UWIC Ditches All Associations with “Tarnished Brand”
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October 12, 2011 TheFreshOutlook  |
The University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (UWIC) cuts final tie with the University of Wales (UoW) by changing its name.
UWIC announced to its staff and students via e-mail on Tuesday that it will be changing its name to ‘Cardiff Metropolitan University’.
In a bid to distance itself from the UoW, which was caught up in controversy after a BBC exposé, UWIC announced its new name alongside plans to award its own degrees, severing any remaining links with the institution.
Chair of UWIC’s Board of Governors, Barbara Wilding said: “The Board of Governors has determined that there is a pressing need to now invoke our own degree awarding powers and to adopt the new name, thereby signalling nationally and internationally our departure from the University of Wales.”
The changes follow revelations made by a BBC Wales programme last week that UoW students were allegedly able to buy their way through qualifications and visas under the university’s validation system.
Since the programme was broadcast, many universities, including the heads of Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cardiff, Glamorgan and Swansea, have called for the UoW title to be changed, whilst Glyndwr University in Wrexham and University of Wales, Newport have both announced plans to pull out of UoW validated degrees.
Wales’ education minister Leighton Andrews told BBC Wales: “I think the University of Wales probably requires a decent burial.”
He added: “There is, of course, nothing wrong with the University of Wales degree properly awarded. I have a University of Wales degree, so does the first minister, so do many assembly members … But I think what has happened over the last 12 months is deplorable and as I said before on this programme, the University of Wales has let Wales down.”
By Laura Beard
[Image courtesy of Welshleprechaun]
