Scots FE colleges to be grouped into 12 regions

2 Feb 12
Scotland’s further education colleges are to be grouped into 12 new regional clusters to eliminate duplication and cut costs, Scottish Education Secretary Michael Russell has told MSPs.

By Keith Aitken in Edinburgh | 2 February 2012

Scotland’s further education colleges are to be grouped into 12 new regional clusters to eliminate duplication and cut costs, Scottish Education Secretary Michael Russell has told MSPs.

The 41 FE colleges suffered much more harshly than universities in this year’s budget cutbacks, and have been under mounting pressure to stage mergers and share facilities. These pressures will intensify under Russell’s proposals, athough he insisted the changes would also ensure greater responsiveness to local economies.

He told Holyrood yesterday that regionalisation had won strong support, including from within the FE sector, in consultations held last year.

‘I expect colleges to collaborate and plan together within 12 newly created regions, and I expect provisions to continue to be delivered locally,’ he said.

Russell made the announcement as he published two independent reviews on governance in the FE and higher education sectors. The FE report also backed a regional approach to governance.

The HE review, led by Robert Gordon University principal Ferdinand von Prondzynski, suggests electing chairs of governing bodies, as happens with the rectors of the ancient universities of St Andrews, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. Ministers have also not ruled out giving staff and students some form of say in the appointment and terms of principals.

Russell’s Conservative shadow, Liz Smith, accused him of pursuing a centralisation agenda to extend political control over the FE and HE sectors. But the governance reforms were welcomed by the National Union of Students, whose Scottish president Robert Parker said: ‘Accountability is a key part of all publicly funded organisations, and a greater role for staff and students in decision-making would ensure that this accountability is enshrined throughout both sectors.’

• Birmingham-based legal firm Public Interest Lawyers has lodged a legal challenge to the Scottish Government's tuition fees policy. This means that students domiciled in Scotland or the rest of the European Union are exempt from university fees but students from the rest of the UK pay up to £9,000 a year.

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