EDT (2) SP12
National Assembly Economic Development & Transport Committee
As one who
has long expressed particular concern at the absence of any coherent Science Policy by the Welsh Assembly Government I write to the Committee to express my concerns at the present situation in the hope that some semblance of urgency might be instilled into the
Review before Science in Wales finally succumbs to the pressures being placed upon it. I make no apology for stressing the crucial role of Higher Education in maintaining a coherent structure for Science in the Principality. Without the contributions
of the separate Departments of the Universities/Colleges of the University of Wales, Science here would indeed be in an even more parlous state than it now is. It is distressing to realize that currently, following successive Research Assessment Exercises,
none of the Science Departments in Wales (Chemistry, Physics and Biology as the core disciplines) are funded at a level that will ensure their continuing existence. Regrettably, recent developments occasioned by the separation of the University of
Cardiff and the Welsh College of Medicine from the federal structure of the University of Wales have further weakened the standing of the remaining Institutions and their Science Departments (Aberystwyth, Bangor & Swansea, primarily) without significantly
enhancing Cardiff in its bid for national eminence. From
a situation in the late seventies when each of the four Colleges of the University of Wales supported healthy departments of Science in each of the three primary disciplines Chemistry, Physics and Biology (together with various related disciplines), in addition
of course to Mathematics, the situation has degenerated to such an extent that now only Cardiff retains these three disciplines: Physics has been totally lost in Bangor and is now very weak in Aberystwyth: Chemistry no longer exists at Aberystwyth
and Swansea has effectively relinquished this discipline. Biological Sciences continues to exist in some guise in all the Institutions, but its research standing has been dramatically weakened. From a situation where the totality of activity
in the Science Departments of the Colleges of the University of Wales compared favourably with the best at the English and Scottish Universities, the determination of the Colleges to pursue their own separate agendas and to eschew any effective cross-College
collaborative programmes has weakened their Science departments to such an extent that in an era when only 5* departments are funded satisfactorily, all must now be regarded as vulnerable, even those at Cardiff.For
your information I enclose as an attachment to this e-mail a copy of a letter I wrote to Mr Dafydd Wigley, the Pro Chancellor of the University of Wales, on the occasion of his considerations on the future role of the University of Wales and, in particular,
on the secession of Cardiff from the Federal University. Sadly, with the approval of the Welsh Assembly Government, the separate development of the individual institutions as fully fledged Universities was encouraged and the role of the University
of Wales was diminished. Regrettably, by this decision the central function of the Federal University has been critically damaged and, thereby, its ability to promote the cross institutional collaborations that provided the only hope of generating
the critical mass that lies at the heart of a flourishing scientific culture. My
ideas for the promotion of Science in Wales will be clear from this letter and from that to Mr Dafydd Wigley, the Pro Chancellor of the University of Wales, namely that the only possible avenue for promoting a healthy scientific culture in Wales is by promoting
collaboration between the small pockets of international-quality research activity that still exist within the Principality. Such an approach has been dealt a severe blow by recent decisions over the future of the University of Wales. Regrettably,
the history of Wales is one of remarkable insights but also of lost opportunities. Sadly, few can have confidence that at this critical juncture the Welsh Assembly will display sufficient insight to realize that the only real hope for creating a lively
Science community lies in collaborations across the limited number of Institutions of Higher Education that exist within the Principality. Experience would lead one to expect efforts to identify areas for profitable investment promising significant
short-term financial returns. Sadly I believe this would be the wrong approach and would do little to secure the long term health of Science in Wales. I trust I am proved to be wrong.Sincerely
Yours,Emeritus Professor W. Jeremy Jones, C.Chem., FRSC,Formerly: Fellow & Tutor, TrinityCollege,
CambridgeUniversity Lecturer in Physical Chemistry, University of Cambridge;Professor
and Head of the Department of Chemistry, University of Wales, Aberystwyth;Professor of Chemistry
and Dean of the Faculty of Science,University of Wales Swansea
EDT (2) SP12 Annex
Mr
Dafydd Wigley
Pro Chancellor of The University of Wales
Dear Mr Wigley
The
Future of The University of Wales
I write to you to express my concern at the current demise of the University of Wales and of its diminishing role in Higher Education in the Principality.
