On the face of it, consulting on a strategic plan is an odd thing to do.
That’s not to say Medr shouldn’t be consulting on a 2025-30 strategic plan right now – it totally should, and if you care you should totally engage and respond – it’s a more general reflection on how strategies work.
In the quasi-governmental world of tertiary education regulation, strategies tend to be set by governments. Agencies may then develop their own strategies, but this tends to be very much a response to the weather rather than a blue-skies affair. Strategies themselves are usually the result of a board away day, and are custom designed to leave the widest leeway for necessary action or intervention while making all the right noises to keep stakeholders happy. There tends to be little, in other words, to get your teeth into.
Pure chewing satisfaction
In the case of Medr (Wales’ shiny new regulator, as of August – incidentally, “Medr” is not an acronym or set of initials: it just means “skill” in Welsh) the weather is being made by the Welsh government’s statement for strategic priorities, released back in February. This was all broad brush stuff to be fair, covering “skills and knowledge to succeed in work and life”, quality assurance, widening participation, “learner at the heart of the system”, and establishing what eventually became Medr.
That last one was done via the other chunky document in this tale: the Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Act 2022 – which places eleven strategic duties on the new regulator.
Wheels grind very slowly in Wales – but grind they do. And because this is Wales we also need an eye on equality duties, the national wellbeing goals, and the sustainable development principle.
The first chunk of questions simply asks you to do the work and check for compliance.
The form of a flower
The fun comes in part two. Does the plan deliver on the Medr vision (“we will work in close collaboration with our partners to enable a tertiary education and research system which is centred around the needs of learners, society and economy with excellence, equality and engagement at its heart”)? You may have thoughts.
Below the vision we get a set of long-term ambitions, arranged in the form of a flower:
- Improved coherence of learning pathways and more flexible learning
- Better learner outcomes and improved learner experiences
- Reduced inequalities and removal of barriers to learning
- Greater focus on learner engagement and well-being
- Greater alignment of knowledge, skills and understanding with the economic, cultural, and environmental needs of Wales
- Growth in the excellence and impact of research and innovation in Wales
- More learning in Welsh
Excited yet? Medr also has (bilingual) values:
- Dysgu: to learn; to teach
- Cydweithio: to collaborate
- Cynnwys pawb: to include everyone
- Rhagori: to excel
Beneath these hangs one foundational aim: “to establish Medr as a highly effective, respected organisation and trusted regulator, shaping future ambitions for the tertiary education sector in Wales through collaborative working.”
And five strategic aims:
- to focus the tertiary education sector around the needs of the learner – their experience, achievement and wellbeing, ensuring they are involved in decision-making and encouraging participation in learning at all stages in life
- to create a coherent education and training system where all can acquire the skills and knowledge they need to make a real impact on a changing economy and society
- to ensure tertiary education aims for excellent standards, quality of provision and raise education expectations in order for learners to achieve their ambitions
- to grow internationally-acclaimed research and inspire innovation throughout the tertiary education sector
- to encourage greater use of the Welsh language and increase demand for, and participation in, learning and assessment through the medium of Welsh.
Are we there yet?
Beneath all of these sit founding commitments (stuff that Medr intends to do pretty much straight away, or over a maximum of two years) and growth commitments (stuff that Medr will do over five years). If you are reading this in a Welsh provider, you’ll have read all the above thinking “well, there’s lovely, but what is Medr actually going to do?” – these commitments start to offer clues as to what is on the way.
So, we knew already that Medr would be a “risk-based” regulator, and we might have guessed that there’s a consultation coming on the tertiary funding system, and that data collection needs a shake up.
There will be a learner engagement code and a learner voice forum – by August 2026, when we’ll also see a framework coming on mental health and learner protection plans, as well as regulatory conditions with a focus on equality of opportunity and attainment gaps. We’ll see a review of basic skills provision within five years, and the determination of quality assessment arrangements (and measures of success) across the tertiary system.
On research we can expect work on measuring impact and research culture – with research more generally focused on “activity that benefits Wales”.
And there will be a Welsh language strategy (Medr will be a bilingual workplace), alongside a national plan for increasing opportunities for Welsh language provision and assessment.
The language that sits below these commitments flesh out some of this a little, but we are still very much at the strategic rather than implementation level. There’s clearly a consultation on the way on how the risk-based regulatory system will work – add that to the one on the funding methodology and you would have a lot of opportunity to get into the nuts and bolts of the future of regulation and funding.
But do not neglect the chance to dig into the strategic underpinnings right now. The strategy will underpin implementation – your best argument about implementation in the next consultation will be that it does not fit the Medr strategy.
Medr seeks views on the plan from “everyone with an interest in our proposals”. You can send in your response to the questions posed by the end of Friday 25 October.
