I am amazed that there has been total silence from Plaid Cymru and its supporters on the matter of the appointment of a new vice chancellor at Bangor University.
As this blog pointed out on Monday, you would have normally expected comment after comment on the decision by the university that the next holder of this post will be a non-Welsh speaker, despite the fact that it should be an essential criteria given the unique position of the University.
Yet apart from a bland statement from Cymdeithas y Iaith, there has not been one public utterance from the Party of Wales and its supporters on this issue.
As one commentator noticed, is this because the party is embarrassed about the issue, given that the President of Bangor University is none other than Lord Elis Thomas; that the local Assembly Member is Alun Ffred Jones - the Minister responsible for the language - and that the Honorary President of Plaid Cymru, Dafydd Wigley, is Chairman of the Bangor Business School?
Why hasn't Dafydd Iwan, who lives ten miles down the road from the University and is the President of Plaid Cymru with responsibility for 'grassroots members', penned a passionate protest song about the "evil" university and the way it wants to impose a non-Welsh speaker on the college built by the pennies of the quarrymen of Dyffryn Ogwen?
Where are the clever and pithy comments from Welsh Ramblings or Syniadau, who are never slow to criticise the policies of other Welsh political parties on the language?
I am sure that some will revert to type by saying that they won't be "lectured by a Tory on the Welsh language" but isn't it surprising that a former Conservative Assembly candidate is the only person to have raised this issue publicly when it is an open goal for representatives of the 'Party of Wales'.
Indeed, whether my party has an opinion or not on the matter, mine has been made absolutely clear as a Welsh speaker who was born and brought up in Gwynedd and who spent four years working at Bangor University.
I will also get the usual bland responses about the 'responsibilities of Plaid being in Government' and that 'universities are independent institutions' but, for example, this has not stopped Plaid activists from insisting that all businesses in Wales, even those in predominantly English speaking areas, conform to a bilingual policy.
Indeed, this is one of the few posts in Wales where it can be argued that Welsh is an essential part of the role of a chief executive within a predominantly Welsh area and where Welsh is a key part of the activities of the University.
If not, then why was the current Vice-Chancellor appointed with such a condition attached to his post?
Worst of all, the Welsh media has confirmed its role as the trumpet of the establishment by ignoring this story completely with the honourable exception of Golwg.
I am sure that Plaid's leaders will all be laughing about this over wine and canapes at the next BBC reception at the National Eisteddfod but by deciding to stay silent and conveniently ignore this issue, they may have damaged Welsh language provision in higher education in Wales for a generation.
As this blog pointed out on Monday, you would have normally expected comment after comment on the decision by the university that the next holder of this post will be a non-Welsh speaker, despite the fact that it should be an essential criteria given the unique position of the University.
Yet apart from a bland statement from Cymdeithas y Iaith, there has not been one public utterance from the Party of Wales and its supporters on this issue.
As one commentator noticed, is this because the party is embarrassed about the issue, given that the President of Bangor University is none other than Lord Elis Thomas; that the local Assembly Member is Alun Ffred Jones - the Minister responsible for the language - and that the Honorary President of Plaid Cymru, Dafydd Wigley, is Chairman of the Bangor Business School?
Why hasn't Dafydd Iwan, who lives ten miles down the road from the University and is the President of Plaid Cymru with responsibility for 'grassroots members', penned a passionate protest song about the "evil" university and the way it wants to impose a non-Welsh speaker on the college built by the pennies of the quarrymen of Dyffryn Ogwen?
Where are the clever and pithy comments from Welsh Ramblings or Syniadau, who are never slow to criticise the policies of other Welsh political parties on the language?
I am sure that some will revert to type by saying that they won't be "lectured by a Tory on the Welsh language" but isn't it surprising that a former Conservative Assembly candidate is the only person to have raised this issue publicly when it is an open goal for representatives of the 'Party of Wales'.
Indeed, whether my party has an opinion or not on the matter, mine has been made absolutely clear as a Welsh speaker who was born and brought up in Gwynedd and who spent four years working at Bangor University.
I will also get the usual bland responses about the 'responsibilities of Plaid being in Government' and that 'universities are independent institutions' but, for example, this has not stopped Plaid activists from insisting that all businesses in Wales, even those in predominantly English speaking areas, conform to a bilingual policy.
Indeed, this is one of the few posts in Wales where it can be argued that Welsh is an essential part of the role of a chief executive within a predominantly Welsh area and where Welsh is a key part of the activities of the University.
If not, then why was the current Vice-Chancellor appointed with such a condition attached to his post?
Worst of all, the Welsh media has confirmed its role as the trumpet of the establishment by ignoring this story completely with the honourable exception of Golwg.
I am sure that Plaid's leaders will all be laughing about this over wine and canapes at the next BBC reception at the National Eisteddfod but by deciding to stay silent and conveniently ignore this issue, they may have damaged Welsh language provision in higher education in Wales for a generation.
Comments
Why should they? Plaid has become the new establishment and any radical flame has been doused many years ago. Dafydd Elis Thomas is the perfect example of this, especially as the rumours around Bangor is that it was he who insited on a 'not welsh' clause in the job description.
