Summary

1. This publication contains arrangements for the National Student Survey 2026 (Table 1), and the actions required from providers (Table 2). The NSS extranet contains full details on data submission.

Table 1: Survey timetable

Date	Action
22 October 2025	Ipsos to issue NSS 2026 set-up guide and good practice guide to providers
07 January 2026	NSS will launch
08 January 2026	NSS fieldwork opens
30 April 2026	NSS fieldwork closes
08 July 2026	Provisional date for publication of results

Table 2: Summary of actions required from providers

Date	Action
28 November 2025	Review and update NSS contact details
28 November 2025	Complete ‘my survey options’ form
28 November 2025	Submit NSS 2026 sample templates with contact details of eligible students

National Student Survey 2026

2. This publication sets out the arrangements for the National Student Survey (NSS) 2026 and the actions required from participating providers. The full publication and supporting documentation is available through the NSS extranet.

3. The NSS is a UK-wide survey undertaken by final year higher education students to give feedback on their courses. The survey is managed by the Office for Students (OfS) on behalf of the four UK funding and regulatory bodies.

4. The survey also provides information for prospective students to help them find the right course and provides data that supports universities and colleges to improve the student experience.

5. The survey will be delivered on behalf of the UK funding and regulatory bodies by:

• Ipsos, which will administer the survey
• CACI Limited, which will deliver the data dissemination portal for providers

6. The survey is a key component of the quality assurance and wider regulatory landscape in Wales. Participation is compulsory for higher education providers that are regulated or funded by Medr. This is to ensure that the views of diverse student populations are represented and that providers have regard to their Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) duties to advance equality of opportunities, eliminate unlawful discrimination, foster good relations and promote equality.

The 2026 Survey

7. For 2026, the NSS questionnaire will be the same as the NSS 2025. The survey will be delivered across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. The freedom of expression question will be asked to students who study in England only and the overall satisfaction question will be asked to students in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland only. The UK funding and regulatory bodies ran a shorter fieldwork pilot in NSS 2025 alongside the standard fieldwork schedule to test an approach to mitigate the risk of any drop in NSS response rates. The OfS are considering the findings from the pilot and how to handle a shorter survey fieldwork period going forward. The shorter survey period is anticipated to start in the 2027-28 academic year for all providers, to accommodate a later sign-off date for the student return. However, for NSS 2026 we are continuing with the normal fieldwork schedule.

8. The OfS also ran the sexual misconduct survey, in England only, using the NSS 2025 platform. An analysis of the survey results and sector-level data were published in September 2025.

9. The full list of NSS 2026 questions and response scales can be found in an Appendix of the OfS publication.

10. Ipsos administers the survey on behalf of the OfS and Medr. It is responsible for contacting students, contributing towards promoting the survey and providing cleansed data to the OfS and funding bodies.

11. As part of its role, Ipsos will liaise directly with providers regarding survey administration and will support the running of the survey by:

• offering guidance on the specifics of the survey programme, such as start week, selecting optional questions and provider-specific questions
• for providers promoting the survey:
  • supplying NSS-branded marketing materials and advising providers on the production of their own materials.
  • facilitating provider incentive schemes to encourage students to take part in the survey.

12. Further information about marketing and promoting the survey is provided in the good practice guide from Ipsos.  

13. Providers will be invited to select one of five weeks when Ipsos can launch the survey to their students. There will be no communication from Ipsos with students outside of the times agreed with individual providers.

Survey promotion and response monitoring

14. Providers in Wales are required to promote the survey to students. We expect providers promoting the survey to ensure they avoid any inappropriate influence and adhere to the guidance on marketing and promoting of the NSS.

15. During survey fieldwork, responses will be monitored, and targeted follow-up is carried out to ensure that publication thresholds are met. In early March, in addition to the targeted follow-up, all providers that are at risk of not meeting the publication threshold will be put into the booster phase, which results in additional email reminders and an additional SMS to their non-responding students. The booster phase will start automatically if a provider’s response rate is below 43 per cent by mid-March and will continue for some until mid-April. The fieldwork timetable is set out in the Ipsos set-up guide for providers which is available on the Ipsos NSS extranet.

Survey costs

16. Medr will cover the costs of the survey for eligible providers in Wales.

Survey timetable

17. The survey will run as noted in Table 3.

Table 3: Survey timetable

Date	Action
22 October 2025	Ipsos to issue NSS 2026 set-up guide and good practice guide to providers
07 January 2026	NSS will launch
08 January 2026	NSS will launch
30 April 2026	NSS fieldwork closes
08 July 2026	Provisional date for publication of results

18. Results will be published on the OfS website on 08 July 2026 at 0930. Detailed results will be disseminated to individual providers through the NSS data dissemination portal provided by CACI Limited on 08 July 2026 at 0930. The publication and dissemination of the NSS 2026 results depends on final agreement from the UK funding and regulatory bodies following the quality review of the data.

