Earlier this week, as the fallout from the Education Minister's announcement was being painfully absorbed by Vice-Chancellors across Wales's universities, I speculated that one of the potential mergers could be between Bangor and Aberystwyth.I noted that
"this would make sense in terms of establishing a rival research led institution to Swansea and Cardiff but this would only work if there was a clear delineation in subject areas across the two campuses as the distance is too great for any meaningful interaction i.e. science and business at Bangor; arts, humanities and social sciences at Aberystwyth".
Ironically, the current Vice Chancellor of Aberystwyth University, Professor Noel Lloyd, has suddenly announced that he will retire at the end of the next academic year.
Given that a new Vice Chancellor has already been appointed for Bangor, isn't this now the perfect opportunity for both institutions to merge their senior management, especially given the fact that the deputy vice-chancellor at Bangor is also rumoured to be retiring?
Ironically, the current Vice Chancellor of Aberystwyth University, Professor Noel Lloyd, has suddenly announced that he will retire at the end of the next academic year.
Given that a new Vice Chancellor has already been appointed for Bangor, isn't this now the perfect opportunity for both institutions to merge their senior management, especially given the fact that the deputy vice-chancellor at Bangor is also rumoured to be retiring?
At the moment, Aber's council don't think so, as they have already announced that they have
"moved to begin the process to appoint Professor Lloyd’s successor, which is expected to be completed in time for the 2011/12 academic year".
Is this a wise move given the Minister's recent statements?
Is this a wise move given the Minister's recent statements?
One thing is for certain, the response by both Bangor and Aberystwyth to this new development will show whether the Higher Education sector in Wales is taking the Minister seriously or whether they are silently ignoring him.
Over to you, Mr Andrews.
Comments
One suggestion was that there could be a merger with Chester to create the first cross-border academic institution in the UK with 20,000 students.
An inspired possibility or an unworkable solution?
The remainder could merge/re-merge into a federal university, focussing on vocational and specialist/technical subjects (as supposed to research) under the "University of Wales" banner. Similar to US Community Colleges in a way.
The new "University of Wales" colleges could each base themselves around a speciality. For example:
Humanities/Cultural Studies at Trinity St Davids
Business, Health & Sports Sciences at UWIC
Optronics, Materials Sciences and Avionics at Glyndwr
Computing and Automotive Technology at Swansea Met
Arts/Media/Design, Education and Social Sciences at Newport
Some courses can be offered at more than one campus of course where facilities/funding/staffing allow.
But they need to be better than community colleges - more technological universities?
I know Dylan is conflicted on this one - wouldn't want him out a job would we - but it would cut the number of universities down to six very quickly, although I do think that if Leighton Andrews is going to it properly, he should merge Aber and Bangor as well to create FIVE 20,000 student plus unis (Swansea could then grow via its second campus).
What I'm suggesting is that that Wales retains five large research-led universities and a fully federal (rather than loosely con-federal as existed before) University of Wales that focusses on advanced level/professional training, technical expertise and producing the next generation of, not academics, but engineers, managers, technicians and professionals in a wide variety of fields.
I doubt it would be a polytechnic in the old definition, more an alliance of specialist colleges. I guess similar to MIT in the States but the research coming to them (both from the "big five" in Wales, the public sector and hopefully the private sector) and turned into practical applications rather than all done in-house. If that makes any sense.
Most importantly, as Dylan alludes, once such an arrangement is in place, then all the institutions must work together to ensure complementarity not competition. For example, if any traditional university decides that it can suddenly cross the boundary and start offering professional courses, then it should realise that its public funding would be cut for doing so.
Draconian, yes, but the senior executives of Welsh universities have been getting away with blue murder for too long.
I don't believe that Glyndwr is the odd one out though.
Actually it is Glamorgan, as it not only is it allegedly financially unstable but it is continuing a dumbing down process that will take it out of the Big Five group very soon to become, as its staff fear, a glorified HE college. With none of the University of Wales new universities wanting to link up with it, will it be left to operate only as the University of the Valleys?
As far as Glyndwr goes, given the recent blurring between HE and FE in both the valleys and SW Wales I suspect some sort of tie-in with Coleg Llandrillo may be in the offing. Glyndwr/Chester seems unlikely with the current funding system.
Doesn't sound a lot, but it feels a lot when you have to commute between the two. Leighton Andrews, living in South Wales, may not realise that this is a fairly fundamental problem.
Even with merged top management functions, there's still a need to commute backwards and forwards to see what's really happening. How can you inspect a shower block in Ty Gwerin on the Aberystwyth seafront from Bangor's main building? You can't. So you need two staffs for accommodation. Likewise for libraries, IT, and departmental administration and Learning Support Services. That's a big chunk of the current budget. The main saving gone before you've blinked.
I was bitterly opposed to the break-up of the University of Wales, but I'm even more opposed to this idea. It would be a grotesque blunder that would be expensive and damaging to both institutions.
Quite apart from anything else, I would agree with above - they're both big enough to survive on their own. There are plenty of far smaller universities in England that nobody is proposing to close - Worcester, for instance, or Winchester. Moreover, Aberystwyth is currently getting bigger. This is carrying the logic of big is beautiful much too far.