Sta/Medr/12/2026: Welsh language in higher education, 2024/25

Main points

• In 2024/25, 13% of enrolments by students from Wales were known to be fluent Welsh speakers. A further 15% had some level of Welsh speaking ability which was either non-fluent or at an unknown ability level.
• In 2024/25, 33% of enrolments by students from Wales who were known to be fluent Welsh speakers studied at least 1 credit in Welsh, and 22% studied at least 40 credits in Welsh. These were increases from 30% and 21% in 2023/24.
• 4% of enrolments by all students, including those who were not from Wales and were not known Welsh speakers, involved studying at least 1 credit in Welsh in 2024/25, the same proportion as in 2023/24.
• Across all enrolments, there were 5,720 enrolments including at least 1 credit studied in Welsh in 2024/25, an of increase 3% compared to 2023/24, though still lower than in earlier years.
• More than twice as many enrolments from female students included at least 1 credit studied in Welsh compared to enrolments from male students. Of enrolments with at least 1 credit studied in Welsh, female students were also more likely to study a higher number of credits in Welsh than male students.
• Education and training was the module subject with the highest number and proportion of enrolments with at least 1 credit studied in Welsh.
• There were 630 academic teaching staff contracted to teach in Welsh in 2024/25, an increase from 565 in 2023/24.

Revisions from previous releases

Data for 2023/24 has been revised to include updated data from the University of South Wales. The impact of this has been to reduce the overall number of enrolments by 45 while increasing the number of enrolments by students from Wales by 1,010.

There has also been an update to the number of enrolments with at least 1 Welsh medium credit in 2023/24 as a number of postgraduate research students at Bangor University and University of Wales Trinity Saint David were not categorised correctly. This has increased the number of enrolments with at least 1 credit studied in Welsh by 50 at Bangor University and 5 at University of Wales Trinity Saint David.