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The Glyndwr University Business Innovation Podcast – Episode One

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In this new podcast series from Glyndwr University, Mark Powney talks to Vice-President Professor Maria Hinfelaar about how she came to north Wales and her ambitions for the institution.

Maria joined Glyndwr University in March 2016 as the incoming Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive, where she says she was made very welcome. She was previously president at Ireland’s Limerick Institute of Technology, a place she says is “very similar” to Glyndwr, for about 10 years. Before this, she was based in the Netherlands, her native country, where she also worked in education.

Maria also explains how the university aims to inspire and enable people and organisations to improve through degrees, research, business collaborations and other pathways on offer at Glyndwr. It’s an institution “in the thick of things”, she says, striving to achieve “education, research and engagement” through the work of its students, staff and partners.

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From a rich history to a bright future for education in North Wales – Wrexham Glyndwr University gives each student’s learning and future personal attention.

We’ve been delivering education at our main Wrexham campus since 1887, when we were known as the Wrexham School of Science and Art. We first started offering degrees in 1924 but we’ve come a long way since then.

We became Denbighsire Technical Institute in 1927, moving to Regent Street, now home to our creative arts courses. As the Institute and demand for courses grew, the development of what is now our main Plas Coch campus began and the Denbighshire Technical College was born in 1939.

Sir Patrick Abercromby, the famous Liverpool-Dublin architect, was responsible for the internal design of the College, which featured in a number of Architecture magazines in the early 1950s. Peggy Angus was commissioned to design suitable tiles for the main foyer. These were unique to the College and represent a flow of learning with a Welsh background. These tiles are still in place today and are protected as a Grade II listing.

It soon became necessary to merge the three main colleges of the County of Clwyd: Denbighshire Technical College, Cartrefle Teacher Training College (situated at the other end of Wrexham) and Kelsterton College in Connah’s Quay near Chester.

The resulting North East Wales Institute of Higher Education (NEWI) became one of the largest colleges of its kind in Britain with over 9,000 students and an annual budget in 1975 of £5 million.

The College grew both in the number of students and in reputation as its expertise became sought after throughout the world.

In 2008, NEWI gained university status and Glyndwr University was born.
 

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