19. NSS results at course level will be published on the Discover Uni website.

Actions for providers for NSS 2026

20. All participating providers are asked to carry out the actions outlined in Table 4.

Table 4: Actions required from providers

Date	Action
28 November 2025	All eligible providers to review and update contact details for the nominated primary and secondary contacts for NSS liaison. The information should be supplied using the ‘My details’ form on the Ipsos NSS extranet.
28 November 2025	All eligible providers to complete the ‘my survey options’ form which asks providers to confirm; * their preferred NSS launch week * optional question sets * their involvement in any prize draws
28 November 2025	All eligible providers to submit their NSS 2026 sample templates with contact details of eligible students This is a list of all students eligible for NSS 2026, based on the 2024-25 student data. Details should be supplied via the ‘Upload sample data’ section of the Ipsos NSS extranet. Any proposed additions to or removals from the target list should follow the process set out by Ipsos.

21. All participating providers are asked to complete the above actions by 28 November 2025. Instructions on how to supply this information are included in the NSS 2026 set-up guide, which will be issued to provider contacts by Ipsos and is also available on the Ipsos NSS extranet. The guidance includes information regarding survey administration, key responsibilities and dates.

22. Detailed guidance relating to NSS 2026 and the actions requested from all providers in Wales returning student data to the HESA can be found on in Appendix B of the OfS publication.

Further support and contacts

Table 5: NSS contacts

Organisation	Email address	First point of contact for queries relating to
Ipsos	[email protected]	The running of the survey, including: * Setting up and promoting the survey * Student target lists * Optional questions *Incentive schemes
CACI Limited	NSS support team can be contacted via the Contact Support form on the NSS data portal	Providers’ detailed results on the NSS data dissemination portal
Office for Students	[email protected] [email protected]	Areas such as: * NSS policy and development * Onward use of results *Allegations of inappropriate influence
Medr	[email protected]	Any other queries relating to the operation of the NSS in Wales

Background

1. The Tertiary Education and Research Wales Act 2022 (‘The Act’) sets out the requirements for a new regulatory system for tertiary education and training providers in Wales. This consultation has been published to satisfy the following requirements in the Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Act 2022:

• 27 (5) Initial Registration Conditions;
• 28 (7) General Ongoing Registration Conditions;
• 40 (2) Supplementary provision about directions under section 39;
• 50 (4) Quality Assurance Framework;
• 81 (3) Statement on Intervention Functions;
• 126 (6) Learner Protection Plans, and;
• 129 (5) Learner Engagement Code.

Overview

2. This consultation seeks views on Medr’s proposed:

• Statement of Intervention Powers, which explains the statutory powers of intervention outlined within The Act (Annex A);
• Regulatory Framework, which sets out our regulatory approach, our approach to monitoring and the full set of draft Conditions of Registration and Conditions of Funding and the process for how, and what type of, incidents and events must be reported to Medr (Annex B);
• Quality Framework, which underpins the condition requirements and monitoring arrangements in respect of quality (Annex C);
• Learner Engagement Code, which supports providers and Medr to focus the tertiary education sector around the needs of the learner and ensure all learners have opportunities to engage in their provider’s decision-making (Annex D);
• Frequently Asked Questions document which sets out some of the common queries we have received during engagement and formal consultation (Annex E); and
• Glossary of terms for the consultation documents (Annex F).

Consultation method

3. Responses to the consultation are invited through our online survey. The questions outlined in the consultation document (publication Medr/2025/25) provide an outline of the broad structure of the survey. Some aspects of the survey will be more applicable to different types of provider within the tertiary sector – the questions will guide you through this, and users will have the ability the save and return to their responses.

Events

4. During the consultation period we will be hosting two in-person events that will provide an opportunity to hear from our staff about the development of the new system and the key questions that we are asking of all providers and stakeholders in our consultation.

• Event 1 (South Wales): 20 November 2025 – venue to be confirmed

• Event 2 (North Wales): 27 November 2025 – venue to be confirmed

We will confirm the venues for the events shortly, and you will be able to book your place via our Eventbrite page.

Timetable

5. Stakeholders are invited to submit consultation responses via our survey by 5pm on 17 December 2025.

6. For further information, contact [email protected].

Introduction

1. This publication invites bids to Medr’s Strategic Development Fund in which £5m is available for academic year (AY) 2025/26.

2. This publication outlines the themes projects should address to be eligible for consideration for funding, and describes the processes and timescales by which bids should be submitted and will be assessed, as well as monitoring arrangements for successful bids.

Background

3. It is unlikely that this funding will be available on a recurrent basis, and we are therefore creating a one-off fund to be distributed via a bid process.

4. The purpose of this funding is to encourage more collaboration within the tertiary education sector. The bidding process will also allow us to gather intelligence from the sector about the type of projects that could be possible with some strategic investment, to inform future planning.

