THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING WELSH?

With powers for the Welsh language about to be passed over to the National Assembly for Wales, it is ironic that Bangor University has announced that its new Vice Chancellor would not, unlike previous incumbents, be required to speak Welsh.

This follows an earlier proposal to close five departments that have some of the highest levels of Welsh language content within the University.

Whilst those who have an antipathy towards the Welsh language will say that the best person for the post should be appointed regardless of linguistic ability, this ignores the importance of Bangor University as the ‘cradle of the language’, especially through its excellence in teaching and research in Welsh.

It also conveniently forgets the fact that Bangor is located in one of the few counties (see diagram) where Welsh is spoken by the majority of the population and is the working everyday language of many local organisations.

Bangor has a high proportion of local Welsh speaking students attending its courses - a figure that will no doubt go up when tuition fees increase – and an estimated 40 per cent of all students in Wales studying through the medium of Welsh do so at Bangor.

The institution is therefore in a unique position and one that would normally be taken into account when appointing a new chief executive and it would have been expected that the University should have made Welsh language proficiency a desirable, if not essential, condition of the job.

One can only wonder whether the University has reached this decision because of concerns that it cannot become a world class institution when it has such a strong commitment to the Welsh language?

If that is the case, then they have clearly not examined the recent success of the National University of Ireland in Galway, which is based in the Irish speaking Gaeltacht region.

Unlike Bangor, NUI Galway actually has a legislative responsibility to employ members of staff who are competent enough to teach in the Irish language as long as those people are fully qualified in every other way.

Secondly, it is committed to developing an exemplary bilingual campus through providing the physical and social environment that will suit that objective.

Finally, it offers taught courses through the Irish language in the Arts, Science and Commerce Faculties, and much of its administration is undertaken through the Irish language.

Has that strong commitment to the Irish language affected Galway’s reputation globally?

Quite the contrary, and Galway is acknowledged internationally as a world leading centre for research in internet technology, biomedical science, environmental change and social policy.

It also generates more patents and spinoffs than any other Irish university and attracts over 1,500 international students annually.

As a result, NUI Galway was voted the Sunday Times Irish University of the Year for 2009-10.

So, it is clear that excellence and a strong commitment to the local language can go hand in hand for a university that is located within a region with a strong linguistic heritage.

As a former professor at Bangor, I am, like many others, disappointed that its current aim seems to be one of becoming yet another carbon copy of an average English university.

However, wouldn’t it be transformational if the university instead created a vision for a 21st century Welsh academic institution that, like Galway, is rooted within the culture of its local community but has global ambitions, especially at a time when the Welsh language is at its strongest for decades?

And it could launch this vision by appointing a leader who appreciates not only the importance of world class research and teaching, but can interact directly with the Welsh language and culture which should be the foundations of a university such as Bangor.