Higher Education in Wales: The (Re-)emergence of a National System? |
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| Authors: | Gareth Rees & David Istance |
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| Institution: | School of Education, Cardiff University of Wales,;Department of Adult Continuing Education, University of Wales, Swansea |
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| Abstract: | This paper explores historical patterns of change in participation in higher education in Wales, using as an organising framework Halsey's (1992) distinction between higher education as an administrative and as a social system. The nineteenth-century development of Welsh higher education was both part of a distinctive national political project and reflected the specificities of wider Welsh society. Expansion through the early and middle decades of the present century eroded this distinctiveness, as both the governance of Welsh higher education and patterns of student recruitment and participation became increasingly integrated into an 'England and Wales' system. The more recent expansion of higher education institutions in Wales, as well as the participation of Welsh students in higher education overall, has further accentuated this social integration into an 'England and Wales' system. Currently, Wales exhibits a pattern of participation which is unique amongst the home countries, whereby the Welsh higher education institutions serve very substantial numbers of students from England (and to a much lesser extent elsewhere), whilst a large proportion of Welsh students register at institutions in England. This indicates that there is now a significant disjuncture between an increasingly distinct pattern of governance of Welsh higher education and a pattern of participation which is massively integrated in the 'England and Wales' system. |
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