The university says the merger will bring "stability"

The new institution has 5000 members of staff, more than 39,000 full and part time students, and an annual turnover of �300m.

It is hoped the merger, creating the largest single university in Wales, will also bring thousands of jobs to the country.

Both institutions had been part of the federal university of Wales.

Louise Casella is the new university's director of strategic development, and said the merger would make the university "stronger".

"We make a larger more competitive university by coming together," she said.

"We've decided to 'get married' and this gives us stability for the future, which is good for our staff and our students."

We gave an assurance early on that there will be no compulsory redundancies Louise Casella

After more than 75 years of working in partnership, the universities hope that the merger will create 3,000 jobs over the next six years.

The jobs will not just be within the university, say officials, but will also arise from a range of new hi-tech companies that are expected to be established.

An investment of �10.8m was announced in March as a result of the merger, bringing state-of-the-art brain imaging facilities to Wales.

Ms Casella said the University of Wales would not lose its importance due to the new developments.

She said they had created a new relationship with the institution, adding that University of Wales degrees for medicine and dentistry would still be awarded.

"We will work with the University of Wales on other matters as well," she said.

"It was Cardiff University that first started the medical school for Wales, and it was decided in the 1920s that it would work alone, but it has always worked with the university.

"Also we gave an assurance early on that there will be no compulsory redundancies - we're bringing together quite different academic subjects so we're looking at growth in jobs."