The Welshest University in Wales – Darogan
Picture of USW

The Welshest University in Wales

23 July 2024

Owain James

In a previous blog post I considered which university in Wales had the highest rates of people from England attending.

But which Welsh university has the highest rates of people from Wales?

Or, put another way, which is Welshest Welsh Uni?!

There seems to be a clear ‘winner’ here: the University of South Wales.

If we look at the quantity of people from Wales alone, USW has the largest number of any Wales-based university. According to HESA, 13,165 students from Wales enrolled at USW in the 2021/22 academic year. In terms of strictly Wales-based universities, Cardiff University comes next with 11,020. But it also has high rates of people from elsewhere, especially England.

However, there is another potential rival here, namely the Open University. More people from Wales enrolled at the Open University in 2021/22 than anywhere else – 14,855 to be exact. However, while the Open University has a dedicated arm for Wales, in a sense it is not strictly based in Wales. The university (and its students) isn’t really based anywhere – that’s sort of the point!

Still, it is worth flagging that the Open University is the single most popular university for people from Wales, just as it is also the most popular university choice for people from England and Scotland.

However, USW doesn’t just have a high rate of people from Wales in terms of quantity alone – Welsh students also comprise a greater percentage of the university’s demographic than any other university in Wales: 56.6% of all students at USW come from Wales. The next two ‘runner-ups’ also have more than half of all their students come from Wales, namely the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (52.7%) and Wrexham University (50.8%).

So why is USW such a popular choice for people from Wales?

I think there are a few of reasons:

  • The location of USW and its campuses is significant. Through its campuses across South East Wales (in Cardiff, Newport and Pontypridd), it has a wide presence across the region. As we have considered in the past, a local university tends to draw local students. As result, not only is USW the most popular choice in Newport and Rhondda Cynon Taf, where there are no other universities to compete with; as the closest university, it is also the most popular choice for each other local authority in South East Wales with the exception of Cardiff (where it is still second, despite the competition) and the Vale of Glamorgan.
  • Its location is also significant since, of all the universities in South East Wales, it has the closest ties with the South Wales Valleys (particularly through the Treforest Campus). This is significant because Rhondda Cynon Taf, Merthyr Tydfil and Blaenau Gwent have high rates of students who stay in Wales for study, likely due to above average rates of deprivation (according to the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation). USW is the most popular choice in the parts of Wales where particularly high rates stay locally.
  • As I have mentioned in the past, there is tendency for people from Wales to choose Welsh universities to study courses that are more vocational in nature, whereas those who study outside of Wales are more likely to study courses with less direct routes to industry (perhaps you might consider more ‘traditional’ academic courses). USW has a strength in delivering courses that are on the more ‘vocational’ side of the spectrum, with many of those from Wales who go there studying ‘Subjects allied to medicine’, ‘psychology’, and ‘law’. I would also argue that ‘computing’ and ‘design, and creative and performing arts’, which are also areas of strength for USW, are ‘vocational’ subjects that have more direct links with industry than say courses like ‘History’ (which is what I studied!).
  • The last two bullet points are linked. People from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, who are perhaps the first in their family to go to university, are more likely to stay locally for university, but they are also more likely to choose vocational courses with clear job prospects. Going to university is a greater risk for this group – so established routes to industry are an important consideration.

So why is USW so popular among people from Wales? Simply, because it serves a local need, both in terms of its geography and the courses it provides.