WELSH language campaigners have called for the next vice-chancellor to be a Welsh-speaker after the announcement that the current incumbent, Prof Apiil McMahon, will step down this year.

Prof McMahon, who will stand down in July 2016 after overseeing five years of delcining student numbers and sliding league table performances, pledged to learn Welsh when she took up the post in 2011.

Now local Cymdeithas yr Iaith members of a group set up to save the historic Welsh-language Pantycleyn Halls have written to Aberystwyth University to call for assurances that the next vice-chancellor of the university can speak Welsh.

In the letter to the university, Elfed Wyn Jones, chairman of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Cell Pantycelyn, said: “As you appoint a temporary vice-chancellor until July, and a permanent vice-chancellor from then on, we ask you to ensure that the person who is appointed is a fluent Welsh speaker and can use the language in day-to-day work, and understands the needs of the Welsh community in the university.

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