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Nation•Cymru A news service by the people of Wales, for the people of Wales.

Opinion

The threat to higher education in Wales

By Mark Mansfield
Siân Gwenllian at Bangor University

Siân Gwenllian, MS

The crisis facing Bangor University is a wake-up call for us all—and it’s one that cannot be ignored any longer.

Last week, Bangor University announced plans to find over £5 million in savings, putting around 78 jobs at risk.

That’s 78 families in our community facing uncertainty. That’s 78 livelihoods—and countless local businesses who rely on the university—left in limbo.

This is not just a Bangor issue; this is an economic threat to the wider community, and a symptom of a much deeper problem in how higher education is funded in Wales.

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Financial sustainability

I raised these concerns directly in the Senedd this week, calling on the Welsh Government to outline what steps it will take to support Bangor University and create long-term financial sustainability for the sector.

In response, the Minister acknowledged the pressure but offered no concrete solutions—no plan, no commitment.

And it’s not just Bangor. From Cardiff to Lampeter, our universities are facing impossible financial pressures after years of chronic underfunding.

In the case of Bangor, these cuts come on top of years of voluntary redundancies. The long-term effect?

Fewer job opportunities, less research and innovation, and fewer chances for young people in our communities to stay, study, and build their futures here in Wales.

Let’s be clear: the blame for this lies at the feet of the Labour Welsh Government.

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Smoke and mirrors

For 25 years, they have failed to put our universities on a sustainable footing. Despite repeated warnings, they have slashed the higher education budget for three consecutive years and still haven’t reversed the trend in their latest Budget.

The so-called “transformation fund” turned out to be nothing more than smoke and mirrors.

Universities are not just institutions of learning—they are cornerstones of our economy, drivers of innovation, and crucial players in the promotion and survival of the Welsh language.

They are part of the national project of building a better, fairer, and more prosperous Wales. But they have been left to fend for themselves, expected to do more with less, year after year.

In Arfon, Bangor University is one of the main employers. Its economic impact extends far beyond its campus—from local electricians and tradespeople to cafés, shops, and services already under pressure.

Every job lost at Bangor is a blow to the entire region.

As the local Member of the Senedd, I have already begun speaking with staff, hearing their fears and frustrations.

I will be taking those concerns directly to the Vice-Chancellor and pressing for no compulsory redundancies.

But it shouldn’t fall solely to local representatives or university leaders to pick up the pieces. The Welsh Government must act—and act now.

Plaid Cymru has long called for a national strategy to place our universities on a secure financial footing.

In February, we pushed again for action. The Minister refused. And now we are seeing the real-world consequences.

We cannot continue encouraging students to leave Wales for their studies while our own institutions suffer. We cannot expect universities to train our future workforce while undermining their ability to operate.

And we cannot afford to lose the cultural, social, and economic value they bring to our communities.

Plaid Cymru is committed to reversing this neglect. We recognise the vital role of universities in our economic strategy and our vision for Wales.

In government, we would not stand by while campuses face closure and communities face collapse. The time for empty words is over—the time for action is now.

Siân Gwenllian is the Plaid Cymru MS for Arfon. 

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14 comments

Richard

Would she (or anyone else from Plaid) care to go into more detail on what a Plaid government would do, how much it would cost and where the money would come from?

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Peter J

As with any 'comment' or 'opinion' piece from Plaid, the question remains: what would you actually do differently? Moaning and complaining without offering a workable solution gets us absolutely nowhere. This applies to this article; but you are seeing this right across the multiple policy areas from Plaid - health, education, housing, pylons, EU relationships.

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Undecided

Absolutely right. The incumbent Minister is accused of offering “no concrete solutions”. Can’t argue with that; but Ms Gwenllian doesn’t either. It seems that the “time for empty words” is not over after all? As you say, there is a pattern here with Plaid. They have to do a lot lot better.

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Evan Aled Bayton

It’s not just the institutions it’s the quality of the courses and reversing the drift away from practical based courses like chemistry and forestry to courses based on stuff you can do on a lap top anywhere. Also the loss of colleges of further education and accessibility of courses like A levels and GCSEs to mature students. As well as courses like welding, bricklaying, plumbing, fine art etc..

