Wales’ Medr grapples with funding and participation challenges

Wales’ fledgling regulator is already “asking questions” about the finances of providers, according to its chief executive, as funding and participation issues threaten to derail ambitious plans for the UK’s first tertiary sector watchdog.

In a model that may yet be replicated in other nations, the Commission for Tertiary Education and Research (known as Medr, the Welsh word for “skill”) officially became operational in August and has launched a consultation on its strategic plan.

Eight years in the making, the body will oversee apprenticeships, adult education, colleges and sixth forms, universities and research, and has immediately become one of the most significant public bodies in Wales, with a budget of £900 million.

One of the last actions of the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales – which Medr has replaced – was to cut the money allocated to Welsh institutions by £20 million. Universities, which have only just been permitted to raise tuition fees to £9,250 in line with English institutions, have warned that they face a cash “black hole”.

Asked by Times Higher Education what role Medr would play in financial sustainability and ensuring that institutions remain going concerns, its chief executive, Simon Pirotte, said it was already “asking those questions”.

“And that will develop because it is different in different parts of the post-16 sector, and that is one of the things we’ll be looking to bring together under conditions of funding and regulation,” he added.

Mr Pirotte said the financial challenges facing universities and the rest of the tertiary sector were “real and significant”.

“Everyone is facing difficult decisions to make, and that is not over yet; there will be more difficult decisions to come in the short-term future.”

But there was still a “significant amount of money going into the sector”, Mr Pirotte said, and part of the regulator’s role was to judge how it could be used most effectively.

Wales has seen a drop in young people continuing into post-16 education, and this year applications to universities dropped to a 15-year-low, with the gap between the country and the rest of the UK now the widest in modern history.

Mr Pirotte, principal of Bridgend College for a decade to 2023, said it was “absolutely, categorically” an aim of Medr to increase participation, but he hinted that this would not be a target-led approach.

“Anybody can set targets, but the problem is they sometimes hit the target but miss the point. We have to be careful about that. A lot of these areas are quite nuanced, complex. There are different kinds of challenges in different regions.”

He said the organisation was focused on bringing coherence and “mutual respect” to all parts of the tertiary sector, which involved targeting areas with “duplication and competition” to develop a more “joined-up” system.

Many have speculated that the model might eventually prove to be an inspiration for the new Labour government in England, which has also placed great stock on higher and further education collaboration and is considering the future direction of the market-oriented regulator, the Office for Students.

Mr Pirotte confirmed that there had been “a lot of interest from other nations in terms of what we are trying to achieve here in Wales”, but “I would never be so arrogant to say what happens in Wales can be replicated elsewhere because places are different…What we are trying to do in Wales is work with partners to create something that works best for our people here in Wales.”

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com