Joining a meeting with the National College of Wales

I had joined the National College of Wales four years ago. And this college (Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol, officially) has local branches. Only now have I been to a meeting of our local branch. Im glad I went! I was keen before, but there always was something even more important happening. But not this time. 

I was late. Directly before this meeting, there was another one about the National Student Survey, and how we could improve on the outcomes. So I sneaked in silently, and found myself a chair. It was a big room but there was a good crowd!

There were quite an agenda items, but the one that took the most time was that a survey had been done on Welsh people who had gone to university, either in Wales or in England. And they had been asked about why they had made the choice that they had made, and to what extent things such as Welsh language provision, or a Welsh social life, had been in that decision. I was a bit puzzled as to why they would ask students who had going to England that; clearly these things wouldn't have mattered to them! But how wrong I was. For instance, it seems like quite some Welsh students choose Liverpool, because it is something quite different from the area they grew up in, but so many Welsh students go there that you can still have a good social life in the Welsh language. Liverpool actually has a long history of attracting large numbers of Welsh people. 

Results of the survey are presented 

There won't be another meeting of the branch this year. But next year I fully intend to attend more of these meetings. It will be good to find my place in the greater Welsh-speaking community in the University!