Wales

Wales is one of the four home nations of the United Kingdom:

1. England
2. Scotland
3. Wales
4. Northern Ireland

For general information see United Kingdom.

However, Higher Education is devolved by the UK government to the four home nations so that many details are specific to the home nation involved.

Wales details

The population of Wales is nearly 3 million.

For more details on Wales see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wales

Higher Education

Higher Education in Wales is overseen by HEFCW, the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales.

Its mission is to:

promote internationally excellent higher education in Wales, for the benefit of individuals, society and the economy, in Wales and more widely.

On 12 October 2007 HEFCW released its consultation document Enhancing Learning and Teaching through Technology: a Strategy for Higher Education in Wales. This describes 13 Indicators of Success, seven short term and six long term, spread across five categories.

Higher Education in Wales is delivered via 11 distinct universities and higher education colleges in Wales, plus the Open University in Wales, as well as via a number of further education colleges that offer higher education courses. Funding is provided for the following:

1. Aberystwyth University
2. Bangor University
3. Cardiff University
4. University of Glamorgan
5. University of Wales, Lampeter
6. University of Wales, Newport
7. NEWI - North East Wales Institute
8. University of Wales, Swansea
9. Swansea Institute of Higher Educationm soon to be Swansea Metropolitan University
10. Trinity College, Carmarthen
11. UWIC - University of Wales Institute, Cardiff

(Note that the Royal Welsh College Of Music And Drama is now a subsidiary of the University of Glamorgan although it retains its own "Royal" name.)

Funding is also provided for:

• University of Wales Registry
• The Open University in Wales

There are seven HEIs who are or were involved in the Higher Education Academy Benchmarking programme:

• University of Wales, Aberystwyth (Phase 2) - with blog
• University of Wales, Bangor (Phase 2) - with blog
• University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (Pilot) - with blog
• University of Glamorgan (Phase 1) - with blog
• University of Wales, Lampeter (Phase 2)
• University of Wales, Newport, based in Newport and Caerleon (Phase 2) - with blog
• Trinity College, Carmarthen (Phase 1) - with blog (though apparently only one entry)

They divide into methodology clusters as follows:

ELTI	UWIC
eMM	Aberystwyth, Bangor
MIT90s	Glamorgan
OBHE	Lampeter, Trinity
Pick&Mix	Newport

Thus Wales is a microcosm of England, in this regard at least.

There have been informal discussions in Wales about setting up a Welsh benchmarking club for HEIs.

Further Education

Post-16 education in Wales is overseen by ELWA.

The JISC Regional Support Centre in Wales - RSC Wales - is active in supporting e-learning including in the ACL area (called PCDL in England) - and more specifically, to:

• deliver e-learning support to Voluntary and Community Learning Providers
• increase the use of e-learning by developing skills and knowledge
• broker or provide training and expertise to the ACL sector

In 2005 ELWA commissioned a report from the Wales Council for Voluntary Action on Barriers to growth in the use of learning technology in the voluntary sector - of which an Executive Summary is public.

Conclusions

From the benchmarking and other information it seems clear that the only higher education institution which may be regarded as having a Virtual Campus is:

• University of Glamorgan

Some other universities including Bangor University have or had smaller-scale initiatives.

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