Reconfiguration and collaboration
The Reconfiguration and Collaboration Fund was launched in July 2002 to support the reshaping of the higher education (HE) sector in Wales in order to achieve major performance gains and enhanced competitiveness.
Several partnerships were supported in this first phase of the fund, including the merger of Cardiff University and the University of Wales College of Medicine, and a number of feasibility studies.
Given the Welsh Assembly Government's continuing commitment to reconfiguration and collaboration to secure a robust, dynamic and competitive HE sector in Wales, we launched a second phase of the Reconfiguration and Collaboration Fund in July 2004.
A number of major developments have been supported under this second phase including: the Low Carbon Research Institute; the Research and Enterprise Partnership between Aberystwyth and Bangor Universities; the South West Wales Higher Education Partnership; the Strategic Alliance between the University of Glamorgan and Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama; and the Wales Institute of Mathematical and Computational Sciences.
The arrangements for the Reconfiguration and Collaboration Fund were revised in September 2009 to take account of issues raised by the Wales Audit Office report on Collaboration between Higher Education Institutions.
Reconfiguration and Collaboration: Circular W09/32HE informs institutions of amendments to the application procedures and assessment processes for proposals to the Reconfiguration and Collaboration Fund and Strategic Development Fund, which are to operate from September 2009 until further notice.The application process for the fund
The process for the assessment of proposals
Merger of Cardiff University and the University of Wales, College of Medicine
Funding of £15 million was provided to the merger of Cardiff University and the University of Wales College of Medicine. The merger successfully took place in 2004, with the merged institution becoming one of the ten largest in the UK. An independent evaluation of both the merger process and the subsequent progress towards the goals for the merged institution highlighted the success of the merger process, as well as the growth in research funding awarded to the University since the merger.
Welsh Medium Scholarships and Fellowships
The fund has provided up to £2.9 million to establish a Postgraduate Scholarship Scheme and expand an existing Postdoctoral Teaching Fellowship Scheme in order to increase the Welsh medium teaching capacity of the sector. The pan-Wales schemes will develop new Welsh Medium lecturing talent and teaching material. The schemes are administered through the Welsh Medium Teaching Development Centre.
The report of an independent interim evaluation of these schemes.
Lessons learned
In addition to the evaluation of completed projects, information on the lessons learned from ongoing projects will be published as this becomes available.
