19 June 2013 
Matt Sisson, Projects and Membership Manager
The Welsh Government published a draft Higher Education policy statement last week setting out their policy priorities for the sector heading towards 2020. It’s short on firm proposals, but recaps on the strengths of the sector and seeks to map out a broad direction of travel over the coming years. A key area highlighted by the report is for greater interaction with business to stimulate economic growth and to improve graduate employability, with the report saying that “Innovation-led growth is most likely to be achieved through an equal partnership between universities, the Welsh Government and business to develop successful innovation ecosystems. This partnership is at the heart of the Welsh Government’s strategy Innovation Wales.”
The statement also calls for “radical innovation” in navigating the unpredictable Higher Education environment, and suggests one option could be a “two-year condensed undergraduate degree programmes with a third year paid Masters degree funded through the statutory student support system”. The Times Higher has a brief round-up of some of the other key points.
