Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol Annual Report 2018/2019
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Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol Annual Report 2018/2019 @ColegCymraeg CONTENTS APPENDICES 01 Chair’s Introduction Appendix 1 Governance 02 Chief Executive’s Report Appendix 2 Membership of the Coleg’s 03 Data Report main committees 04 Highlights of the year: Appendix 3 The Coleg’s officers, staff and main providers of Launch of the Welsh-medium professional services Further Education and Appendix 4 Lecturing posts funded by Apprenticeships Action Plan the Coleg via the Academic Staffing Scheme in 2018/19 Celebrating and Supporting our Lecturers Appendix 5 Doctoral students funded by the Coleg via the Research Gwerddon Celebrates One Scholarships Scheme in Hundred Articles 2018/19 Coleg Ambassadors Appendix 6 Subject Grants provided by the Coleg to support higher Tomorrow’s Doctors – education provision in 2018/19 Ifan’s story Appendix 7 Catalyst Grants provided by Success of the Work Welsh the Coleg to establish new Scheme higher education provision in 2018/19 P. 03 P. P. 02 P. Appendix 8 Higher education: national projects and other projects Appendix 9 Further education: projects Appendix 10 Support for institutions Appendix 11 Funding Contact us Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol Y Llwyfan College Road Carmarthen SA31 3EQ 01267 610400 colegcymraeg.ac.uk @ColegCymraeg colegcymraeg.ac.uk @ColegCymraeg 1. A WORD 2. CHIEF FROM EXECUTIVE’S THE CHAIR REPORT It is my pleasure to present the Coleg’s Annual Report After another year of uncertainty in the political lower than it was five years ago. In the medium term, for 2018/19. This was a significant year in the Coleg’s Dr Haydn E. Edwards world, the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol brings without additional resources, the Coleg will not be history as we launched, in collaboration with the Chair of the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol this Annual Report to your attention and looks able to continue to support the range of areas and Welsh Government, the Action Plan for developing December 2019 forward with confidence to the second decade in activities that are currently in receipt of Coleg grants. Welsh-medium and bilingual education and training its history. As the Chair notes in his remarks, one of in the further education and apprenticeship sectors. the highlights of the year was the publication of the This report contains a section on the numbers This stems from the recommendation of the review Action Plan for extending the Coleg’s responsibilities of students studying an element of their course panel, which scrutinised the Coleg’s work and to the further education and apprenticeship through the medium of Welsh. The Coleg remains performance in 2017, that the Coleg’s responsibilities sectors. Given the appropriate resources to concerned about the significant number of Welsh should be extended to these sectors while its work in achieve the strategy’s objectives, we can make speakers choosing to study outside Wales. As the higher education sector continues. As I noted last a vital contribution to the delivery of the Welsh this pattern is beyond the Coleg’s control, we are year, this will be central to the success of the Welsh Government’s Welsh Language Strategy, in the field establishing arrangements for maintaining contact Government’s Welsh Language Strategy, since the of vocational education and training in particular. I with these students in the hope that this will increase plan proposes that, over time, all learners in these welcome the support and co-operation of a range the likelihood that they will return to live and work in sectors will receive an element of Welsh language of partners, including ColegauCymru, who have Wales in the future. training. The availability of appropriate resources worked with us to ensure that the resources we have to deliver this ambitious plan over the period is at present are used to their fullest potential in order A very positive development was the establishment therefore crucial. to implement the plan. We look forward to a positive of a closer partnership between the Coleg, the response from the Welsh Government to the initial universities and the Higher Education Funding During the second part of the year, a new five-year proposals put forward by the Coleg for additional Council for Wales to agree measures (or targets) Strategic Plan for the Coleg was prepared, and the resources to increase the number of lecturers, for the numbers of students studying part of their P. 05 P. Plan will be formally published in February 2020. trainers and assessors who will be able to work and course through the medium of Welsh. This will be a P. 04 P. Board members, along with officers, have spent a support learners through the medium of Welsh. way of setting realistic but challenging targets for great deal of time developing this plan, including