5. In the first instance the fund has been set at £5m.

Fund priorities

6. Bids should be for projects to develop solutions or approaches which address all bullet points below and at least one of Medr’s strategic aims:

• Collaboration – projects which illustrate collaboration across the tertiary sector of at least two organisations. Collaboration across different parts of the sector will be weighted heavier in the scoring matrix than between providers of the same type, although, bids reflecting all types of collaboration are welcomed.
• New – project activity must be new, and no part of the project can have already started. However, the partners involved may have worked together previously or be part of an established collaborative arrangement. Bids may also request funding to take forward activity which has already been scoped but may not be used to cover costs already incurred.
• Strategic – the project must be linked to the strategic ambitions of Medr, which are noted below. Projects linked to multiple aims will have a higher weighting than projects which are linked to one aim.

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.

7. The lead partner submitting the bid must be a university, further education college, local authority or apprenticeship provider who is funded directly by Medr. Other organisations working within the tertiary sector in Wales may be included as collaborative partners. Each bid should be for a single, defined project. In order to manage the number of bids submitted, and capacity within the sector to take forward meaningful activity, one organisation may make or be a partner in a maximum of two bids.

8. There is no maximum amount per bid, but in allocating funding we will be mindful of ensuring benefit to all parts of Wales within the fund as a whole, and of ensuring each successful project receives sufficient funding to make an impact. We may award a smaller amount of funding than that requested for an individual project bid in order to achieve this.

Process

9. Applications should be submitted using the template at Annex A. Bids should include:

• Project aims.
• A rationale which notes how the project addresses the aforementioned themes and the exit strategy of the project. In addition, you will be required to complete an end of project evaluation, see Annex C.
• A summary of project delivery which outlines timescales and notes how the project will engage with learners and trade unions.
• A consideration of the potential risks of the project.
• A description of outputs and outcomes.
• Plans for the long-term sustainability of the impact and outcomes of the project.
• The total funding required for the project with a summarised analysis of the planned expenditure including the nature of the costs and the timescale for expenditure. All project costs will need to be fully committed no later than 31 July 2026.
• A summary of how an equality impact assessment, the requirements of the Welsh Language Standards, and the goals, sustainable development principle and ways of working of the Well-being of Future Generations Act have informed the bid.

10. Applications should be submitted by email to [email protected] by 10 November 2025.

11. A panel comprised of Medr Directors will assess the bids and make recommendations to Board for decisions regarding funding. The criteria used to determine which bids to fund will include:

• The extent to which each bid addresses the strategic aims of Medr.
• The likely sustainability of the project’s impact and outcomes.
• The extent to which stakeholders will be involved in the creation and the implementation of the project.
• The need to ensure benefits for all parts of Wales from the fund as a whole.
• Value for money.

12. If we are unable to allocate the full value of the fund in this first round, due either to the quality or volume of bids received, we reserve the right to announce a second round of bidding.

Monitoring

13. Projects will be required to complete an interim project report at the midpoint of the project and a final project report at the end of the project using the templates in Annex B.

14. As a condition of funding, it is an expectation that projects share their learnings from the project. From the monitoring noted in Annex B, we will identify learning and share across the network. In addition we would welcome project bids to include within the bids how you would expect to disseminate your learning.

Timetable

15. Medr will share a payment schedule once projects have been agreed.

Documentation released	17 October 2025
Deadline for submission of bids	10 November 2025
Outcomes of assessment communicated	December 2025

Further information

16. For further information, contact [email protected].

Introduction

1. This publication sets out our intentions in 2025/26 to allocate:

• £4,050,000 direct funding to the further education (FE) sector for the 2025/26 academic year to support mental health and wellbeing initiatives for both learners and staff.
• additional £350,000 to support FE staff and student emotional and mental well-being initiatives at a national level; and
• additional well-being and health funding to support joint further and higher education projects.

2. This publication builds on guidance previously issued by the Welsh Government, in support of Medr’s aim to ensure a smooth transition for providers and learners, as Medr takes on its new duties and responsibilities.

3. Medr has a strategic duty to promote equality of opportunity in tertiary education and will introduce a staff and student/learner welfare related condition of registration. The Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill: Exploratory Memorandum notes:

‘The initial and ongoing conditions regarding support for and the promotion of student and staff welfare will introduce new regulatory requirements for providers which, it was envisaged, would encompass matters such as mental health, wellbeing and safety of learners and staff at the provider. The Commission will be required to set out and publish requirements which must be met by registered providers regarding their arrangements in respect to the initial and ongoing conditions. In the context of student and staff welfare, it is envisaged that ‘arrangements’ would include policies, procedures and support services for student and staff wellbeing and safety. ‘Wellbeing’ in this context is intended to mean emotional wellbeing and mental health. ‘Safety’ is intended to mean freedom from harms including harassment, misconduct, violence (including sexual violence), and hate crime.’

4. In 2024, Welsh Ministers published their statement of strategic priorities for tertiary education research and innovation which include a priority for Medr to create a common framework for mental health and well-being support across tertiary education.