On the subject of whether the Vice Chancellor should or should not speak Welsh I would firstly just question the difference between what you said on Monday and what you're saying today. On Monday you were talking about how the job should be advertized, now you seem to be saying that a decision has been made that the new VC should not speak Welsh. The two aren't quite the same ... unless you have some inside information, that is.
My view on this is much the same as it was in the Labour leadership (and therefore First Minister) campaign. I do not think that the inability to speak Welsh should be a disqualifying factor for any job where it is not strictly necessary. What matters far more is that person's attitude towards speaking Welsh and developing its use. In this case I think speaking Welsh would be an obvious advantage, and that if Bangor had a choice of candidates equally qualified in every other way, speaking Welsh should swing it. But top jobs are rather different from others in that the unique mix of individual qualities of the candidate is more important than ticking boxes on a checklist.
As a parallel, take the recent appointment of a new Chief Constable for NWP. There was a Welsh speaking candidate, but the job went to someone else. I think being Chief Constable is much more important to the public at large than being VC of Bangor. So would you kick up the same fuss because a non Welsh speaker (at least so far as I know, he might be learning) was appointed?
Too long for one comment ... part 2 to follow
[if it's a duplicate, please delete it]
I would be much more concerned about Bangor's plans to cut five courses which happen to have a high level of Welsh language content. My reticence to comment on that has been that I don't quite know what is going on behind the scenes. At present these are only plans and I half expected the outcry from those within the establishment to force a change of policy.
But now you've goaded me into it, I will say this. The Coleg Ffederal is, in essence, an independent funding stream which would enable the existing, physical, colleges to employ more Welsh speaking staff, and thus enable them to provide more Welsh medium courses or modules. In each case the funding was only meant to be for a few years, with the intention that the college would keep those members of staff on their payroll from then on. The funding stream would then be used for more new posts, so that the number of Welsh medium courses would grow continuously.
It struck me at the time that this model was very heavily dependent on the good will of the colleges concerned ... and that it would be very easy for them to "short-circuit" the intention. I suspect that Bangor might well be trying to do this premptively. They might well think that they can get a good part of the CFf's funding stream directed to them to keep on staff if they claim that they would otherwise have to make them redundant. That's not an accusation, merely a suspicion. However, given the very tight financial squeeze all colleges are facing, it would be quite understandable if they tried it just to see if it worked. Desperate people do desperate things.
This is a tricky issue, not least because we (all of us who want to see WM provision expand) are so concerned to actually get something called the Coleg Ffederal up and running that we might not be so concerned about how it's meant to work. Or that having established it, those in charge of it might, thorough gritted teeth, be inclined to accept the physical colleges doing that sort of thing because, if they say the funding system isn't working the way it should, they might put a question mark on the future existence of the CFf itself.
I say that simply to open up discussion, Dylan. I'd value your views, since you are inside the world of academia.
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Finally, let me say that I liked what you said about Galway. But perhaps is isn't a matter simply of lack of vision on Bangor's part, but of the two little words "legislative responsibility". The requirement to employ people who are able to teach in Irish is quite a high threshold, and part of me questions how this actually works in practice. But it is very relevant to our situation in Wales over teaching at all levels. We have the crazy situation were teachers are teaching Welsh (as a subject in an EM setting) who cannot speak the language well enough to teach in Welsh. We might well start by making it a legal requirement that those who teach Welsh should themselves be able to speak Welsh competently or, better still, have actually been trained to teach Welsh. The skills required to teach a language are more than just being able to speak it.
The simple fact of the matter, which concerns me more than anything else, is that Welsh language higher education is being slowly eroded at Bangor due to the deliberate policies pursued by those in charge of the institution.
It has started with the threatened closure of those departments which have high levels of Welsh language courses and has now progressed to the point where the Council no longer considers that a Welsh speaker should be appointed to lead the institution. I can absolutely assure you that the decision to close these departments, has nothing to with any tactic to get more Coleg Ffederal funding.
Quite the contrary, and I would expect that the case has been made that these departments are simply not the type that is wanted in the model of higher education that Bangor wishes to follow.
If we are to create national institutions of worth that reflect Wales, then we must defend what has taken years to build up. Creating a Coleg Ffederal, which I have supported previously, is all well and good but it will end up being a virtual institution, served in the same way as the Open University with part time tutors and no real support from academic institutions within Wales. If you believe that is the model that suits the Welsh language best within higher education, I certainly do not and perhaps we should, instead, choose one institution – such as Aberystwyth – which would be the permanent base for a Welsh College, with support from welsh language academics from all over Welsh higher education - a sort of NIU Galway for Wales?
As to your points about the new incumbent learning Welsh, i can tell you that is hope over expectation. From personal experience, one of the shocking realisations when I joined Bangor in 2000, was the considerable number of academics working in senior positions within the university who, despite living in the area for over twenty years, had simply not bothered to learn the language and have no empathy whatsoever with the local culture.
