PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS

At one time, it was often said that the Welsh were lucky because ‘we were the Irish who couldn’t swim’. In addition, many Irishmen and women, throughout the ages, have been scathing about their home country and the capital city of Dublin. James Joyce, one of Ireland’s most famous sons, stated that he chose his capital city - fondly known for years as the ‘dirty old town’ - for a particular scene in one of his books because it seemed to him the centre of paralysis. How things have changed during the last twenty years, as Ireland has transformed itself from a third world agricultural-based country to one of the best performing economies in the industrialised world, with industries such as software, food, cultural industries, financial services and pharmaceuticals continuing to grow. Today, the Welsh can only look on admiringly as Ireland has become the epitome of a modern, high technology economy, with a young creative and highly educated workforce that is the envy of nations throughout ...

Strange that no one has commented in the Welsh media on the latest Good University guide issued by the Times earlier this month. The league standing of our universities are as follows: 28 Cardiff 39 Aberystwyth 46 Swansea 47 Bangor 57 Lampeter 65 Glamorgan 75 UWIC 78 Newport Interestingly, more detailed analysis shows that with more spend on services and facilities and better graduate prospects, both Aberystwyth and Swansea could leapfrog up the table. The entry standards of Bangor, Swansea and Aberystwyth are also far lower than many of their equivalents in Scotland and certainly well below Cardiff's. One also has to ask where are Swansea Institute and NEWI in this table? Of course, these types of table are highly subjective but it does show where Wales stands in terms of its university education against the best in the rest of the UK (with Scotland having eight of its institutions in the top 50).

It is evident to anyone in a major city on St Patrick’s Day that an individual with the flimsiest connection to Ireland will be drinking Guinness and waving the Irish tricolour. The strong affinity of the Irish to their homeland was evident when I worked in the Emerald Isle during the 1990s and saw that one of the interesting side-effects of the boom in the ‘Celtic Tiger’ economy was the number of expatriates returning to live and work in the country, many of whom were proud of their Irish roots and wanted to make a major contribution to its future. It is therefore disappointing that there is scant celebration of our own nationhood in Wales outside of schools, Eisteddfods and rugby internationals. In particular, little has also been done to ensure that the Welsh Diaspora living across the World is linked back to the land of their fathers. This is despite the presence of St David’s Societies across the USA and the publication of dedicated periodicals such as Ninnau , the Welsh-American ...

In the recent publication, " Action for Growth " by the Wales Management Council on the future of management education in this country, it was notable that there was no significant reference within the document to the role of university business schools in undertaking this important task. Indeed, with the private sector now providing a growing proportion of management and leadership courses within the Welsh skills sector, it could be argued that business schools are approaching a point where policymakers will be increasingly unsure of their role and relevance in the marketplace. A recent document from the Association of Business Schools (ABS) also highlighted the challenges faced by the business school sector. Much of these are centred on the strategies being undertaken by many business schools, many of which are seemingly obsessed with achieving high scores in research terms whilst minimising the critical role they can play in developing and improving management practice in...

LIKE many others, I was shocked to hear the news that the Dolgarrog Aluminium plant in the Conwy Valley had gone into administration, putting 190 well paid jobs at risk. Having visited the plant earlier this year, I was highly impressed by the commitment of the management and staff and how they had diversified their business into a growing market supplying metal to the aerospace industry. It is a specialist activity with a potentially bright future and a growing customer base but when a firm finds it difficult to service its debt, the bank can get jittery and no more financial support is offered, leaving the directors with no legal option but to call in the administrators. Given the number of jobs under threat, I would have expected no less from the Assembly Government than that they should respond by offering support to the business. However, the question that must be asked, given the importance of Dolgarrog Aluminium as a local employer, is whether the Assembly in North Wales had any...

MANY of you will have seen the recent call from the CBI to reverse the decline in the so-called Stem subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) within our educational system. The call could not come at a more appropriate time, given that the statistics on this issue make stark reading. For example, the number of students undertaking physics A-level has fallen from 54,722 to 23,657 during the past 20 years, while chemistry has also seen a dramatic decline. Given this, it not surprising that universities across the UK have been closing departments in these subject areas at a record pace, putting the scientific base of this country at risk. Yet the connection between supply and demand has widened, and data from the CBI’s own surveys shows that there will be a demand from industry for more than 750,000 new jobs in Stem subjects during the next seven years. In order to deal with this mounting problem, the CBI has proposed that the brightest children should be encouraged int...

