Medr publishes its first Strategic Plan

Medr, the Commission for Tertiary Education and Research in Wales, recently published its Strategic Plan, following a period of consultation on its draft strategic priorities, aims and commitments over winter.

Last year, NCUB welcomed the establishment of Medr, highlighting the importance of this new organisation. The Commission will act as a single body with oversight of higher skills and research within the tertiary space – the development of which was a key recommendation within our 2024 Collaboration for Future Skills report.  

In this blog we bring you a digest of how the new strategy and body will operate, spotlight a few of its aims, and outline what these could mean for Welsh tertiary education, skills pathways, and university-based innovation. 

Role and importance of Medr  

Medr aims to create a cohesive, whole-system approach to tertiary learning and research in Wales, focused on shared outcomes.  

The current system is widely acknowledged to be fragmented and lack co-ordination – an issue which NCUB identified as hindering the effective delivery of skills for the future. Our research explored the mechanisms that enable universities and businesses to co-develop and co-deliver skills provision within university settings, and found that the existing ‘patchwork’ policy framework has created a complex landscape of organisations operating in this space, whilst narrow policy interventions limit universities and businesses’ ability to collaborate and influence.  

Medr has an opportunity to address these challenges in the Welsh tertiary landscape, and drive the systems needed to unlock innovation and deliver future skills effectively. Its new plan details a Foundational Aim of: Establishing Medr as an effective organisation and trusted regulator. Within this, the body commits to “working with partners to achieve excellent outcomes”, and to using its “regulatory and funding powers to… realise the benefits of a coherent tertiary education and research sector”.  

We welcome the explicit focus on creating coherence, and look forward to supporting Medr as a partner in developing solutions. Getting this right will set up Welsh learners for success, whilst providing Welsh businesses with the skills they need to thrive, catalysing productivity, growth and improved economic outcomes.  

Strategic Aims  

To deliver its Foundational Aim, the strategy has developed five underpinning aims:  

• Strategic Aim 1: To focus the tertiary education sector around the needs of the learner 

• Strategic Aim 2: To create a flexible and joined-up tertiary system where everyone can acquire the skills and knowledge they need for a changing economy and society. 

• Strategic Aim 3: To ensure learners receive the highest-quality provision in a tertiary education sector that strives for continuous improvement. 

• Strategic Aim 4: To grow internationally-acclaimed research and inspire innovation throughout the tertiary education sector. 

• Strategic Aim 5: To encourage greater use of the Welsh language, increasing demand for and participation in learning and assessment through the medium of Welsh. 

Building a skills pipeline which partners with – and delivers for – employers

Aims 1-3 seek to create a connected system that unlocks future learning outcomes, benefiting learners and creating the skills supply needed for future success.  

Medr will work with partners to embed lifelong learning and optimise the planning and flexibility of adult learning offerings  – a critical factor in achieving the continual upskilling that changing worlds of work require. Key to delivering this will be enabling simple access to, and movement between, education institutes for learners. Embedding credit and micro-credential transfer systems, alongside an accessible student loan system, will be vital to uptake.  

The strategy centralises employers as partners in education. NCUB’s Collaboration for Future Skills report outlined the importance of such approaches, but found there to be conflicting demands upon employers supporting skills development in HE – such as administrative burdens and scalability challenges. 

Medr must partner businesses with educators in a model which embeds employer requirements into curricula and ensures reciprocal benefits within business-led learning approaches, such as placements.  

Catalysing growth through unlocking research potential

Critically for innovation activity in Wales, Aim 4 seeks to unlock research and development within Welsh universities, grow knowledge exchange, support university-business collaboration, and boost innovation outcomes.   

The strategy seeks to both grow the scale and excellence of the research base in Wales, and maximise the impact of Welsh research and innovation activity. There is an ambition for “Wales to become internationally renowned for being a great place to develop new knowledge, receptive to new relationships from across the world, and acclaimed for research and innovation”.  

This is a positive ambition, though we await the details on how it will achieve these aims, and call for Medr to continue to engage universities to collaboratively develop a successful approach.  

The strategy recognises the importance of international collaboration, and commits to supporting “researchers and innovators to participate in national, European and international research programmes”. Medr should build on this, to recognise the global role of Welsh universities, and support them to become increasingly competitive.  

Backing collaboration

Medr’s Strategic Plan positions collaboration at the heart of its Vision, and clearly recognises the importance of, and its core role in, fostering it: “We will work in close collaboration with our partners to enable a tertiary education and research system that is centred around the needs of learners, society and the economy with excellence, equality and engagement at its heart.” 

Medr calls for the tertiary education sector to work closely with employers, investors, and government to maximise the potential of research and innovation. It seeks to promote a culture of innovation and knowledge exchange throughout the tertiary education sector for the social, economic and cultural benefit of Wales. NCUB anticipates that this will enable progress against the Welsh Innovation Missions. 

Creating university financial sustainability

Actions under the foundational aim of Medr commit to developing a regulatory system that is underpinned by a higher education register and terms and conditions of funding. The body has committed to consulting on a system of funding to support the tertiary education sector, and ensure effective use of funding. This is an important and welcome activity – which will enable the sector to collectively input solutions for the challenges they face.   

NCUB has consistently warned that Welsh universities are grappling with substantial financial difficulties – facing both historic and new challenges. These challenges are well understood, including the declining real-terms value of undergraduate tuition fees, relatively high external borrowing (compared to the UK as a whole), and an increasing reliance on international student fees. 

The tuition fee dependency model has shone a light on the financial vulnerability within the system, in an increasingly competitive market that is worsened by restrictive immigration policies. We encourage Medr to act to put the sector on a stable, aligned footing, through a sustainable funding model that is rooted in local places.   

Next steps for Medr  

The publication of the Strategic Plan sets out strong and positive intentions, but the details for delivery remain light. Medr now has the opportunity to ‘connect the dots’ of the fragmented landscape in Welsh skills and research, partnering universities and businesses to build aligned skills pipelines for the future, and to grow the Welsh research base. 

NCUB will continue to engage with the Commission, and continue to provide updates on progress.