I therefore find it almost impossible to believe that a new non-Welsh speaking Vice-Chancellor (probably from a redbrick university from outside of Wales) will place the learning of a new language at the top of their list of priorities. Worst of all, I have enormous doubts as to whether such an individual, with little experience of the additional importance of the Welsh language, will defend academic departments where the Welsh language is important at a time when financial constraints will force him/her to go after the easy targets.
Still, I have ‘goaded’ you to comment and I would hope that others will join in this debate, as what is the point of having growth in welsh language education at a primary and secondary level if universities in Wales have little or no interest in supporting welsh language teaching at a tertiary level.
I thought that there was a consensus by all the parties that the language is more important than that.
I hoped for better from you.
However, it is also worth noting that the rest of the Welsh media including the Daily Post, Western Mail and ITV Wales, have reported nothing on this matter.
One would have expected that questions would have been asked of the Minister and local AM on this issue or even of the Presiding Officer who is also the President of Bangor University, by journalists from the BBC and other news outlets.
So I guess my invitation to wine and canapes at the BBC's annual reception at the Eisteddfod will not be forthcoming this year (like every other year!)
They were far more vociferous than Plaid on language matters
What about Eleri Carrog and Cefn they were militant on language ,have they disappeared
As I stated in my answer to MH, this is my own personal opinion on the matter and has nothing to with politics. If you think by raising it publicly I am damaging the language, then you clearly don't believe that losing 100 welsh speaking lecturing jobs and appointing a non welsh speaking vice chancellor will have any effect on the welsh language within the higher education system in wales. However, I do and that is why I have made this point and will continue to do so.
Although someone else raised the question in the previous blog entry on the subject, I believe it is totally legitimate to ask to why the current Minister for Heritage and Language, the former chair of the Welsh Language Board and the Honorary President of the Party which purports to support Welsh more than any other political group have not made a single comment about this issue, especially as two are involved within the management of the University and another has direct influence on the welsh language policy of publicly funded institutions in Wales. If they cannot, or will not, defend the Welsh language in such a situation, then who will?
Sam - I can name you at least a dozen outstanding Welsh speaking academics from across Wales who could do the job competently. If none are up to the job, then they could, as you rightly say, readvertise.
Mam - I haven't got a clue where these groups have disappeared to. However, with the Welsh Assembly now having powers over the language, perhapos this issue can be addressed directly by AM's, although I won't be holding my breath.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/welsh/hi/newsid_8510000/newsid_8511600/8511656.stm
The Welsh only rule for the last advert for Vice Chancellor meant that only two candidates were shorlisted, both internal, and one didn't meet the criteria.
It meant that the current VC, who was then acting VC, got the job by default and his strong connections to the Labour Party in Wales helped his case as well.
His strategy of trying to turn Bangor into a 'Russell Group' university has failed miserably and he has had his strings pulled by a far cleverer senior pro vice chancellor.
Unfortunately, the strategy failed miserably and Bangor is worse off financially as a result. The Council has therefore realised that they got the wrong person through the welsh only rule the last time round and want to widen the search for a better leader.
You say that there are at least a dozen welsh speaking academics who could do the job but how many would actually want it? No wonder they want to go outside of Wales. One can only hope that they get someone from a small successful institution in Canada, USA, Australia or New Zealand rather than an academic from another UK institution.
You would be a great candidate as we need someone with passion and vision for this institution but the job comes ten years too early for you and I am afraid you have ruffled too many feathers amongst the current establishment.
"Arfon AM Alun Ffred Jones and Dylan Rees, Plaid Cymru candidate for Ynys Môn, have opposed plans to close four departments at Bangor University. More than 100 jobs could be under threat across religious studies, linguistics, social sciences and modern languages in a scheme to balance its funding shortfall. Mr Ffred Jones said he understood the economic pressure the university faced. “But I urge the authorities to do all they can to preserve departments that have provided an invaluable service over the years and can continue to do so in future.”
Well done prof!
Associated to all this is the threat to close 5 departments, because 20% of Welsh medium students (if you take the Welsh School and the Educational School out of the equation it's 40%!) are in those departments! So closing those departments would have a massive impact on the Welshness of Bangor University. It was Cymdeithas yr Iaith's FOI which revealed this.
See my blogings on the issues:
http://blog.rhysllwyd.com/?p=1335
http://blog.rhysllwyd.com/?p=1339
I have rised the issue of Lord Elis Thomas as you can see; and I see my self as a nationalist blogger therefore there are a few of us who havent got our heads buried in sand!
As you can imagine from my postings, my head is battling my heart over this matter so excuse the unbridled passion that I have on this issue!!
My disappointment with the media in Wales is that they see this as a welsh language issue but it clearly isn't - it is at the heart of not only what our nation should stand for but about the direction of our higher education sector.
The fact that it was the (largely) Welsh speaking Bangor BBC staff that covered this issue (and I have apologised for ommitting their contribution) does not detract fromthe fact that the BBC in Cardiff have largely ignored this, as have the published press.
I see that Alun Ffred has finally woken up to the fact that these jobs are going.
One can only hope that he will intervene on the matter of the Vice Chancellor as well although I won't be holding my breath.