Welsh Journals

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Cymeradwyaf y llyfr hwn yn fawr. Yn wir, byddwn yn hapus i'w weld yn cael ei drosi i'r Saesneg am ei fod yn haeddu amgenach cylchrediad o ddarllenwyr na Chymry Cymraeg yn unig. WALFORD GEALY Aberystwyth THE UNIVERSITY OF WALES, 1893-1939. By J. Gwynn Williams. University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1997. Pp 481. £ 25.00. THE UNIVERSITY OF WALES, 1939-1993. By Prys Morgan. University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1997. Pp 239. £ 25.00. These two excellent volumes complete the centenary history of the University of Wales which began with Professor J. Gwynn Williams's book The University Movement in Wales. (1993). The trilogy, covering the hundred years of this federal university, is of much interest to historians who study the development, politics, and vicissitudes of universities as educational institutions in the twentieth century. The University of Wales was estab- lished as a federal university in 1893 consisting of three constituent university colleges at Bangor, Aberystwyth and Cardiff, and despite various attempts during the hundred years to break the 'bonds of federalism' and establish autonomous separate universities, in 1993 the federal structure was still in existence albeit having added three more constituent institu- tions, University College Swansea, St. David's, Lampeter, and the Welsh National School of Medicine. It is worth noting that the federal National University of Ireland which was established in 1908, fifteen years later than the University ofWales, has been, by the Universities Act, 1997, diminished in its authority and increased autonomy has been given to its constituent colleges which now bear, similar to the Welsh colleges since 1993, the nomenclature of National University of Ireland, Cork, National University of Ireland, Dublin and so on. In 1893 the charter of the University of Wales laid down that the university was to be governed by a Visitor who was the monarch, by a Chancellor and two deputy Chancellors, and by the Court which was the supreme governing body consisting of 100 members. The Court represented 'the popular nature of the university movement in Wales' and the proportion of academic members was only 31 per cent. The vice-chancellor was to be one of the college principals appointed in turn for one year, later two years, and this important position was held in the early years by John Viriamu Jones, principal of Cardiff, by Sir Harry