5. In March 2025, Medr published its Strategic Plan for 2025-30 and in June 2025 its operational plan for 2025-26 financial year.

6. The Strategic Plan includes a founding commitment for Medr to develop a common framework for mental health and well-being by 1 August 2026, affirming equality of opportunity and strengthened by regulatory conditions to support staff and learner welfare.

Further education emotional and mental well-being and health, including mental policy, update and our expectations arising from them

7. In April 2025, the Welsh Government published its Mental health and wellbeing strategy 2025 to 2035. Medr expects all FE providers to take account of the national mental health and well-being strategy when developing and revising their well-being and health strategies, suicide prevention and self-harm approaches and well-being policies and, where appropriate, include related actions in their 2025/26 funding proposal applications.

8. In April 2025, the Welsh Government published its Suicide Prevention and Self‑harm Strategy for Wales. Medr encourages all FE providers to participate in, and contribute to, the Suicide Prevention and Self-Harm Community of Practice.

9. Medr welcomes the FE sector’s work to embed a Trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences (TrACE) organisational approach within its practice. We encourage FE providers to continue to develop their approaches and share learning, where appropriate.

Estyn Thematic Reviews

10. In June 2023, Estyn published its review: Peer on peer sexual harassment among 16-19 year old learners in FE. This report considers the incidence of peer-on-peer sexual harassment in the lives of young people and reviews the culture and processes that help protect and support 16 to 18-year-old learners in further education colleges in Wales. The review makes five recommendations for further education providers.

11. In May 2025, Estyn published its review: Understanding, Supporting and Promoting Positive Behaviour. The report includes research which indicates that learner behaviour impacts on staff well-being and that there was inconsistent availability of well-being and emotional support mechanisms for staff. In addition, the report highlights the mental health challenges facing the sector, resulting from the rising numbers of learners requiring additional support for anxiety and depression. The report includes five recommendations for further education providers.

12. These reports are important and colleges should review their own policies, procedures and activity to ensure they take account of the recommendations.

Emotional and mental well-being, and wider equality and intersectionality considerations

13. We expect providers to take account of intersectional impacts on learner and staff emotional and mental well-being. Therefore, providers should take account of how the mental health and well-being funding contributes to the following Welsh Government equality plans:

• Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan;
• LGBTQ+ Action Plan for Wales;
• Violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence: strategy 2022 to 2026 and its Violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence: blueprint high level action plan;
• Disabled People’s Rights Plan: 2025 to 2035 which is currently under consultation.

While the Draft Disabled People’s Rights Plan is not yet finalised, we encourage providers to take account of its proposed priorities and principles, where appropriate.

14. FE providers must use the findings and conclusion of the equality impact assessments to inform plans, policies, procedures to demonstrate actions are evidence-based.

Colegau Cymru

15. In 2025/26 Colegau Cymru will be coordinating a Mental Health network on which Medr will be represented and we encourage all colleges to participate fully.

16. FE providers should consider the Active Well-being Strategy and collaborative work coordinated by Colegau Cymru.

Direct funding to FE institutions 2025/26

17. In 2025/26 £4,050,000 will be allocated directly to FE institutions, for front-line staffing for wellbeing support, capacity building, counselling to support staff and learners, and well-being and mental health activities that will benefit learners and staff across the sector.

18. The £4,050,000 will be allocated based on the size of each institution as a proxy for the number of learners and staff. Full allocations are detailed in Annex A.

19. The funding can be used for activities that reflect each institution’s individual priorities, based on its own policies and the identified support needs of its learners and staff, informed by their own data and evidence.

20. You are encouraged to use your funding for collaborative activity and can choose to “pool” funding to support collaborative projects.

21. In 2025/26 we expect all FE providers build on work of the Well Aware project which provides a safe space for staff and for trade union wellbeing representatives to promote and support a campaign of sustainable wellbeing. Providers should allocate funding for a minimum of one trade union wellbeing representative per college, working at least one hour per week over a thirty-three week period. (Please note: from 2025-26 this funding should be drawn from your provider allocation set out in this publication.)

22. In 2025/26 all FE providers must review their approach to suicide prevention and put in place mitigating action/s.

23. Providers should consider the suicide prevention guidance, most of which has been uploaded to the HE&FE suicide prevention community of practice Padlet. They should also take into account the implications for FE from the National Review of HE Student Suicides and consider actions that address the recommendations relevant to the FE sector.

Eligible activities

24. Funding can be used to:

• Deliver support for wellbeing learners and staff.
• Meet salary costs for staff supporting emotional and mental wellbeing to staff or learners.
• Further develop, implement, and evaluate wellbeing policies and strategies.
• Undertake action research with a view to it being sustained by the college through this funding stream.
• Implement and embed successful projects and initiatives developed by regions.
• Develop new projects based on need and changing priorities.
• Develop, pilot, and evaluate approaches.
• Improve joined-up service delivery and support for learner transition.
• Develop curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment models to support staff and learner mental wellbeing.
• Develop bilingual resources and guidance for college wide benefit, including for work-based and adult learning; this could also include adapting and translating existing resources.
• Activities that tackle racism, sexual misconduct and behaviours that impact on staff and student well-being and mental health.
• Staff training to support emotional and mental well-being.
• Funding can also be used to release staff time to take part in activities, to procure expert services including training and consultancy, and to produce and translate resources. 

