Medr has completed the second of its engagement events with interested and affected parties on proposals for a new system for regulating tertiary education and training providers.

The events, each attended by upwards of 150 people, have provided an overview of what the proposals mean for the sector, the rationale behind decisions and how the sector can further help shape final regulations, which will largely come into effect from 1 August 2026.

These are available to watch again:

Medr is keen to ensure all stakeholders are well informed and engaged on the regulatory framework proposals – which include various conditions of regulation and funding, powers of intervention and the quality framework.

The first phase of consultation launched on 15 May and closes on 18 July, with all views encouraged and well-received. Any further questions can be sent to [email protected] for a response.

Medr, the body responsible for funding and regulating tertiary education and research in Wales, has been accredited by The Living Wage Foundation as a Living Wage employer.

The Living Wage commitment aims to support employees with a decent standard of living and drives up standards to tackle in-work poverty.

The accreditation means that Medr is committed to paying a real Living Wage to all employees and contracted workers.

This builds on Medr’s commitment to social partnership, having recently become one of the first bodies in Wales to reach consensus with trade unions on our well-being objectives in line with the Welsh Government’s social partnership goals.

James Owen, Medr’s Chief Operating Officer, said:

“We want to be an organisation that embraces best practice, treats staff fairly and in doing so, demonstrates leadership for the tertiary education and research sector.

“We were delighted to reach agreement with PCS, our recognised trade union, on our well-being objectives before finalising our first Strategic Plan earlier this year. We work closely with all partners, including unions, to ensure that the aims and needs of the organisation closely align with the aims and needs of our workforce.”

Medr, the body responsible for funding and overseeing tertiary education and research in Wales has today announced the appointment of James Owen as its new Chief Executive.

James will replace outgoing interim CEO Simon Pirotte, having previously been Chief Operating Officer at Medr since its inception last year.

Announcing the appointment, Medr Chair Professor Dame Julie Lydon said: “I am very pleased indeed to announce this appointment. James has excelled alongside Simon in establishing Medr and I look forward to working with him to ensure his high standards and expertise translate to Medr delivering on its ambitions to support and encourage a thriving tertiary education sector in Wales.”

Vikki Howells, Minister for Further and Higher Education said: “I welcome the appointment of Medr’s first permanent CEO. Mr Owen was successful in what I understand was a very strong field and I look forward to continuing to work with him and the wider Medr team as we deliver on our shared ambitions for learners across Wales. I also want to thank Simon Pirotte for his work as interim CEO in helping to establish Medr.”

James Owen, who will start his new role over the coming weeks, added: “I’m delighted to be appointed as CEO of Medr. I’m only too aware of the challenges and opportunities that face the sector in Wales and look forward to working closely with our partners to ensure we use the full breadth of Medr’s expertise and levers to deliver a tertiary education and research sector that is resilient and prosperous for our learners, our institutions and for Wales.”

Notes

James comes with a wealth of experience, most recently in his role as Chief Operating Officer of Medr and previously across a number of leadership roles at the heart of both Welsh and UK Government. A Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, James has a proven record for getting the most from people and supporting them and those around them to reach their potential.

Mr Pirotte, who was initially appointed by Welsh Government Ministers in 2023 on a fixed term role until September, will continue in his interim role until James formally begins Chief Executive duties.

Key points

• There were 3,620 apprenticeship learning programmes started in 2024/25 Q2 (p), compared with 4,525 starts in 2023/24 Q2.
• Level 3 apprenticeships saw the largest fall compared to Q2 the previous year, a 26% drop.
• There were 205 less construction apprenticeships starts compared to Q2 the previous year, a 48% drop.
• Healthcare and Public Services apprenticeships were the most popular sector in 2024/25 Q2 (p) with 1,720 programmes started. This accounted for 48% of all apprenticeship learning programmes started.
• 62% of apprenticeship learning programmes started were by female learners in 2024/25 Q2 (p), a 3 percentage point increase from 2023/24 Q2.
• 42% of apprenticeship learning programmes started were by learners aged between 25 and 39 in 2024/25 Q2 (p), compared to 38% in Q2 for the previous year.
• 15% of apprenticeship learning programmes started were by learners with ethnic minority backgrounds in 2024/25 Q2 (p), a 3 percentage point increase from 2023/24 Q2.
• 13% of apprenticeship learning programmes started in 2024/25 Q2 (p) were by learners identifying as having a disability and/or learning difficulty, a 2 percentage point increase from 2023/24 Q2.
• There have been 73,795 apprenticeship starts since Q4 2020/21, as part of progress towards Welsh Government’s target of 100,000 apprenticeships.
• The Programme for Government contained a target to create 125,000 all-age apprenticeships. During the Economy, Trade and Rural Affairs Committee meeting on 26 June 2024, the Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Welsh Language agreed a new target of 100,000 all-age apprenticeships to maintain the previous Senedd term’s target of 100,000.