I write as a former undergraduate and postgraduate student of the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. My subsequent academic career has led me via a Lectureship at Cambridge and a Fellowship and Tutorship at Trinity College to the Chair of Chemistry at
Aberystwyth, then to a Professorship (now Emeritus) in Chemistry at Swansea (following the Aberystwyth decision to close its Department of Chemistry in 1988). The recent decision also to close the Chemistry Department at Swansea has left me extremely angry at
the short-sightedness of those who were charged with guiding the University and its Institutions through the Thatcherite reforms of the early eighties and beyond.Tragically,
in a twenty year period of increasingly intense competition the University and its constituent Institutions have wasted countless opportunities of collaborating together to build on the potential strengths of the second largest University in the United Kingdom.
My experience at the University of Cambridge, the foremost research-led University in this country, made it apparent to me that the totality of smaller departments of the separate Welsh Colleges were not in a position to compete successfully at the very highest
level, notwithstanding the successes of many of its Departments in successive Research Assessment Exercises. Such thinking must have been in the minds of the founding fathers of The University of Wales in establishing a federal structure which would permit the
separate small Colleges of The University of Wales to compete on an equal footing with the very large and longer-established urban universities in England. Sadly, the separate University Colleges of Wales have attempted over the past twenty years to acquire
an independence of the Federal University in the mistaken beliefs that they were individually strong enough to compete at the very highest level. The annual publication of University League Tables has brutally exposed the limitations of these beliefs since the
Colleges of the University, with the possible exception of Cardiff, continue to languish near the bottom of the league of traditional research-led Universities. The
history of the development of the University and its constituent Institutions over the past twenty years makes it clear that one can not look to the individual University Colleges alone to promote the types of change that will raise their standing in today’s
competitive world. It remains, therefore, for the centralised University to act as the engine that will drive forward much needed change to the structure of the Welsh Universities. Clearly this can only be done with the support of the individual Institutions.
In seeking such support, however, the most recent League Tables prepared by the Times newspaper provide devastating evidence of the need for change. Currently Aberystwyth, Swansea and Bangor, are placed at 49th, 50th and 56th, respectively, and Cardiff (with
the incorporation of statistics from the University of Wales College of Medicine) is placed at 21st (The Times, 17 May 2004). Sadly, the rankings for Aberystwyth, Swansea and Bangor have declined even further from their lowly standings of 42nd, 43rd and 45th,
in similar Tables published in the eighties. Distressingly, some of our Universities have even fallen behind former Polytechnics, Institutions which previously possessed a very limited research remit. At a departmental, rather than institutional, level the Times
League Tables tell the same dismal story. In 38 main stream subject areas each identifying the top 20 departments, the Universities of Wales (including Cardiff) appear in 33 (Aberystwyth 4, Bangor 3, Cardiff 16, Lampeter 2, Swansea 8 [one of which is Chemistry
that is now being closed]). Thus, none of the Universities of Wales are to be found in the top 20 Departments in more than half of these subject areas, most are not present in three quarters of these fields. To appreciate the extent to which we have fallen,
50 departments of former Polytechnics also feature in these Tables. The totality of entries for all of the constituent Institutions in Wales taken together have the roughly the same impact as single University Institutions such as Nottingham(31), Bristol (29),
Edinburgh (30), etc., but dramatically less than the totality of the constituent Institutions of the University of London (80), figures which place in perspective Cardiff’s bid for separate University status. These Tables provide a devastating indictment
of two decades of separate development in which great emphasis has been placed on promoting individual Institutions as research-led Universities of ever improving standing. At this key stage in the development of Higher Education in Wales it is time to acknowledge
that this attempt by the Universities of Aberystwyth, Bangor, Swansea (and possibly even Cardiff), to compete separately with the best of the English Universities has failed abysmally. For
my own part I am conscious of the difficulties of initiating a closer collaboration between Departments of the University following my failure in the early eighties as Head of the Chemistry Department at Aberystwyth to persuade the other sister Departments of
the University (Bangor, Cardiff & Swansea) of the need to present a common front that would express the collective strength of Chemistry in the University of Wales. This collaborative approach was also promoted by Sir Granville Beynon in the late eighties,