25. Capital expenditure (e.g., purchase of equipment) is not eligible for funding.

26. In planning your delivery, we expect all institutions to focus on achieving sustainable outcomes and whilst we welcome the development of new initiatives, it is important to build and embed previous initiatives including those developed as part of the National projects, which includes:

• Peer on peer abuse project;
• Ant-racist curriculum (Metaverse) project;
• Active well-being;
• Well-aware project; and
• HE/FE national student mental health partnership project.

27. Applications must include activities designed to support both learner and staff wellbeing.

National further education project/s

28. In 2025/26, Medr will allocate to colleges an additional £350,000 to support FE staff and student emotional and mental well-being initiatives at a national level. Medr,  will be engaging with the sector to identify which national project/s will be taken forward.

Additional 2025/26 further and higher education funding

29. In 2025/26 the Welsh Government provided Medr with additional funding to support further and higher education providers. It is Medr’s intention to allocate £350,000 to FE colleges via formular funding as detailed in paragraphs 17 and18, fund the development of a FE specific suicide safer framework and to fund the following national FE and HE projects:

• Continued funding to the national student mental health partnership programme led by Cardiff University and building on pilot work originally funded by HEFCW and Welsh Government. In 2025/26, Medr is providing continuation funding to support the development of a data storage solution, continued rollout of a mental health severity index, exploration and development of information-sharing protocols and an external evaluation of the programme.  
• Myf.Cymru led by Bangor University to provide Welsh language student well-being resources and practitioners network for further and higher education.  

2025/26 funding allocation process

30. Medr requires FE providers to submit a 2025/26 funding plan which must:

• include support for the emotional and mental wellbeing of both learners and staff
• meet the eligible criteria listed in paragraph 22.
• directly fund trade union wellbeing representatives, building on the work of the Well Aware project (1 day a week for 30 weeks).
• build on and embed previous institutional, collaborative and/or sector-wide work on mental health and wellbeing.
• demonstrate how impact will be measured and evaluated.

31. A 2025/26 funding plan template is attached as Annex B. (See Table 1 below for submission dates.)

Directly-funded college monitoring

32. Interim and final monitoring and case study templates will be circulated in October 2025.

Timetable

33. Table 1 below sets out the directly funded college submission and reporting deadlines.

Table 1

Submission and reporting requirements	Submission date
Guidance issued	September 2025
Deadline for submission of funding plan from FE institutions	24 October 2025
Project delivery	1 August 2025 onwards
Grant offer letters issued	November 2025
Submission of interim monitoring report	1 March 2026
1st payment	April 2026
Submission of final monitoring report	1 July 2026
2nd payment	July 2026

Further information / responses to

34. For further information contact Ryan Stokes ([email protected]).

35. Responses to be submitted to [email protected].

Assessing the impact of our policies

36. We have updated our ongoing impact assessment to take account of equality, diversity and inclusion. We also considered the impact of policies on the Welsh language, and Welsh language provision within the tertiary sector in Wales and potential impacts on the goals set out in the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.

37. Our impact assessment findings include:

• identifying likely positive impacts on the following protected characteristics: age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. No negative impacts were identified.
• confirming that the funding supports five of the seven well-being goals and takes account of the five ways of working of the Well-being of Future Generations Act.
• noting that the funding and monitoring seeks to have a positive impact on the Welsh Language.

Summary guidance: Anti-racist action planning

This refreshed Further Education College Anti-racist Action Planning Guidance has been informed by funding guidance issued by Welsh Government to ensure consistency and continuity.

This guidance makes direct reference to previous anti-racism guidance. It has been further developed by Medr to take account of the Welsh Government’s Anti-racist Wales Action Plan (ARWAP) and the 2024 update.

We welcome the continued engagement of colleges with this work through their commitment to the actions in the ARWAP. In line with our values, we want to work collaboratively with the sector to support the delivery of the requirements of this guidance. You can contact the team at [email protected].

To ensure stability for colleges, and as we work with colleges on their collective contribution to the Welsh Government’s Anti-racist Wales Action Plan: 2024 update, we are allocating £21k funding to each college, for a sixteen-month period from April 2025 to July 2026. From 2026/27 funding will revert to a twelve-month academic year funding period. In 2025/26 we are also allocating an additional £4k, for the period August 2025 to July 2026, to enable colleges to take forward additional activity. Therefore, this guidance confirms an allocation to each college of £25k for anti-racism.

In our email to colleges in April 2025 we encouraged colleges to use the four-month period, from April to July 2025, to:

• self-assess their 2024-25 submissions to us;
• update their equality impact assessments;
• take account of the updated Anti-racist Wales Action Plan; and
• identify data-informed priorities for the college.

