St David's College
University of Wales, Lampeter is a university in Lampeter, Wales, the oldest Academic degree awarding institution in Wales and contested as the third oldest in England and Wales after Oxford and Cambridge.The university started in 1822 as St David's College (Coleg Dewi Sant), becoming St David's University College (Coleg Prifysgol Dewi Sant) in 1971, when it became part of the federal University of Wales. With fewer than 2,000 students on campus, it often claims to be one of the smallest public universities in Europe.Principal J.R. Lloyd Thomas's decision to lead the institution into the University of Wales in the 1970s rescued the college from bankruptcy once, and more recently, the college has had to pioneer foundation degrees and distance learning through its Voluntary Sector studies and Welsh language departments, which helped to rescue the university college from amalgamation with a larger institution.More recently, after independent assessments by the Quality Assurance Agency and the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales reported problems at the institution, Lampeter entered into talks with Trinity University College with a view to the merger of the two bodies to create a new University in West Wales. This was confirmed in April 2009, and the new University of Wales Trinity Saint David is due to come into existence in 2010.
