Why does the University wish to establish an Associate Faculty?
In the future, it is most likely that no institution acting alone will be able to provide the full educational curriculum for its learners. Schools, colleges, independent training providers, employers and other stakeholders will, by necessity, have to collaborate, focusing on what they do best in order to deliver an exciting curriculum which will meet the needs of our secondary school pupils. New innovative partnerships between secondary schools and universities will be central to delivering the ambitious programme of educational reform set out by the Welsh Assembly Government.
A clear priority for the University of Wales Trinity Saint David in the short term, therefore, is to establish a close partnership with the region’s secondary schools and provide a full programme of appropriate activities for them. The Associate Faculty is a core part of that developing partnership.
Likewise, and given its commitment to the Welsh language and Welsh medium education, the University also sees an opportunity to support and collaborate closely with the Welsh and bilingual school communities across South and West Wales. As the main provider of Welsh medium higher education in South Wales, it is eager to establish a learning network that will be a means of supporting the work and mission of these schools on the one hand and providing new learning opportunities through the medium of Welsh for its pupils on the other. It feels that establishing the Associate Faculty with be an innovative and expedient means of achieving that aim.
The University also views the Associate Faculty as a feeder faculty for the proposed Welsh Medium National College, thus providing the Welsh Higher Education institutions wih a greater number of students who would wish to pursue their higher education studies bilingually or through the medium of Welsh.