From July 2025 to July 2026, we expect colleges to:

• continue to take account of the Anti-racist Wales Action Plan 2022 to 2026;
• develop and extend their 2022-24 action plans, taking account of the ARWAP and corresponding advice from the Black Leadership Group;
• continue to identify and make progress with 2025/26 data-informed priorities; and
• engage with the anti-racist curriculum (Metaverse) project (and its evaluation).

Separately, in response to the 2025/26 one off allocation of £4k, we expect colleges to:

• engage with Welsh Government’s self-assessment maturity matrix for the Anti-racist Wales Action Plan (attached as Annex A); and
• deliver relevant anti-racism related training, relevant to the college’s needs, as identified through equality impact assessment and action planning.

Colleges’ anti-racism action plans, should be ‘live documents’, regularly reviewed and updated as part of the college’s annual strategic planning, risk and quality assurance processes.

Additional funding amounts and timings

A FE mainstream allocation of £2,666,447 will be allocated to FE institutions for an increase in unit value in the relevant AY months in FY 2025-26, as shown in the table below.

FEI	FE | Contribution to an increase in unit value
Bridgend College	£136,073
Cardiff and Vale College	£332,108
Coleg Cambria	£326,668
Coleg Gwent	£380,749
Coleg Sir Gâr	£175,035
Coleg y Cymoedd	£284,022
Gower College Swansea	£231,927
Grŵp Llandrillo Menai	£293,837
Grŵp NPTC Group	£201,853
The College Merthyr Tydfil	£86,370
Pembrokeshire College	£105,383
St David’s Catholic Sixth Form College	£61,807
Adult Learning Wales	£50,615
Total	£2,666,447

An allocation of £631,853 will be allocated to LAs for Sixth Form schools for an increase in unit value in the relevant AY months in FY 2025-26, as shown in the table below. 

Local Authority	LA | Contribution to an increase in unit value
Isle of Anglesey County Council	£15,596
Gwynedd Council	£23,374
Conwy County Borough Council	£32,197
Denbighshire County Council	£23,033
Flintshire County Council	£27,973
Wrexham County Borough Council	£6,926
Powys County Council	£26,695
Ceredigion County Council	£21,340
Pembrokeshire County Council	£17,783
Carmarthenshire County Council	£39,293
Swansea City and County Council	£39,975
Neath Port Talbot Council	£13,501
Bridgend County Borough Council	£44,385
Vale of Glamorgan Council	£46,936
Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council	£55,220
Cardiff Council	£100,563
Caerphilly County Borough Council	£22,952
Torfaen County Borough Council	£2,463
Monmouthshire County Council	£23,413
Newport City Council	£48,235
Total	£631,853

This funding relates to the relevant AY months in FY 2025-26. This additional funding for an increase in unit value will be paid in full in one instalment in October 2025.

The Welsh Government has allocated additional funding of £700,000 to Medr in financial year (FY) 2025-26 to support institutions in implementing their duties under the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018. This additional funding will be paid in full in one instalment in October 2025. Activity can be undertaken throughout the academic year, however, Medr expects institutions to commit the expenditure within the 2025-26 financial year.

Additional funding amounts, timings and purposes

The funding should help build capacity and deliver actions that will promote effective approaches to meeting the needs of young people who have ALN and contribute to delivering a fully inclusive education system, where all learners are supported to reach their potential.

Preparation for the implementation of the ALN Act and Code funding is intended to augment other funding allocated and does not replace an institutions main source of funding, nor should it be a determinant of a learners admission.

Institutions must adhere to the Preparation for the Implementation of the ALN Act and Code Guidance on the Medr website.

The funding is calculated based on the institutions share of the Additional Learning Support funding and is underpinned with an initial allocation of £40,000 per institution.

	Total allocation FY 2024/25 £	Total allocation AY 2025/26 £	Difference from AY 2024/25 allocation	Percentage difference %
Adult Learning Wales	43,415.00	43,418.00	3	0.01%
Bridgend College	49,363.00	49,181.00	(182)	-0.37%
Cardiff and Vale College	62,176.00	62,443.00	267	0.43%
Coleg Cambria	62,095.00	62,029.00	(66)	-0.11%
Coleg Gwent	66,150.00	65,709.00	(441)	-0.67%
Coleg Sir Gâr	51,830.00	51,793.00	(37)	-0.07%
Coleg y Cymoedd	57,935.00	59,210.00	1,275	2.20%
Gower College Swansea	55,950.00	55,665.00	(285)	-0.51%
Grŵp Llandrillo Menai	59,849.00	59,818.00	(31)	-0.05%
Grŵp NPTC Group	54,006.00	53,619.00	(387)	-0.72%
Pembrokeshire College	47,162.00	47,098.00	(64)	-0.14%
St David’s Catholic Sixth Form College	44,187.00	44,178.00	(9)	-0.02%
The College Merthyr Tydfil	45,882.00	45,839.00	(43)	-0.09%
	700,000.00	700,000.00

Activity can be undertaken throughout the academic year, however, Medr expects institutions to commit the expenditure within the 2025-26 financial year.