Note: Figures with (p) are provisional.

The Welsh Government financial year budget for apprenticeships in 2023-24 was £139m and £144m in 2024-25 (Source: Final Budget 2023 to 2024, Final Budget 2024 to 2025).

Previously, there was additional funding for apprenticeships from the European Social Fund (over £40m in 2023-24 Draft Budget 2025 to 2026: evidence to the Senedd Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee). This ceased by the 2024-2025 financial year.

Closing date: Monday 16 June 2025

The People and Culture Committee is responsible for the oversight of Medr’s People and Culture Strategy, organisational development, well-being, and equality and diversity.

The Committee will ensure that the Strategy is aligned to Medr’s vision and values, and it will monitor and advise the Medr Board on the performance of the organisation against the Strategy.

We are looking for independent members with a passion for people development and a diversity of experience in building organisational culture, capacity and capability to bring an independent, external perspective to the Committee’s work.

Ideally you will have experience/background in one or more of the following areas:

• the development and implementation of a People and Culture Strategy
• people and leadership development
• organisational development and change management
• pay and remuneration
• working in social partnership with trade unions

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;
• 50 (4) Quality Assurance Frameworks, and;
• 81 (3) Statement on Intervention Functions.

Overview

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

• Regulatory Approach, which sets out how we propose to act as a proportionate and risk-based regulator, and Intervention Powers, which provides a statement of our intervention powers and how those powers may be deployed (Annex A).
• Regulatory Framework which includes a first part of the draft Conditions of Registration and Conditions of Funding; guidance on the requirements for compliance; information on arrangements for ongoing monitoring; 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).

Consultation Method

3. Responses to the consultation are invited through our online survey. The questions outlined in consultation document (publication Medr/2025/02) 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 online 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. Each event will provide a broad overview of the developments, but will have a separate focus:

• Event 1: 03 June 2025 (Regulatory approach and intervention powers – understanding our approach to our regulatory activities and how we might intervene when things go wrong; and our Quality framework – a quality and continuous improvement framework for the whole of the tertiary sector.) Watch the first consultation event.
• Event 2: 10 June 2025 (Regulatory framework – exploring our regulatory conditions of registration and conditions of funding). Watch the second consultation event.

To confirm your attendance, please register through our Eventbrite page.

Timetable

5. Stakeholders are invited to submit consultation responses via our survey by 5pm on 18 July 2025.

6. Further consultation will take place later in 2025 on the whole of the new regulatory system including those elements not included in this consultation that are currently under development.

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

Note:

An update to the narrative in the ‘Expenditure’ section of this publication was made on 21 May 2025 to provide more clarity about the scale of the technical non-cash accounting adjustments to pension provisions, and restructuring costs which are excluded from underlying expenditure. We have also included a sentence to show how the underlying position of Welsh higher education institutions changes if restructuring costs are included. The figures published originally are unaffected by this update.

Income

• The total income of Welsh higher education institutions was reported as £1.98bn in 2023/24, the same as in 2022/23.

Chart 1: Breakdown of Welsh higher education institutions’ income

• Income through tuition fees and education contracts increased by 5% to £1.11bn in 2023/24. Tuition fee and education contracts accounted for 56% of income in 2023/24.

• Funding body grants accounted for 14% (£276m) of Welsh higher education institutions’ income in 2023/24. Income from funding body grants fell by 15% between 2022/23 and 2023/24. As well as funding from Medr, funding body grants can include funding for further education institutions within higher education groups, and some other UK government funding paid via Medr.

• Research grants and contracts made up 12% (£239m) of Welsh higher education institutions’ income in 2023/24. Income from research grants and contracts decreased by 12% between 2022/23 and 2023/24.

Expenditure

• The total underlying expenditure of Welsh higher education institutions in 2023/24 was £2.04bn, 4% higher than the total underlying expenditure in 2022/23 (£1.96bn). Underlying expenditure excludes technical non-cash accounting adjustments to pension provisions of £380m (2022/23 – £73m) which, if included, would reduce total expenditure, giving a false reflection of the costs of the sector. Wider market improvements increased the value of pension schemes, so in 2023/24 less was needed to be set aside for possible future changes. The underlying expenditure also excludes restructuring costs of £16m (2022/23 – £1m) which by nature do not form part of recurrent operational expenditure.

• The underlying operating position of Welsh higher education institutions (total income minus total underlying expenditure as defined above) in 2023/24 was a deficit of £61m (2022/23 – £21m surplus). The underlying position including restructuring costs would have been a deficit of £77m (2022/23 – £22m surplus).

