University of Wales

University of Wales

Welsh: Prifysgol Cymru
Coat of arms
Motto	Welsh: Goreu Awen Gwirionedd
Motto in English	The Best Inspiration is Truth
Type	Confederal, non-membership university[1]
Established	1893; 131 years ago (1893)
Chancellor	King Charles III
Vice-Chancellor	Elwen Evans KC
Location	Cardiff , Wales
Colours
Affiliations	Association of Commonwealth Universities
Website	wales.ac.uk

The University of Wales (Welsh: Prifysgol Cymru) is a confederal university based in Cardiff, Wales. Founded by royal charter in 1893 as a federal university with three constituent colleges – Aberystwyth, Bangor and Cardiff – the university was the first university established in Wales, one of the four countries in the United Kingdom. The university was, prior to the break up of the federation, the second largest university in the UK.

A federal university similar to the University of London, the University of Wales was in charge of examining students, while its colleges were in charge of teaching. The University of Wales was the only university in Wales prior to the establishment of the University of Glamorgan in 1992.

Former colleges under the University of Wales included most of the now independent universities in Wales: Aberystwyth University (formerly University of Wales, Aberystwyth), Bangor University (formerly University of Wales, Bangor), St David's University College (later University of Wales, Lampeter, and now merged with University of Wales Trinity Saint David), Cardiff University (formerly University of Wales, Cardiff), Swansea University (formerly University of Wales, Swansea), Cardiff Metropolitan University (formerly University of Wales Institute, Cardiff) and University of Wales, Newport (which merged with Glamorgan University in April 2013 to form the University of South Wales).

In 2007, the University of Wales changed from a federal structure to a confederal one, and many of the constituent colleges became independent universities. Following a number of controversies in the late 2000s involving overseas affiliates, cheating and student visas,^[2] a decision was made to abolish the university as it then existed.

From August 2017 it has been functionally integrated with the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. The Higher Education Statistics Agency recorded zero students registered with the University of Wales in the UK in 2018/19,^[3] but 3,345 students registered on transnational education courses outside the UK.^[4]

It also collaborated with the University of Malaya in 2013 to establish the International University of Malaya-Wales (IUMW), a private university in Malaysia.