³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ

No university should stand apart from the community that brought it into existence and gave it life. 

The ultimate purpose of a higher education institution is to serve the public good through the acquisition of knowledge and the sharing of it with others, to benefit students and the local community alike. This is a mission we take incredibly seriously at ³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ, where we combine world-leading research and the provision of outstanding education.  

Funded by hard-pressed local quarrymen and farmers who wanted to give people of North Wales the chance to access higher education, the University was established way back in 1884. The aspirational spirit of the University’s foundation is alive and well today and I’m very proud to say that we’re as much a part of the local community as we ever have been.  

And when a university is part of a community, as we are, it can respond to the community’s needs. That’s why, with the full support of the Welsh Government, local politicians, and Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, we formally established the North Wales Medical School in 2023. Though one of the country’s newest medical schools, it’s building on firm foundations within an institution steeped in medical and biomedical history. The founding of the North Wales Medical School was a recognition of a need in the local community for highly-trained, expertly-skilled and tremendously dedicated healthcare workers. It’s clear that training and recruiting more medical staff in North Wales is crucial to securing the long-term sustainability of NHS services in the area. 

But the establishment of the North Wales Medical School was just a new beginning of the story, not its final destination. We’re building on this development all the time, reaching new milestones and driving the institution forward. More recently we launched our new Master of Pharmacy (MPharm) Programme, a course designed to develop the next generation of pharmacists that was created in partnership with Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board. This is another major milestone for us in our journey as we train the next generation of physicians, scientists, researchers, and health leaders. With the full support of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, we embarked on the journey to develop a Pharmacy programme in July 2021.  

Now we’ve already enrolled over 30 students in our MPharm’s first cohort and the ambition is to increase the number every year until there is capacity to enrol up to 100 students annually. Crucially, it was previously the case that students from North Wales would have had to look outside the immediate region to undertake this kind of qualification. Now they can stay in the area they call home while they learn the skills they need to promote the health and wellbeing of their local community. Our challenging, research-informed degree programmes, taught by experienced and highly qualified academic staff, will empower our students to become knowledgeable, employable, and innovative graduates. 

Moreover, our students start making a contribution even before graduating, as they go out into local community pharmacies, hospitals and GP practices on work placements. At the North Wales Medical School we’re already playing a key role in addressing the healthcare needs of North Wales, as we embed our students within local communities to gain vital clinical experience. Make no mistake, this is a big shot in the arm for local services already and we’ve only just begun. 

A commitment to serving the local community is at the heart of our mission. That’s why it’s a core aim of ours to instil language and cultural competence in medical and health care practitioners, especially with regards to the Welsh language. To embed language and cultural awareness in medical and health care research and practice and respond sensitively to the language needs of Welsh speakers is not incidental to our mission. 

At Bangor we’re enormously proud to be a university with a global impact. But today, as it always has been, global impact begins at home. Student activities are planned that will involve outreach to, and engagement with, the local community. The North Wales Medical School is proof that we can stay rooted in our communities as we expand our global reach.