• The total expenditure of Welsh higher education institutions (including adjustments and restructuring costs) in 2023/24 was £1.68bn, 11% lower than the 2022/23 figure of £1.89bn.

Chart 2: Breakdown of Welsh higher education institutions’ expenditure

• There was a 6% increase in staff costs (excluding changes to pension provisions and pension adjustments) from £1.05bn in 2022/23 to £1.11bn in 2023/24. Note: this differs from how the data has been provided in previous versions of this release where changes to pension provisions and pension adjustments were included with the staff costs.

Data

The 2023/24 figures are for the year ended 31 July 2024 and the 2022/23 figures are for the year ended 31 July 2023.

The 2022/23 figures in this release are the restated values collected during the collection of the 2023/24 finance record. This means the 2022/23 figures may differ from what has been published previously as providers are able to amend these if necessary.

The data can be found on the HESA Open Data website which also includes data for individual providers.

Main points

General education (A levels)

• Grade outcomes remain higher than before the pandemic, but there was a decrease in the proportions of learners achieving at least three As and at least three Cs compared to 2022/23.
• There was a small increase in AS level completion and a small decrease in the proportion of learners who went onto their second year of A levels compared to 2022/23.
• Learners taking Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics and Biology were particularly likely to get high grades.
• Females had better outcomes than males in general education programmes, apart from learners achieving three A*s.
• 51% of female AS learners went on to achieve at least three Cs at A level, compared to 40% of male learners.
• 48% of 16 year old AS learners went on to achieve at least three Cs at A level, compared to 22% of older learners.
• Learners from deprived backgrounds were less likely to complete their A levels and less likely to get high grades if they did.
• Learners from Black, African, Caribbean, Black British or Black Welsh background generally had lower A level outcomes than other ethnic groups, but this was the only ethnic group to see an increase in achieving at least three As compared to 2022/23.

Vocational education

• Vocational outcomes at all programme levels improved in 2023/24. The recovery from the drop in outcomes following the coronavrius (Covid-19) pandemic continued and outcomes at levels 1 to 3 are now broadly in line with pre-pandemic figures.
• Completion and success rates for entry level vocational programmes are both 3 percentage points higher than pre-pandemic.
• The proportion of learners who did not complete their programme due to ‘Personal reasons’ has remained stagnant. Fewer learners did not complete their programme due to ‘Failure’.
• Learners who did not complete their programme due to ‘Other’ reasons saw an increase of 10 percentage points compared 2022/23.Vocational learners linked to experiences of deprivation had lower outcomes than those who were not, but the relationship was less strong than in general education.
• There was no gender/sex gap in success rates for vocational programmes.

Welsh Baccalaureate (Welsh Bacc)

• Outcomes for the Welsh Bacc were higher than 2022/23 for learners on general education and vocational programmes, except for the proportions of vocational learners achieving A*, A* to A and A* to B in the Skills Challenge Certificate, which were slightly lower or remained the same.

Summary of achievement measures by academic year, August 2022 to July 2024

Key points

• There were 7,185 apprenticeship learning programmes started in 2024/25 Q1, compared with 8,145 starts in 2023/24 Q1. This is a 12% fall in apprenticeships started.
• The fall in starts coincides with a reduction in apprenticeship funding in the 2024-25 budget, following the loss of European Social Fund contributions. Changes to delivery started from November 2023, in anticipation of the budget.
• Higher Apprenticeships saw the largest fall compared to Q1 the previous year.
• Healthcare and Public Services apprenticeships were the most popular sector in 2024/25 Q1 with 2,210 programmes started. This accounted for 31% of all apprenticeship learning programmes started.
• 53% of apprenticeship learning programmes started were by male learners in 2024/25 Q1, a one percentage point decrease from 2023/24 Q1.
• 34% of apprenticeship learning programmes started were by learners aged 19 and under in 2024/25 Q1, compared to 35% in Q1 for the previous year.
• 12% of apprenticeship learning programmes started were by learners with ethnic minority backgrounds in 2024/25 Q1, a three percentage point increase from 2023/24 Q1.
• 12% of apprenticeship learning programmes started in 2024/25 Q1 were by learners identifying as having a disability and/or learning difficulty, this is unchanged from Q1 for the previous year.
• There have been 70,110 apprenticeship starts since Q4 2020/21, as part of progress towards Welsh Government’s target of 100,000 apprenticeships.
• The Programme for Government contained a target to create 125,000 all-age apprenticeships. During the Economy, Trade and Rural Affairs Committee meeting on 26 June 2024, the Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Welsh Language agreed a new target of 100,000 all-age apprenticeships to maintain the previous Senedd term’s target of 100,000.