Ancestors appreciated true value of education

I WAS the first in my family to go to university, but I was not the first to understand what education could mean.

- DYLAN JONES EVANS

More than six centuries ago, when Owain Glyndwr outlined his vision for an independent Wales in the Pennal Letter of 1406, establishing two universities, one in the north and one in the south, was among his chief priorities

My great-grandfather, a quarryman in Gwynedd, was among those who gave what little they could to help establish the University College of North Wales in Bangor in the 19th century.

Those contributions mattered because they came from people who had very little but believed higher education was worth building for future generations.

That is why the crisis now facing Welsh universities is important, as this is not simply a story about deficits, redundancies and falling student numbers. It is about whether Wales is prepared to let one of its most important national assets drift into decline.

For too long, Welsh higher education has behaved as though the market around it has not fundamentally changed, but students are now more mobile, more selective and more exposed to a competitive UK-wide system than ever before.

Welsh universities are not mainly competing with each other, they are competing with powerful English institutions, major city brands and a student market that is making harder judgments about value, employability and experience.

Yet Wales has never developed a convincing answer to that challenge, and “Study in Wales” should have become a serious national proposition, built around quality, affordability, community and opportunity. Instead, it has too often felt like a slogan rather than a strategy, and too many institutions have looked and sounded alike, chasing similar students with similar offers.

The deeper problem is not simply that some Welsh students leave Wales, it is that the system has become increasingly dependent on students from elsewhere while the number of Welsh-domiciled students staying in Wales has fallen.