Assessment of statistics on higher education, further education, apprenticeships and adult community learning in Wales

Introduction

Why we did this review

Medr, also known as the Commission for Tertiary Education and Research, was established in August 2024. It is an arm’s length body of the Welsh Government responsible for funding and regulating all tertiary education and research in Wales, including further education, higher education, apprenticeships, school sixth forms and adult community learning.

Medr has taken over the regulatory duties of the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW). It has also assumed a range of responsibilities from the Welsh Government, including the production of some official statistics. Medr is now responsible for producing four accredited official statistics that were previously produced by the Welsh Government:

Following the change in producer organisation, and because Medr was a new official statistics producer, we agreed to temporarily suspend the accreditation of the statistics.

Our accredited official statistics policy states that, when statistics are transferred to a new producer organisation, we will conduct a compliance review to confirm that the appropriate arrangements are in place, and, based on importance and risk, prioritise the statistics for re-assessment. Given the time elapsed since the statistics were last assessed (in 2010), and recent changes to data collection for the higher education student record, we decided to prioritise these statistics for re-assessment.

Medr requested the assessment in July 2025. It asked us to review two additional sets of statistics that are currently published as official statistics and are being assessed for the first time:

Previous regulatory work

In 2020, we published a systemic review of the public value of statistics about post-16 education and skills. The review examined all official statistics across the UK on workforce skills; universities and higher education; colleges and further education; and apprenticeships. The statistics included those produced by the Welsh Government (which are now produced by Medr).

The review found that while many well-established datasets exist, the overall picture is fragmented, with inconsistent approaches across the four nations, gaps in outcome-focused and longitudinal data, and accessibility issues that limit how easily users can draw meaningful insights. The review highlighted the need for better coherence across datasets, improved accessibility and stronger collaboration between governments and statistical bodies.

The report set out several recommendations for the Welsh Government to strengthen the public value of the statistics for Wales. These include continuing to develop the higher education statistics; providing more detailed information on the destinations of learners and apprentices; and seeking user feedback on guidance for the statistics. This assessment will consider and follow up these recommendations.

In August 2024, we carried out a compliance review of Jisc’s higher education student statistics. These statistics are based on the same student record data as Medr’s higher education statistics. The review considered recent changes to the data collection and its impacts on data quality. Based on our findings, we reconfirmed the accredited official statistics status of Jisc’s higher education student statistics.

Background to the statistics

Statistics on further education, work-based learning and community learning provide information on the number of learners, programmes and activities at colleges, work-based learning providers and local authority community learning settings. The statistics support policy‑makers, colleges, training providers and other stakeholders by showing patterns in participation, study mode, study level and learner characteristics. They also inform decisions about how learning provision is organised and delivered through their links to funding and monitoring systems.

Statistics on learner outcome measures for apprenticeships and adult community learning provide information on learner outcomes in apprenticeship programmes in Wales and include measures such as completion and success rates. They also include adult community learning outcome measures alongside apprenticeships, although the primary focus is on apprenticeships. The statistics help track changes over time and across sectors to inform decisions on investment, support services, programme design and learner outcomes. They promote transparency in the use of public funds and show how apprenticeship provision aligns with broader skills and workforce objectives.

Statistics on students in higher education present information on student enrolments at higher education providers in Wales. They also report on cross-border student movement, indicating how many students from Wales study in other parts of the UK and how many students from elsewhere in the UK study at Welsh higher education providers. Tracking student numbers and characteristics over time adds insight on participation in higher education and supports decisions regarding funding, support services, recruitment approaches and planning.

Statistics on Welsh language in higher education present information on the number of students studying courses through the medium of Welsh language and the Welsh speaking ability of Welsh-domiciled students at higher education providers in Wales. They also report on the number of teaching staff who are able to teach in Welsh and are contracted to teach in Welsh at universities in Wales. These statistics are used to monitor the use of Welsh in higher education, both in terms of student demand and supply, and support policy making for Welsh planning in universities. The Welsh Government’s target, which is part of the Cymraeg 2050 strategy, is to have one million Welsh speakers by 2050.

Statistics on consistent performance measures for post-16 learning: achievement cover post-16 learners in both further education institutions and school sixth forms in Wales. The achievement measures include outcomes for general education, vocational programmes across different levels and the Welsh Baccalaureate. These measures are designed to be consistent across colleges and school sixth forms so that comparisons are meaningful. The achievement measures are part of a set of wider statistics on consistent performance measures which also include value added and learner destinations measures (not in scope for this assessment). The statistics inform policy and inspection frameworks by supporting performance measurement and reporting, and help stakeholders assess the effectiveness of interventions and identify where further support is needed.

Statistics on apprenticeships learning programmes started provide information on the number of apprenticeships learning programmes started and people entering apprenticeships in Wales. Medr publishes an annual statistical bulletin as well as a more-frequent interactive dashboard. The statistics are primarily used to monitor progress against the Welsh Government’s target of delivering 100,000 all-age apprenticeships by the end of the current Senedd term (May 2026). They are also used to inform general apprenticeship policy and to provide trade bodies with timely insight into apprenticeship supply.

Data sources

The statistics are based on three main data sources:

Statistics on students in higher education and Welsh language in higher education are based on the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) Student Record, managed by Jisc. The Welsh language in higher education statistics also draw on the HESA Staff Record. The student record collects data from subscribing higher education providers throughout the UK. Medr is Jisc’s statutory customer in Wales. In 2023, Jisc introduced a new student record data collection as part of its Data Futures programme, which aims to transform the collection, processing and analysis of student data in the Higher Education sector across the UK.
Statistics on further education, work-based learning and community learning, learner outcome measures for apprenticeships and adult community learning, and apprenticeships learning programmes started are based on data from the Lifelong Learning Wales Record (LLWR). LLWR is a system used by Medr to collect data on post-16 learning, excluding higher education and sixth forms, and gathers information about learners, their learning programs and the awards they achieve. LLWR data are used to determine funding for learning providers and are subject to audit.
Statistics on consistent performance measures for post-16 learning are based on data from both the LLWR and the post-16 data collection. The post‑16 data collection, which is managed by the Welsh Government, records learning undertaken in school sixth forms. Along with data from the Pupil Level Annual School Census (PLASC), it is used to determine future local authority sixth‑form funding allocations and to monitor programme delivery within the post‑16 planning and funding framework.

User and data supplier engagement

We gathered views from a wide range of users of the statistics, including Medr policy and research teams, work-based and further education providers, academic and parliamentary researchers, and the education and training inspectorate in Wales.

We also spoke to a range of data providers across the different data sources, including Jisc’s student record data teams, Medr’s LLWR data manager, the Welsh Government’s post-16 data collection team, further education providers, higher education providers and local authorities.

« Previous