It has just been announced that the Vice Chancellor Robert Pearce has retired; he has been on sick leave since June when reports by the Quality Assurance Agency claiming a lack of leadership, managerial incompetence, and flawed procedures over plagiarism were made public. The Secretary and Academic Registrar Thomas Roderick is also leaving amid claims by the external examiner that there was a wide discrepancy in the grading of University Degrees.

The University is in dire financial trouble needing to save around £300,000 by making six staff redundant a move that has angered the trade unions. Now that nobody is in charge, the situation inside the University has also deteriorated with staff complaining that working conditions are awful and that bullying is out of control. Students are leaving to go to other universities because they find the atmosphere makes studying extremely difficult.

The Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) is conducting an inquiry into the future of the University. Having initially ruled out closure they are looking at a merger, but that may prove difficult given the adverse publicity concerning failing standards and growing student dissatisfaction.

Whoever takes over is going to face a test of public service to settle long running disputes that have plagued the University for some years. If the campus is going to survive there needs to be some kind of transparent inquiry so that long standing grievances can be resolved allowing a fresh start to be made with the slogan under new management.