Additional funding amounts and timings

A FE mainstream allocation of £8,068,000 will be allocated to FE institutions for National Insurance contributions in 2025-26, as shown in the table below. 

FEI Fiscal year 2025/26	FE | Contribution towards increased NI costs
Adult Learning Wales	£113,547.70
Bridgend College	£444,774.05
Coleg Cambria	£1,103,664.86
Cardiff and Vale College	£945,002.09
Coleg Sir Gâr	£570,373.88
Coleg Gwent	£890,552.23
Coleg y Cymoedd	£640,873.42
Gower College Swansea	£785,166.10
Grŵp Llandrillo Menai	£1,125,251.92
The College Merthyr Tydfil	£178,655.64
Grŵp NPTC Group	£732,340.62
Pembrokeshire College	£370,025.94
St David’s Catholic Sixth Form College	£167,771.54
Total	£8,068,000.00

An allocation of £1,375,000 will be allocated to LAs for Sixth Form schools for National Insurance contributions in 2025-26, as shown in the table below.

Local Authority	LA | Contribution towards increased NI costs
Isle of Anglesey County Council	£34,015
Gwynedd Council	£51,663
Conwy County Borough Council	£70,799
Denbighshire County Council	£50,659
Flintshire County Council	£62,019
Wrexham County Borough Council	£14,958
Powys County Council	£59,605
Ceredigion County Council	£47,766
Pembrokeshire County Council	£39,375
Carmarthenshire County Council	£87,299
Swansea City and County Council	£86,836
Neath Port Talbot Council	£28,930
Bridgend County Borough Council	£96,082
Vale of Glamorgan Council	£103,604
Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council	£116,177
Cardiff Council	£217,955
Caerphilly County Borough Council	£48,340
Torfaen County Borough Council	£5,254
Monmouthshire County Council	£52,305
Newport City Council	£101,359
Total	£1,375,000

This funding relates to the period 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026.This additional funding for National Insurance contributions for 2025-26 will be paid in full in one instalment in October 2025.

Introduction

1. Welsh Government have indicated that £10m capital funding will be made available for allocation within the 2025-26 financial year. This funding will be allocated to support Medr’s strategic priorities.

Basis of capital funding allocations

2. The capital funding will be allocated based on a formulaic approach. As the funding is to be used, at least in part, to support learning and teaching, the student experience and student facing infrastructure, the allocations have been determined based on student numbers. The number of students at an institution represents a reasonable proxy for the amount of estate and facilities required. This method is consistent with previous allocations of capital.

3. The student numbers used for the initial allocation are the HESA Student Record Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) for all modes, levels and domiciles based on the 2023/24 academic year. This is the same basis on which the previous round of capital funding was allocated.

Application of a minimum funding allocation

4. In order to provide capital funding that will allow all institutions to invest in projects that will make a sustainable impact, a minimum allocation of £750,000 has been applied. Given its limited estate in Wales, the OU will have a minimum threshold set at 50% (£375,000) to contribute to projects that will benefit Welsh students.

5. The funding for institutions where the original allocation based on their student FTEs fell below this value has been increased to this amount and the FTEs for those institutions then removed from the calculation. The remaining balance of available funding has been apportioned between the other institutions based upon the remaining FTEs in the calculation.

6. The resulting allocations for each institution are provided in Annex A.

Submission of plans

7. Institutions will be required to provide their Capital investment plans for this funding, along with their Estate strategies, with details of how the investment plans align with their Estates strategies. If Estates strategies are in the process of being updated, a written update including estates priorities must be provided.

8. The Capital investment plans should include details of the institution’s planned expenditure and how it will support Medr’s strategic priorities. Net Zero and responding to the climate emergency remains a Welsh Government priority, so institutions should prioritise projects that address this issue directly. It is likely that such projects would also have broader benefits on other priority issues such as biodiversity. Institutions should also highlight how plans will improve the learning and teaching space and benefit the student experience.

9. Medr Officers will confirm that the Capital investment plans are appropriate and meet the necessary criteria.

10. We will continue to monitor HESA metrics via the published data releases and so institutions should continue to be mindful of the impact projects may have on them.

11. A pro forma for these plans is attached at Annex B.

12. Should we have any concerns on the appropriateness of any particular projects, we may require the funding to be redirected to more suitable ones. As such, we recommend that institutions provide plans in excess of their allocation to allow for flexibility.

13. Should an institution foresee being unable to spend their full allocation, they should notify Medr at the earliest opportunity and any residual funds will be reallocated to other institutions via the formulaic approach described previously.

Annual monitoring

14. A monitoring exercise will be undertaken in 2026 at a suitable date to ensure that the funding has been used as intended and to provide an update on the impact that the investment has had.