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James w

We should first remember what Bangor's strengths used to be - especially before the dismemberment of the University of Wales by ambitious Vice Chancellors in the mid 2000s. Bangor was home to John Ellis Jones the world's only Welsh speaking Classical archaeologist who taught a whole range of classical courses to students in North Wales; and to Nancy Edwards one of the world's leading experts on the early medieval period. This breadth of learning, teaching and scholarship (remember that?) has been cast aside by the techno-managerialist acolytes of The Economy.

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Christopher Wood, PhD, JD

Vis-à-vis Bangor's financial mess    Forgive, but Bangor University can do a LOT to get out of its financial mess. For example, in academic year 2023/2024 Bangor generated just £128k in terms of "Total intellectual property income (including patents, copyright, design, registration and trade marks)" - barely enough to cover the salaries of just two lecturers. Data derived from Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) for British Universities' and in particular Table 4d:   https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/providers/business-community/table-4d     Of note: according to Bangor University's own web site: Bangor comprises of "World Leading Research - Our cutting-edge research informs our teaching and helps advance our collective understanding of the world around us"... yet as stated above, generated just £128k for academic year 2023/24); this badly needs improvement and is so sad for Wales.    More specifically, "The Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021, published in 2022, recognises that 85% of Bangor University’s research is either world-leading or internationally excellent. We are also ranked in the Top 30 in the UK for research impact, demonstrating the real-world contribution of our research."     https://www.bangor.ac.uk/research    Despite all this Bangor FAILS to patent and hence fails to monetize its discoveries.     Meanwhile, for comparison, Sheffield generated £49 million in academic year 2023/2024 enough to cover the salaries of 700 academics (assuming an average salary of £70k).    Also, of note: Queen's University Belfast has a budget of £474.2 million (2023/24) whereas Cardiff's budget was larger at £638.0 million (2023/24); also Cardiff academic staff count of 3,410 (2022/23) is over a third higher than Queen's: 2,030 (2022/23) and yet Queen's IP value output is more than Cardiff by a factor of 4; and Queen's outperforms all of the Welsh universities combined by at least a factor of 3.5 :(    What is Queen's secret? The key is the number of invention disclosures processed per year ("80+") by Queen's IP Office.     https://www.qub.ac.uk/Business/commercialisation/   Christopher Wood, PhD, JD    PS What can I say other than Bangor needs to hire me!

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Peter J

First of all 85% of papers greater or equal to 3* in REF isn't impressive. Most good Universities would be 95%-100%. In REF people only care about 4* IP doesn't suddenly appear. You need to invest in good facilities and good staff. Most revenue generating IP comes from science or engineering schools. Bangor only has one small engineering department. I wouldn't be surprised if Sheffield has more engineering lecturers than all engineering lecturers in Wales combined. Our Universities are too small (in terms of staffing) and not elite enough - that would be the issue I would address if I was WG Also, Sheffield aren't a great example to compare against - they're laying off massive numbers of staff. Though admittedly, not in engineering

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Christopher Wood, PhD, JD

Thank you Peter, you are a great person to debate.  & thanks for the update vis-à-vis Sheffield.    But you overlooked the Intellectual Property ("IP") progress of Queen’s University Belfast which is a third smaller than Cardiff University in terms of turnover and staff numbers and yet Queen’s IP value output is more than Cardiff by a factor of 4; and Queen’s outperforms all of the Welsh universities combined by at least a factor of 3.5   Could you advise vis-à-vis Queen's REF output?   Chris

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In reply to Christopher Wood, PhD, JD

