Coleg Harlech

Coleg Harlech was a residential adult education college for mature students in Harlech, Gwynedd, and remains in use as part of Adult Learning Wales - Addysg Oedolion Cymru

It was Wales' only long-term, mature students residential education college and was established in 1927 by Thomas Jones (T. J.), Cabinet Secretary to both David Lloyd George and Stanley Baldwin, to continue the work of Workers' Educational Association in a residential environment, with Ben Bowen Thomas as its first warden. Plas Wernfawr was acquired at a knock-down price from a seller sympathetic to the project to be the base for the college.

Starting with just six students, mostly from the South Wales Coalfield area, numbers increased to 30 in the 1930s, 70 in the 1960s, serving the whole of Wales. Then, with Ieuan Jeffries-Jones as warden, Coleg Harlech began offering a two-year diploma course validated by the University of Wales, which became a preparation for university education for those who had missed out on earlier education: it became well known as a "second chance" college, often for people who, for economic or social reasons, never had a first chance.

By the 1980s and 1990s, higher education institutions generally were growing, and expanding access opportunities wider than before. This began to threaten Coleg Harlech’s niche, and ultimately Coleg Harlech, once funded as a unique institution in Wales, came under the funding regime with other further education colleges, and became less distinctive.

Coleg Harlech always had a close association with the WEA and merged with WEA (North Wales) in 2001 to become Coleg Harlech Workers' Educational Association (North Wales), subsequently merged into Adult Learning Wales - Addysg Oedolion Cymru, which now operates the site. The college's residential students were once supported financially by bursaries from the Welsh Government, previously the Welsh Office but as access to higher and further education widenened and the college's provision became less distinctive, these came to an end, in effect bringing about the termination of residential courses.

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