The University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) has welcomed political leaders from Maharashtra in India to study its Executive Leadership Programme.

Members of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly (MLA) in India have been visiting the UK this week as part of an Executive Leadership Programme aimed at supporting the Global Futures initiative based at the UWTSD’s Lampeter campus.

The pilot programme has been developed to support the aims of the Commonwealth of democracy, development and peace and is supported by the Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly with funding from the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.

Iestyn Davies, Pro-Vice Chancellor at UWTSD said: “The programme builds upon the university’s commitment to researching, teaching and promoting the principles of global futures.

"This is where a multidisciplinary approach supports the development of practical responses to some of the world’s pressing policy and political challenges.

“The current cohort of MLAs from the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly is supporting the development of a longer-term programme to assist policy makers, legislators and all those committed to building a sustainable future to put ideological, religious or cultural differences aside in search of solutions to serve our common humanity”.

The MLAs undertook a series of seminars in Lampeter on the principles of Global Humanity for Peace as well as topics around the areas of Sustainabilty, Leadership and Multi-Cultural and Multi-faith dialogue. They also visited the University’s Roderic Bowen Library and Archives to view the University’s special collections.

In addition, a visit to the Welsh Parliament was hosted by Alun Davies, MS, where the group were introduced to the Welsh political settlement and to the wider context of the devolution process between 1979 and 1997 which ultimately led to the establishment of the Senedd - Welsh Parliament. They also visited Westminster and the Houses of Parliament in London and met with Lord Alderdice, former leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland and a Professor of Practice at the University.