Perhaps the only inspired development emerging from the new coalition Assembly Government was the decision to move Visit Wales – the old Wales Tourist Board – from economic development into the new Ministry of Heritage, alongside Culture, Sports and Language. Not surprisingly, many have been asking, given some of the advantage we have in Wales over other parts of the UK in terms of our heritage and culture, why this move was not made earlier? It would seem that this probably had more to do with the personal fiefdoms of politicians, especially given that the Minister for Economic Development in the previous asministration was very much attached to tourism as part of his portfolio. There are many areas in which the different parts of this new so-called ‘Ministry of Fun’ can work together over the next four years. Clearly, there is a synergy between tourism and sport in Wales, especially given the popularity of activities such as hill walking, hiking, kayaking and climbing, as well as ext...

Last week, I read a fascinating article in the Economist magazine by Europe’s Regional Policy Commissioner Danuta Hubner . In it, she discusses some of the key priorities for European competitiveness spending during the next seven years. Interestingly, she notes that the shift in policy across Europe should be from one of “opening roads to opening minds”, which reflects the Assembly Government’s current view on how the next round of European structural funds should be spent within our poorest areas. However, one of the revelations of the article is the emphasis that European funding should encourage greater entrepreneurship and, more importantly, act as a catalyst to create opportunities for attracting the private sector to the poorest areas. I sincerely hope that the Assembly Government takes heed of this, as its record with the last round of £1.3 billion leaves much to be desired in terms of the involvement of the private sector. A number of organisations have suggested that the lack...

Hat tips to Peter Black and Cleckandra on the posting by Dr Christopher Wood on the protection of intellectual property within our universities. This is an excellent point but may be lost in the August doldrums. I have written on this extensively during the last five years and even gave a paper to the Economic Development Committee of the Assembly on the matter in 2002 which made absolutely clear the poor state of science and R&D in Wales. Unlike Dr Wood's paper, the remit was not to look at IPR but subsequent research has pointed this out Guess what, nothing was done except an inquiry that the Assembly ignored. We have had a government that has completely ignored the science base in Wales, despite the pleadings of several of our top scientists and technologists. I hope that Peter and other members of the opposition will begin to take the Government to task seriously on this matter, especially as the First Minister (as science minister) has been personally responsible for the s...

Unlike me, do you consider yourself part of 'the establishment' here in Wales?  As thousands gather for the Eisteddfod in Mold this morning, they will, according to some social commentators, not be participating in the greatest cultural festivals of Europe. Instead, they will merely be bit-part players in one of the annual gatherings of the great and good of Wales.  Unkindly, this set of the movers and shakers in Welsh society is known as 'the crachach' , and constitute a social class all of their own, dominating the educational, cultural and media sectors of Wales and allegedly looking down upon any outsider with new ideas, reinforcing mediocrity and failing to see beyond the limits of their own narrow experience.  They are said to live in a comfort zone that awaits the expected invitation to the next glass of chilled chardonnay and canapés, forgetting that due to their lack of leadership and drive, Wales remains firmly rooted to the bottom of the UK prosperity league ...

As the Western Mail’s “Buy Welsh” campaign starts in earnest today as a celebration of all produce made, reared and grown in Wales, I thought it relevant to examine how to establish a culture where more people across our nation make a conscious decision to buy Welsh goods and services. During the last Assembly election campaign, one of the proposals I put forward to the Welsh Conservatives was a plan to introduce a new ‘Guaranteed Welsh’ logo to promote Welsh produce and services. I would like to boast that the idea was mine but it was not. Instead, it was taken from a similar scheme currently operating in the Republic of Ireland which had been established to support Irish companies. The aim of the Guaranteed Irish scheme is to increase awareness of, and demand for, Irish products and services. It provides an ongoing series of seminars and buyers’ days and, through creating consumer interest, awareness and passion for the Guaranteed Irish ethos, helps Irish businesses increase their ma...

Fascinating insight by Nick Bourne on the development of the Welsh Conservatives into a more devolution friendly party and the events during the coalition talks. The fact that the Welsh Conservatives could now be in power in Wales (but for one Lib-Dem executive member) shows how far the party has come since we didn't win a single Welsh seat in 1997. Nick has never been given the credit he deserves for changing the fortunes of the Welsh Conservatives over the last few years to a position where winning 8-10 parliamentary seats is now more of a reality than a fantasy.