The future of tertiary education in Wales

The Quality Assurance Agency has published its response to the Welsh Government's consultation on The future of tertiary education in Wales.

Our response emphasises that in order to promote participation in tertiary education there is a need to focus on ensuring that educational pathways are clearly articulated, well understood by learners, and underpinned by strong progression routes and learner support. We note that this will require improved system-level data sharing and insight to support a clearer understanding of learner pathways, progression and outcomes, and to enable effective system oversight and a culture of continuous improvement.

Our response stresses that, as Wales is projected to experience a decline in the population of 16-to-18-year-olds over the coming years, with variations across regions, policy development should support providers in planning strategically through improved system-level data-sharing and insight, alignment between funding and demand, and greater coordination of provision across regions, while maintaining confidence in academic standards and the quality of the learner experience.

We also note that it will be important to focus on addressing the structural barriers across funding, regulation and system design that currently limit the expansion of flexible and accessible lifelong learning, while ensuring that academic standards and the quality of the learner experience are maintained.

Our response observes that current barriers to greater collaboration between tertiary education providers currently include the constraints of the financial environment, and the complexity created by differences in how provision is structured, funded and regulated. It argues that to enable collaboration clear and robust governance arrangements are critical, ensuring that responsibilities for academic standards, quality assurance and learner support are well defined across all partners. It also highlights the importance of aligning incentives, including funding and strategic priorities, and a shared understanding of purpose, particularly where collaboration is intended to address regional needs, support specific learner groups, or sustain provision in key subject areas.

We stress that in order to ensure the financial sustainability of the sector, efficiency-driven changes to provision, including curriculum transformation, collaboration and portfolio rationalisation, should be supported by coordinated system-level planning and robust quality assurance, so that academic standards and the quality of the student experience are not compromised.

Our full response is now available on our website.