Church supports plans for Federal College

Plans to establish a Welsh Federal College (Coleg Ffederal Cymraeg) have won the support of the Presbyterian Church of Wales.

In an open meeting of the board charged with examining different models for the proposed College in Cardiff yesterday, it became clear that the board is moving in a direction the Presbyterian Church of Wales has supported for some years.

“The Presbyterian Church of Wales has been an official member of the campaign for a Welsh Federal College since the very beginning,” said Reverend Ifan Roberts, the Church’s General Secretary, “and we’re pleased to see the suggestions put forward by the Presbyterian Church of Wales and other bodies such as the Welsh-language students’ union forming a basis to the plans of the Federal College Planning Board.

“We believe that the best way to ensure Welsh-medium education in universities is through the establishmnent of a central structure to promote, enlarge and monitor the provision of higher education through the medium of Welsh, that is, to create a stratgic body with the authority to deal with every higher educational institution in Wales. The present system’s weakness is that Welsh-medium education in the universities is dependent on some lecturers’ personal commitment to the cause.” 

The establishment of a Welsh Federal College that would ensure the provision of formal Welsh-medium education in Welsh Universities was part of One Wales, the document that formed the basis for the Plaid-Labour coalition.

Reverend Glyn Tudwal Jones, Clerk of the Church’s Church and Society Deparment, added: “It is now important to earmark sufficient finances to develop the work, appoint lecturers and offer a wide range of subjects throughout Higher Education. That would attract students who are presently following academic courses up to the age of 18 to continue studying in Welsh, confident in the knowledge that there will be suitable provision for them.”