While a ministerial advisory group has been established to look at the challenges facing universities I am not expecting recommendations that set out required radical action
Over the last twelve months this column has consistently highlighted the challenges facing tertiary education in Wales.
As we all know by now, universities are facing the most severe financial pressures in their history, further education colleges are trying to keep pace with rising costs on static budgets, and the wider skills ecosystem is struggling to meet the needs of a changing economy.
In addition, employers are reporting persistent shortages, productivity is still stubbornly low, and young people face a future in which access to high-quality education and training has never been more essential.
Against this backdrop, the Welsh Government has finally announced a new ministerial advisory group to address the challenges facing the sector and while it is to be welcomed, the question is whether this body, commissioned after the proverbial horse has already done a runner, can deliver the transformation that Wales now urgently needs.
Unfortunately, a closer look at the panel already raises doubts as to whether it will report any meaningful changes with almost all its members deeply embedded in the very institutions and structures that have done little to address the crisis facing the sector.
These include the chair and chief executive of Medr – the body responsible for overseeing tertiary education in Wales – as well as representatives from Universities Wales, Colegau Cymru, the main education unions and, disappointedly, only a single academic from outside Wales.
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Yes, these are experienced individuals, but they are overwhelmingly from within the existing system and the absence of independent reformers, employers, innovators, and international experts is striking. As we all know, when a system dominated by internal interests is asked to examine itself, the result is rarely radical reform.
This is particularly frustrating because two years ago, I publicly called for an independent review of Wales’s entire tertiary system, arguing that financial pressures, governance weaknesses and structural duplication were converging into a crisis that could not be managed by shuffling the deckchairs on these sinking ships.
That call was echoed by many across the sector (though often privately as is often the case here in Wales) and had the Welsh Government acted then, we would now be in a very different position of having implemented critical reforms rather than beginning to discuss them.
Instead, we now have a panel convened and asked to report by March 2026, mere weeks before the Senedd elections. That compressed timeline raises legitimate concerns about how a rushed exercise like this can transform a multi-billion-pound sector that affects every learner, employer and region in Wales and the likely result will be a document crafted to manage short-term political risk rather than provide a blueprint for genuine, long-term renewal.
Of course, institutional self-interest is understandable and when those who lead or represent existing bodies are asked to redesign the landscape, they will naturally gravitate towards solutions that maintain the same structures rather than challenge them. We have seen this in Wales so many times before where review after review have produced recommendations framed around preserving the status quo through changes such as “more collaboration”, “better alignment” and “improved communication”.
Whilst this may be useful for politicians to show they are doing something, the fundamental issues run deeper and Wales must confront whether it has too many institutions, whether the divide between further and higher education still makes sense, whether current governance arrangements are fit for purpose, and whether qualification frameworks meet the needs of a modern, flexible, technology-driven labour market.
Other small nations have taken bolder paths and have undertaken reforms that reduced duplication, strengthened oversight, integrated vocational and higher education pathways, and modernised delivery. Crucially, their review bodies included independent expertise, digital innovators and voices capable of stepping outside institutional constraints.
In contrast, Wales risks falling behind not because its institutions lack commitment but because its system lacks coherence and its processes for reform lack ambition and the danger is that a hurried review constrained by the electoral timetable becomes another exercise in cosy consensus-building rather than a catalyst for change.
A sector facing an existential crisis will not be fixed by soft recommendations and instead requires brave decisions on clearer regional roles, simpler pathways, stronger accountability, modern governance and a shift towards flexible, modular, work-integrated learning.
It requires institutions that will strengthen their research capabilities and look outward to the needs of industry and the economy rather than inward to their own survival. Most important of all, it requires political leadership willing to carry reform beyond the comfort zone of the usual suspects.
If this panel is to have any legitimacy, it must be willing to challenge those assumptions that have shaped Welsh tertiary education for decades. That means asking whether every institution is sustainable, whether the current regulatory framework provides proper oversight, and whether our post-16 system is designed around both learners and employers. Most importantly, it means acknowledging that the scale of reform needed cannot be delivered in a matter of months and without long-term political commitment.
Despite this, there is still has an opportunity to create something meaningful, but the window is quickly closing and it’s critical that this group includes employers, economists, innovators and independent experts as well as commissioning evidence from outside the existing structures. At the very least, that will give any report legitimacy and credibility whilst examining all potential avenues for change rather than those that suit those undertaking the review.
Therefore, the stakes are high given that the direction of travel for our universities and colleges matters not only for individual learners but for our economy, our communities and the future of the nation.
Whilst some may think the crisis in Welsh universities is over, the fact that several institutions are now reverting to compulsory redundancies suggests that it is clearly not and with more cuts on the way, Wales cannot afford a designed to maintain the comfort zone that has been created by many on this panel when genuine renewal is desperately needed to create a sector that is fit for purpose.