following the publication of the Edwards and Stone Reports, when he proposed the creation of a University of Wales Department of Physics to enable the small Departments in Wales to meet the minimum targets of 20 academic staff considered as essential for viable
Departments of Physics and Chemistry. Unfortunately in Chemistry no such collective spirit emerged and the individual departments felt their interests would best be served by separate development. It has come as no surprise to me, therefore, that first Aberystwyth
and now Swansea have capitulated to the increasing pressures on students and funding by closing their Departments of Chemistry, losing thereby a subject crucial to developments in modern technology. On a very much larger scale a wonderful opportunity to place
the University of Wales on a footing capable of meeting the challenge of modern University Britain was lost when the Rosser Report recommended the abolishment of the post of Deputy Pro Chancellor, a post which was established by the Daniel Report in order to
chart a healthy future for the University and its constituent Institutions.With
the current proposal to merge the University of Wales Cardiff and the University of Wales College of Medicine, with the resultant Institution seceding from the federal structure of The University of Wales, the future looks bleak for the remaining Institutions
unless major changes are implemented that will allow them to fulfil part, at least, of the research function required of a Premier University. Quite apart from the propriety and ethics of this declaration of UDI by Cardiff, it is of particular concern to me
that the University of Wales College of Medicine, which is accepted and has been supported within Wales from its foundation as having a role to play which is very much wider than in relation to the city of Cardiff alone, should now see its future in this merged
Institution. Quite apart from the short-sightedness of those who would sanction this decision, I am concerned as to whether the three remaining Institutions of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Bangor & Swansea, are even yet able to accept their
declining significance in the University scene. More likely will be moves to transfer diminishing resources to selected areas, as is currently happening in Swansea, in an attempt to attain a certain critical size and thereby to boost their standing in the League
Tables. Regrettably, this minimalist approach will not provide the impetus necessary to raise standards significantly and, even with such additional resources, the departments of the separate Institutions will still be unable to compete successfully with those
of the best English Universities, relegating us to permanent second or even third class status.I
am pleased to learn that you are charged with leading an enquiry into the future role of The University of Wales, with a view to charting a path that will ensure that Wales retains a Higher Education System that will provide permanent benefit to its socio-economic
structure. You will be well aware that Universities provide a driving force that permeates all aspects of the life of a community, in particular in those areas of Science and Technology that drive future wealth creation. In this respect it has long been a source
of concern to me that the Welsh Assembly Government has largely neglected the crucial role which Universities play in the well-being of the community by placing excessive stress on post-16 education, favouring thereby the low-grade training element of the education
of our young, in place of the research-led ethos that lies at the heart of a thriving modern economy.With
regard to the future development of The University of Wales and its constituent Institutions, twenty years experience of teaching and research at the University of Cambridge has convinced me that the separate development of the three Institutions (Aberystwyth,
Bangor & Swansea) remaining if Cardiff is permitted to secede will necessarily relegate them to permanent positions near the bottom of the League Tables, notwithstanding any investment within these Institutions attempting to raise the status of individual
departments. This view is based on the combination of factors which have been employed to judge departments in successive Research Assessment Exercises, viz. the numbers of undergraduate and postgraduate students sustained, the numbers of academic and support
staff in each department, the external financial support attracted from government and industrial sources, and finally the quality and research output of the academic staff. Many individual departments within the Welsh University Institutions have done wonderfully
well over the years in attaining high RAE grades, but all are found wanting when set against the totality of the above criteria which are needed to ensure the long term health of a top-rated department. This position contrasts sharply with departments in Universities
such as Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College, University College, Nottingham, etc. whose departments have regularly featured in the top 5 grade in each successive Research Assessment Exercise. Even the newly merged University at Cardiff would not merit its place