Peter J

It’s been great discussing and sharing ideas with you! I would still argue that Queen’s is ahead of Cardiff in IP-generating subjects; largely due to having 1.5 to 2 x more staff in relevant areas. When it comes to IP, overall staff numbers aren’t what matter,as  disciplines like the Social Sciences don’t generate significant commercial revenue. There are certainly lessons Cardiff can learn from Queen’s. It punches above its weight, and QUBIS serves as a great role model for ‘Cardiff’like’ universities. Queen’s also benefits from being part of the Island of Ireland ecosystem, where ROI is especially active in funding spinouts and attracting FDI.They’ve taken a much more strategic approach to city deals, articularly those centered around Uni research centres, which bodes well for the future. Business R&D spending in NI is also2x  higher than in Wales, though still far behind say the East of England. That said, Queen’s is not massively ahead of Cardiff. They generate about 2.5 to 3 times more annual revenue, which when adjusted for staff numbers isn’t extraordinarily hgiher. Their financial strength comes mainly from a couple of very sucessful major LSE-listed spinouts. Manchester were the same for many years – they had one massive success which made their figures the best in the UK! And that really captures the challenge of IP commercialisation: it’s always a gamble. Some “sure winners” never sell a single product, while unexpected successes emerge from unlikely places. WG tends to avoid risk as political opponents and the press are so quick to highlight failures but rarely celebrate wins. In my view, if WG wants universities to produce successful spinouts and IP, it should focus its support on elite and highly focused institutions s that align with future technology trends and are embedded in strong local ecosystems. How to make that happen, of course, is another question entirely.

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In reply to Peter J

Christopher Wood, PhD, JD

Peter,      You are so right about Queen's QUBIS.   https://www.qubis.co.uk/   Siân Gwenllian, MS who wrote/submitted the article supra should take note as should all Members of the Senedd.      Incidentally, I emailed every MS (including Siân Gwenllian, MS) about Welsh IP issues and only a couple bothered to respond and interact with me, principally Julie Morgan, MS and I explained to Julie, inter alia, about Queen's tremendous IP output; I pointed out, via TEAMS, Queen's focus on monetizing research and patents and Julie promised to raise the IP/patent issue in plenary!  God bless her down to her cotton socks. From memory, I also pointed out in that email the lip-service exhibited by Medr on the lack of patenting; for "Medr" read: "Wales's Commission for Tertiary Education and RESEARCH". (Emphasis added in capitals.) This arm's length body is failing vis-à-vis on the protection of Welsh IP – as you say/imply, patent failures should be tolerated and the WG should not be so risk averse. The WG, in my view, as far as patenting goes, should pull back segments of Medr's responsibilities.      Mark Isherwood, MS (who is the Deputy Chair of the Cross-Party Group on Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths and Medicine - STEMM) was also very interested in this matter.   Also, Mark forwarded my email to the Cross-Party Group’s Secretary to share my email with every MS member in the STEMM group.     I strongly recommended a "fact-finding trip (by a working group from STEMM) to the much smaller (than Cardiff University) Queen's University Belfast to see how they earn so much more money and spin-outs from patenting their inventions/discoveries". In a later email I gave the contact details of Head of Intellectual Property Management at QUBIS - Dr Matthew Wilson, to help them set up a trip, but on reflection, to save on time, cost and trouble, I should have suggested a 'meeting' via TEAMS or ZOOM. I haven't heard much since if they followed up, but maybe the 'next' STEMM group meeting hasn't met yet.    But you are so right about Queen's QUBIS!   https://www.qubis.co.uk/about-us/overview    You are also dead right on the need to focus on "institutions that align with future technology trends and are embedded in strong local ecosystems"; this is something that Queen's and QUBIS does so well as their core focus on reviewing over 80+ invention disclosures from Queen's research academics per year.    Chris

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Cwm Rhondda

Universities are a crucial part of the economic growth ecosystem. Our universities are chronically underfunded and in desperate need of a change in government policy. Universities are not a luxury, a nice to have, they are a fundamental component of a successful, wealthy country.

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hdavies15

Your answers are found in comments above from C.Wood and Peter J. Unfortunately too many of our academics are residing in some sort of la-la land where their mere existence should justify hefty financial support. Granted some disciplines may find it extremely difficult to go "commercial" but those who are based on the sciences, technology, information systems, economics and social sciences should have the broad shoulders to carry those whose output may be purely academic but adds value to our store of knowledge and understanding.

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Cwm Rhondda

Thank you for the critique of my comment.

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Undecided

Correct. It’s becoming rather obvious at Cardiff University and elsewhere that some of those academics shouting loudest are those who have their sinecures threatened and are struggling to justify their added value.

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Replying to Peter J Cancel

First of all 85% of papers greater or equal to 3* in REF isn't impressive. Most good Universities would be 95%-100%. In REF people only care about 4* IP doesn't suddenly appear. You need to invest in good facilities and good staff. Most re...

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