A Welsh university
We are a Welsh institution with a global view, with the Welsh language embedded in the fabric of our university.
We are committed to promoting and celebrating the Welsh language in all our activities, ensuring the Welsh language is embedded in our identity, operations, communities and day-to-day practices in a way that aspires to include all our staff and students.
We embrace our Welsh identity
Cardiff is the capital city and governmental and administrative centre of Wales’s fledgling democracy, with both English and Welsh as its official languages.
It is a young, dynamic and global city built on immigrant communities from all corners of the world, all corners of the UK, and all corners of Wales. The Welsh language, the English language and a multiplicity of international languages are integral to its identity.
Named Yr Alwad/Embrace It, our inclusive Welsh Lanaguge Strategy is both a commitment and an invitation, and builds on existing Welsh language initiatives, networks and activities at the University. Our headline objectives are:
Student numbers
Increasing student numbers on Welsh and bilingual (credit-bearing) provision and exceeding the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) targets for those students taking 5 or 40 credits of Welsh-medium provision a year.
Teaching
Expanding and enhancing our innovative, bespoke and high-quality Welsh-medium teaching provision so as to reflect and invigorate our distinctive identity as a university.
Cynnig Caerdydd
Developing a Cynnig Caerdydd (our Welsh-language offer) for our students that constitutes a unique, dynamic and ambitious bilingual student experience.
Campws Cymraeg
Developing the ‘Campws Cymraeg’ to embody a positive and inclusive Welsh-language culture and space for staff and students.
Research
Developing a public-facing Welsh-language research community.
The strategy provides a defined cultural and community agenda that complements and enhances the University’s overarching research, teaching and international ambitions.
We are a Welsh institution
Our Campws Cymraeg - that reaches into our communities - captures the different aspects of Welsh-language life that form part of our student and staff experience within and beyond the University.
The Welsh Language Academy
This is an institute within Cardiff University that connects those involved with the Welsh language – whether they are students, staff or external stakeholders.
The Academy will work across educational, professional services and extra-curricular aspects within the University, reflecting wider objectives: a Welsh institution with a global view, in a cosmopolitan and friendly, multilingual and multicultural city.
Welsh Language Academy
We champion the Welsh language
To ensure the Welsh language is embedded in our identity, operations, communities and day-to-day practices, we will create an inclusive environment for all our staff and students.
We have over 40 Welsh language Champions amongst our staff. The role of the Welsh Language Champion includes:
- helping to develop guidance to support and facilitate an effective bilingual service for staff, students and the public
- championing best practice and engaging in awareness-raising in relation to Welsh language matters
- taking an active role in communication and the development of an action plan for each department in the University.
Opportunities to study in Welsh
1000 students
Over 1000 students are studying modules through the medium of Welsh.
100 courses
We offer up to 100 degree courses which either offer some or all of their modules in Welsh.
Developing skills and employability
We foster the research and teaching excellence and the employer links that are the basis for providing an accomplished bilingual workforce across key sectors in Wales.
We have a large number of Welsh speaking students studying with us. Students can choose to have a Welsh speaking personal tutor or to take exams in Welsh.
We are home to the Cardiff Branch of the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol and offer a Welsh for all programme.
Growing our Welsh academic culture
Our strategy is a commitment to the universal challenge of fostering and expanding an intellectual culture in a national language, alongside an Anglophone global academic culture.
In this way, developing Cardiff University as a bilingual and multilingual university connects us with universities across the globe, accentuating our outward-looking perspective and global credentials, orientating us by necessity towards global horizons.
Supporting our collective ambition
We are developing our Welsh language activities in ways that support and expand the collective ambitions and aims of The Way Forward as they relate to our civic mission, education and research excellence, recruitment, widening participation, sustainability, and our impact as a transformative social actor.