Merged University of Wales chief hails 'new chapter'

The University of Wales (UoW) says its merger with two colleges will recreate a new brand that can "deliver for Wales".

The 120-year old university is effectively being abolished after BBC Wales' investigations raised questions about its scrutiny of partner colleges.

Vice-chancellor Medwin Hughes said the new University of Wales: Trinity St David was a "new chapter" for Wales.

UoW council chairman Hugh Thomas resigned after the merger decision.

The institution's future had come into question following Welsh government proposals to rationalise higher education.

A merger with Trinity St David in Carmarthen and Lampeter, and Swansea Metropolitan University, was proposed as the way forward.

But a scandal uncovered by BBC Wales involving an alleged visa scam centred on a partner college in London offering UoW validated degrees confounded the plan.

The University of Wales: Trinity St David is a very historic brand and I am very committed to making sure that that university will deliver for Wales”

Education minister Leighton Andrews said UoW had "let Wales down" and "probably requires a decent burial", and called for Mr Thomas to quit.

Last year BBC Wales revealed that a pop star with bogus degrees was running a University of Wales partner college in Malaysia.

It led to a damning report from the higher education watchdog, the QAA, which found serious shortcomings in the way UoW approved other colleges to teach and design courses for its degrees.

Announcing his resignation on Friday, Mr Thomas said the "historic decision" taken by the governing body for merger had led him "to assess what in leadership terms was in the best interests of the transformed university".

A Welsh government spokesperson welcomed the resignation as the "right decision in light of recent events".

"The University of Wales has played an important part in the history of Wales. It's important that any successor institution builds upon that history," they added.

Universities don't normally fold overnight let alone national institutions.

But after a fortnight of mounting pressure Wales' scandal-hit national University is set to be abolished after 118 years.

An alleged visa scam involving staff at one of its many partner colleges, exposed by BBC Wales, was the final nail in its coffin.

A year ago the University was as strong as ever - still the second-largest degree-awarding body in the UK, with 70,000 students around the world.

Then came the first BBC Wales investigation, finding irregularities in its foreign partnerships.

The Education Minister, Leighton Andrews, said Wales had been let down by its university.

But worse was to follow: the suggestion that among its partners there was a college in which members of staff were offering to help students cheat their way to its degrees.

Other Welsh universities turned on the institution, six out of ten calling for it to be scrapped.

Only two members of the University would have remained, both located in south west Wales.

The University no longer represented the whole of Wales, the country's biggest institutions having already pulled out in the past six years.

Some suspected the University would fight on and voiced fears that with each new scandal the reputation of higher education in Wales was being damaged further.

But an already bitter battle between universities in Wales was being conducted in public and that could not continue.

There is much to be proud of in the history of the University of Wales, not least its origins as an institution paid for by the subscriptions of education-hungry ordinary people.

The final chapter in its story, however, will be one tarnished by controversy and scandal.

Conservative education spokeswoman Angela Burns AM said: "It is now crucial that lessons are learned and that Welsh higher education regains its credibility".

Vice-chancellor Prof Medwin Hughes, in post for less than a month, said the three institutions would be "recreated" under a new brand.

"It's not the close of an entity, it's the start of a new chapter in the history of those three institutions," he said.

"The plan has always been to transform those three institutions. I'm very pleased that the councils of those governing bodies have had the conviction to create a strong brand in Wales.

"What the University of Wales decided today was to recreate itself to merge with another two universities to deliver a new university for Wales.

"The University of Wales: Trinity St David is a very historic brand and I am very committed to making sure that that university will deliver for Wales."

'Tumultuous few weeks'

Dr Peter Noyes, vice chancellor of University of Wales, Newport, said the merger "should not detract from a distinguished history lasting 12 decades".

"Wales should be sad that this day has come but those who have played a part in the institution's history, whether graduates, academics or others should look back with fondness on this national institution," he said.

"We are heading towards a future with a transformed higher education sector in Wales and it had become clear that the University of Wales was unable to play a part in that future."

Luke Young, president of the National Union of Students (NUS) Wales, said he had been assured by Prof Hughes that students would be given "a central role in forming a new university in south west Wales".

"It has been a tumultuous few weeks," he said.

"It is now time for all universities to pull together and shift the focus back to delivering for students in Wales."