the universities, based on the percentage of Welsh developing ways in which the Coleg can contribute By 2021, the Coleg will have moved fully to the speakers who could be expected to study at least a more widely to policy development in education and Subject Grants model as the primary means of part of their studies through the medium of Welsh. training, the Welsh language, and other areas. supporting Welsh-medium provision at universities. I am pleased to confirm once again this year that One area where the Coleg, thus far, has not played Despite the Coleg’s success in recent years, Welsh- the majority of lecturers supported through the such a central supporting role is the field of Initial medium education faces many challenges. One of Coleg’s Academic Staffing Scheme for a period of Teacher Education. This year, the Welsh Government those challenges is that just under half of all Welsh- five years have been appointed to permanent posts has asked the Coleg to report on the way in which the speaking students are choosing to study their higher at their universities. We are pleased that the Staffing providers are responding to the national framework education courses outside Wales. For the Coleg, this Scheme, introduced following Professor Sir Robin that was established recently to ensure that everyone means that the potential for further development is Williams’ Report in 2009, prior to the establishment pursuing an initial teacher training course receives diminished. We will work with the Welsh Government of the Coleg, was so successful in its aim of an appropriate level of language training in Welsh, and the higher education sector in Wales to seek strengthening the capacity of universities to provide whether they are fluent speakers or new speakers to mitigate and change this pattern through the more subjects than ever before through the medium of the language. This is a welcome development, but joint planning of higher education provision that is of Welsh. But we cannot rest on our laurels. One of with the establishment of new Welsh in Education both broad and high-quality, and by promoting the the priorities for the next period will be to ensure that Strategic Plans within all local authorities, the Coleg benefits of studying through the medium of Welsh to provision is sustained, embedded and deepened, remains concerned about the numbers of teachers prospective students. and also extended to the few areas which are not with Welsh language skills in the workplace. We are currently provided through the medium of Welsh. The already working with partners on plans to increase My term as Chair of the Coleg’s Board of Directors annual planning process between the Coleg and the the numbers teaching Welsh as a subject, since this ends on 31 March 2020. I would like to take this individual universities ensure that firm foundations number has declined over the years, but we are also opportunity to thank all Board members, officers, are laid in this regard. However, the Coleg’s budget willing to play a more leading role in the field of Initial and everyone associated with the Coleg, for the for higher education has not seen an increase for Teacher Education, should the Welsh Government support given during my term of office. It has been a several years, and the current budget is significantly give us this responsibility. pleasure and a privilege to lead a body that is so vital for the future of the Welsh language, and I wish my successor well. colegcymraeg.ac.uk @ColegCymraeg 2. CHIEF 3. DATA EXECUTIVE’S REPORT REPORT During the year, the Coleg has continued to develop Data its partnership with the National Centre for Learning Dr Ioan Matthews Welsh, specifically in terms of co-ordinating the Chief Executive of the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol December 2019 Work Welsh scheme in the higher and further The latest data on Welsh-medium registrations show There has been considerable progress during the past education sectors. We will announce a closer that the growth in teaching partly or wholly through year in ensuring consistency between the targets partnership between us as two bodies in the near the medium of Welsh is being sustained. Despite and metrics of the various relevant bodies. The Coleg future, and from January 2020, the Centre will rent challenging patterns arising from patterns of student is proud of its close co-operation with the Higher office space from the Coleg in Cardiff. choice, as referred to in the Chair’s introduction and Education Funding Council, and we trust that this the Chief Executive’s report, the number of full-time process of harmonisation will have a positive influence The Coleg’s annual meeting for 2019 was held undergraduate students remains at an all-time high. on the figures from 2021. Ensuring greater cohesion in in Bangor, when three honorary fellows were The pattern is similar for full-time postgraduate order to contribute purposefully to the Cymraeg 2050 inaugurated.