Today (Tuesday, November 27 2007) groups campaigning on the issue of Welsh Education in the Higher Education Sector will hand over a detailed and substantial paper to the Education Minister so as to ease and hasten the implementation of the Government's Welsh Federal College (Welsh Federal College) policy. The paper is supported by many campaign groups; NUS Wales Welsh Language Campaigns, Aberystwyth Welsh Student Union (UMCA), Bangor Welsh Students Union (UMCB), UWIC Welsh Society and the Welsh Language Society's college and university's campaign groups.

Rhys Llwyd, NUS Wales Welsh Language Officer said:"The campaign groups are very pleased to see that the idea of a Welsh Federal College is alive and well on the political agenda and that the concept at least has been accepted as Government policy. But now it is vitally important that the Government and the Education Minister establish a proper Welsh Federal College that will make a difference and not give in and take the easy route and only establish a halfway house."On 3rd May 2007, Wales' citizens had an opportunity to exercise their democratic right to evaluate the policies of the different political parties, and vote to decide who would govern Wales for the next four years. The Labour party was unable to secure a clear majority and form a Government, so a deal was struck with Plaid Cymru based on a programme of government now referred to as One Wales. Because the establishment of a Welsh Federal College was part of Plaid Cymru's manifesto, it was included, in agreement with the Labour Party, as a policy of the One Wales Government."Menna Machreth, Vice-Chairman of the Welsh Language Society said:"We have been lead to understand that the issue of the Welsh Federal College policy is causing some tension within the coalition government because the reference to the policy in the One Wales document was slightly vague. Evidence shows that some politicians adopted a policy they did not fully understand & they did not envisage it's long-term effect and implementation. Our hope with our document is that it will put forward clearly what exactly is a Welsh Federal College and how one could implement such a policy."Whilst handing over their paper to the government the campaign groups are disappointed that the Higher Education Sector's plans, also being put forward to the Government today, have not taken the latest political developments to consideration. Campaigners will be picketing the launch of HEW's (Higher Education Wales) plans outside the Senedd, Cardiff Bay at 5.00pm (November 27) whilst launching their own paper.The plans put forward by HEW on the November 27 had been drawn up before the May 2007 election, and do not reflect the U-turn in the Government's policy regarding support for the establishment of a Welsh Federal College. HEW's plans seem to ignore the fact that there has been an election and that the Government's policy has changed on the matter & there is now the political will to establish a Welsh Federal College.Rhys Llwyd added:"We strongly recommend that the government acts swiftly and avoids referring to HEW's pre-election plans as part of their Welsh Federal College policy. The political decision has now been taken to support the establishment of a Welsh Federal College; it is HEW's role to respond to the democratic political will, not to ignore it and push forward without any consideration for the latest political developments. It says a lot about the Sector's lack of vision, that campaign groups have come forward with a detailed paper on the implementation of the Welsh Federal College policy and presented it to the Government whilst the Higher Education Sector is still fixated on old plans that were on the table before the Government's policy change."The main principles of Welsh Federal College, namely i) the notion of a new statutory body with the remit of developing Welsh medium education receiving ii) a substantial and independent funding stream, are not new ideas, but some of the details may be new to the debate. The Government, in adopting the policy of a Welsh Federal College will hopefully at least accept the two core principles, but may not perhaps have considered the institution's form and structure. The paper put forward today by the campaign groups is therefore an attempt to flesh out the bare bones of this basic principle. We are calling upon the Government to adopt this model and to reject the notion that HEW's plans are anything like a Welsh Federal College, as their model does not acknowledge these two basic principles, not to mention other minor strategies that are discussed in this paper.* The paper has been warmly welcomed privatively by some politician and civil servants in the sector stating that the paper is a valuable and mature contribution to the policy making process.* English and Welsh copies of the paper can be viewed by clicking on the following links.Coleg ffederal Cymraeg - Cynllun Gweithredu, Tachwedd 2007 (pdf - 452kb)Welsh Federal College - Implementation Strategy, November 2007 (pdf - 452kb)