15. Institutions will be expected to provide a breakdown of the capital spend and detail any projects that the funding has contributed to.

16. Institutions will be requested to provide a qualitative summary of the positive impacts this funding has had/is having on Medr priorities and the criteria noted above.

Timetable

17. Providers will be requested to confirm their ability to spend their full allocation by 07 October 2025.

18. Medr will schedule payment of the allocated funds to institutions upon receipt of the above confirmation and in October 2025.

19. The annual monitoring process will take place in 2026 at a suitable date.

Further information

20. For further information, contact [email protected].

Annex A: Additional higher education capital funding modelling 2025/26

Institution	2023/24 Student FTE	Allocations pro rata to (£): FTE	Percentage allocated to each institution FTE
University of South Wales	19,177.00	1,528,197.07	15%
Aberystwyth University		750,000.00	8%
Bangor University		750,000.00	8%
Cardiff University	28,326.00	2,257,272.28	23%
University of Wales Trinity Saint David	11,755.00	936,744.88	9%
Swansea University	19,009.00	1,514,809.31	15%
Cardiff Metropolitan University	10,578.00	842,950.86	8%
Wrexham University		750,000.00	8%
Open University in Wales	8,408.00	670,025.60	7%
Total	97,253.00	10,000,000.00	100%

Source: HESA student record 2023/24

Student Numbers not used in calculation: HESA standard registration population, all modes, levels and domiciles.

FTE’s used in calculation: HESA Session Population, all modes, levels and domiciles.

Please note that rounding has been applied to FTE values following use in calculations.

Medr welcomes the Estyn thematic report on the Independent Living Skills (ILS) Curriculum in Further Education Institutions (FEIs). We accept the findings and recommendations as they relate to Medr.

The thematic was commissioned by Medr in August 2024 following extensive engagement with the sector, during which a number of priorities for improvement were identified. Since Estyn’s 2017 thematic report, the sector has made notable improvements to how the ILS curriculum is delivered, with a strong focus on responding to learner needs. This thematic was commissioned to ensure effective changes have been made and to strengthen a consistent offer for learners across Wales. Medr’s Strategic Plan 2025-2030 outlines our commitment to promote a person-centered approach to supporting learners with Additional Learning Needs, alongside a strong focus on increasing participation. This thematic will help guide our collaborative efforts with the sector as we move forward in developing a strengthened ILS provision.

Prior to the commissioning of the thematic, Welsh Government (prior to transfer of relevant functions to Medr), in partnership with the sector, had already identified the need to update our ILS specifications to better reflect a person-centred curriculum, in line with the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018. Medr, therefore, welcomes Estyn’s first recommendation to revise the specifications, and values the evidence provided to inform this work. This commitment is embedded in our Operational Plan, and all changes will be made collaboratively with the sector. Providing clear guidance to support understanding will also be a key part of this process, helping to strengthen the revised specifications (R2).

More broadly, our Strategic Plan outlines our commitment to promoting a person-centred approach for learners with Additional Learning Needs (ALN). As part of this, we aim to support Welsh Government in addressing relevant recommendations (R3–R5) through our continued engagement in relevant working groups and providing information and advice regarding ALN implementation in the tertiary sector. Medr will engage with Local Authorities where appropriate to explore areas requiring additional support in the post-16 space (R12–R15).

Medr will work with FEIs to ensure that information on their websites is accessible and clearly reflects the support available to learners (R10), and undertake a monitoring exercise during 2026 to review progress. Alongside the publication of updated specifications and guidance, we will also work with the sector to explore the professional learning activities needed to support the effective delivery of the revised curriculum (R7).  We will explore the potential to use professional learning funding to support these activities.  We recognise the importance of supporting FEIs to continue developing the curriculum in ways that ensure equitable access for learners across Wales.

We are pleased that Estyn has recognised notable improvements across the sector since the last review. We look forward to working with the sector and relevant partners to address the recommendations and further strengthen provision, ensuring a consistent and high-quality offer for learners with Complex Needs across Wales.

Medr is inviting providers, learners, employers, and stakeholders to take part in a consultation on a new Welsh apprenticeship programme.

The consultation, set to guide the future of apprenticeships from August 2027, will run from 15 September 2025 to 31 October 2025.

James Owen, Chief Executive of Medr, said: “This is a unique opportunity to help shape an apprenticeship system that is flexible, responsive, and centred around the evolving needs of learners, employers and the economy.

“Medr’s ambition is to ensure apprenticeship provision aligns with Welsh Government priorities and supports every individual in acquiring the skills and knowledge needed for a changing world of work.

“We want to see an apprenticeship programme that delivers excellence, equality, and engagement for all. We encourage everyone with an interest in apprenticeships to respond to the consultation and come along to one of the upcoming events.”

Find out more about how to shape the future of apprenticeships in Wales:

Apprenticeship programme in Wales: consultation

Video: Medr launches apprenticeship programme consultation