Universities and colleges face wave of mergers in education shake-up

COLLEGES and universities across Scotland are set to be merged under a major shake-up of further and higher education.

Education secretary Mike Russell outlined plans for removing what he called “wasteful duplication” across the college sector, by establishing regional groupings of institutions.

He also called for greater collaboration between Scotland’s universities, outlining the possibility of mergers there too if they made “educational and financial sense”.

In a wide-ranging review of education for those aged 16 and over, plans were also revealed for improved governance and funding arrangements for universities and colleges.

There was also a pledge to introduce a “minimum income” of £7,000 a year for Scottish students studying at university, and another that every 16 to 19-year-old would have a place in learning or training by the end of this financial year.

Mr Russell said that there was an urgent need to reform education for over-16s, a sector which receives £2 billion of Scottish Government funding each year.

He said the fact that colleges had remained unchanged since the Tory reforms instigated by Margaret Thatcher should give “pause for thought”.

He added: “They have done lots of good work, but they no longer reflect where we are. There are lots of them and there’s lots of duplication.”

On universities, he said: “Essentially, this is about effective delivery within the sector. We’re a small country of five million people and we have an extremely large number of institutions. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but we have to look at configuration.”

The process of merging some of Scotland’s colleges has already begun, with Stevenson College and Jewel & Esk College set to form an “Edinburgh city region” institution by next summer.

Both have admitted having to draw up plans to reduce staffing levels to cope with funding cuts.

Last year saw the creation of Scotland’s largest college when Central College Glasgow, Glasgow Metropolitan College and Glasgow College of Nautical Studies merged to form the new City of Glasgow College.

In the university sector, there have been ten mergers within the past 20 years – the most recent being the joining together of Edinburgh University and Edinburgh College of Art.

One higher education source said there had been talk of a merger between Aberdeen University and Robert Gordon University for many years, while other institutions had been “sounding each other out”.

John Spencer, convener of the Principals’ Convention in Scotland’s Colleges, said: “Our very real concern in the direction of travel for the government is that they appear to be seeking efficiencies in having fewer colleges, but delivering the same teaching activity to the same numbers of learners.”

“We want to ensure reform does not have a negative impact on the learner experience or distract colleges from delivery.”

Alastair Sim, director of Universities Scotland, added: “It is absolutely right that mergers should only be taken forward where there is a strong academic and business case.”