Editing Merfyn Jones (section)

== Academic career ==

Jones has specialized as an historian in modern and contemporary [[History of Wales|Welsh history]], and has made several TV [[Documentary film|documentaries]] in this area.  He has a particular interest is the history of the process of [[devolution]] (the establishing and development of the [[National Assembly for Wales]]) in [[Wales]].

His books and articles include ''The North Wales Quarrymen 1874-1922'' (University of Wales Press, 1981), which was awarded the [[Welsh Arts Council]] prize for literature. This book provides an analysis of the economic importance of slate extraction to North [[Wales]] and also of the rise of trades unionism in the area (and covers the industrial dispute at [[Penrhyn Quarry]] of 1900–03).

He graduated at the [[University of Sussex]] and the [[University of Warwick]].  He lectured at the [[Swansea University|University of Wales, Swansea]] and was a [[lecturer]], head of department and [[dean (education)|dean]] at the [[University of Liverpool]].

=== Vice Chancellor of [[Bangor University]] ===

Jones joined the University of Wales, Bangor in 1990 as a [[senior lecturer]] in [[history]]. He became head of the School of Welsh History there in 1993 and was appointed to the chair in Welsh history in 1994. He then served as Dean of Arts and Social Sciences for two years before being appointed [[Pro-Vice Chancellor]] in 1998. He was acting vice-chancellor in 2003.

Jones was appointed as the sixth vice-chancellor of the University of Wales, Bangor in 2004. In September 2007 he oversaw the change in Bangor's status, from a College of the University of Wales to a university in its own right, renamed as [[Bangor University]]. In his capacity as Vice-Chancellor, Jones was the Welsh Supernumerary Fellow of [[Jesus College, Oxford]] in the academic year 2004–05. Jones retired as Vice Chancellor in 2010.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bangor.ac.uk/news/full.php.en?Id=1099|title=Bangor University Vice-Chancellor to retire|date=14 December 2009|publisher=Bangor University|accessdate=2010-02-17}}</ref>

=== First Chairman of [[Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol]] ===

Jones was appointed as the first Chair of Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol (the National Welsh Language College). The Coleg, which launched on 1 April 2011, works with the Welsh universities to increase opportunities for students to study through the Welsh language; and is a major component of the Welsh Assembly Government's strategy for higher education, 'For our Future'.<ref>[https://www.hefcw.ac.uk/documents/news/press_releases/2010%20Press%20Releases/Appointment%20of%20the%20first%20chair%20of%20the%20Coleg%20Cymraeg%20Cenedlaethol%20announced%20-%20English.pdf Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, press release 17 Dec 2010], retrieved 23 November 2017</ref>