in the Russell Group of Universities if it were not for the enormous embarrassment that would arise from having no representative of the Welsh Universities in this elite group.In
assessing the role the University of Wales should play in establishing a framework for Higher Education in the Principality I believe it is essential to address the ability of separate subject disciplines within the Federal University to sustain departmental
structures that can compete with the prestigious urban universities of England and Scotland for students, high-grade academic staff and essential research resources. Looking at the gradings of the departments of the Federal University one can readily identify
pockets of expertise which are well regarded even by international standards, many of which are complementary to related activities in other Institutions within the Principality. This complementarity is not surprising considering the role that academics from
each Institution have played over the past century in contributing to developments within other Welsh Institutions under the umbrella of the Federal University. Taken together, the totality of expertise within the University of Wales compares favourably with
that to be found in any other University in the United Kingdom. I refer specifically to areas such as: Agriculture and Forestry (Aberystwyth and Bangor); Engineering (Bangor in Electronic Engineering, Cardiff & Swansea in Civil, Aeronautical, Mechanical,
Materials & Chemical Engineering); Mathematics, Computer Science, Biological Sciences, History, Modern Languages, etc. (in all four Institutions); Physics (Cardiff, Aberystwyth & Swansea), etc. - the list is long. Taken separately these activities
rarely receive the recognition they merit by virtue of the limited impact that smaller departments exert in Assessment Exercises geared to the standards required of World Class Institutions. In
order that the Departments of The University of Wales should be accorded the recognition which I believe they merit, it is essential that outside organizations charged with assessing the relative merits of the various University Departments should appreciate
the extra dimension associated with the Welsh Universities by virtue of the Federal Structure of this unique University. Such recognition will only be accorded, however, if the Institutions are clearly seen to be actively cooperating and collaborating together
as one coherent institution. Whether this involves rationalization of Departments between the Institutions, a realignment of the strategic direction of each Institution, avenues of collaboration between Departments of the Universities, or a combination of all
three, will depend on the circumstances of each Department and the willingness of the different Institutions to countenance changes of the magnitude required. Such changes could only be facilitated by discussions between yourself, the Higher Education Funding
Council for Wales and the individual Institutions, on mechanisms for moving The University of Wales forward to a brighter future. To the present HEFCW has shown little inclination to assume a pro-active role in promoting research excellence in Wales, unlike
the approach adopted by its sister organization in England, preferring instead to mimic policies adopted by HEFCE while ignoring the enormous strength in depth in England in comparison with the situation in Wales. In large measure this supine attitude of HEFCW
in relation to the promotion of fundamental and applied research can be traced back to its Mission Statement, which differs dramatically from that of HEFCE - to quote from that Mission Statement: to develop and sustain a dynamic research sector that holds a
strong position among the world leaders, and makes a major contribution to economic prosperity and national wellbeing and to the expansion and dissemination of knowledge. Distressingly, no such clear commitment to research excellence is to be found anywhere
within the HEFCW Mission Statement. It is as if from the outset HEFCW has accepted that Higher Education in Wales can not compete in research at this level and that our future is to function in a subservient capacity at a very much lower level, the clear message
given by the HEFCW Mission Statement.I
wish you every success in your deliberations in what may well be the last real opportunity to prepare a framework for a World Class Structure for University Education in Wales. Sadly, the possibility of a meaningful restructuring of the University would be immeasurably
enhanced were Cardiff also to be retained within the Federal University. In summary, I remain convinced that "Unless
we can all hang together we shall all hang separately".If it would help in any way I should be pleased to meet with you to discuss
any aspect of this letter or my views on possible future developments within an University that could be so much better than the sum of its parts.Cofion
cynnesW. Jeremy Jones(Emeritus Professor, University of Wales Swansea)cc.
The Vice Chancellors of The Universities of Wales,(Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cardiff, Lampeter, Swansea and UW College of Medicine),The
Chairman & The Interim Chief Executive, HEFCW,Concerned Members of Parliament,Concerned
Members of the Welsh Assembly,Sir John Meurig Thomas, FRS,
