Achi news desk-
The deeper we got and with each interview, the clearer it became that this would only be the beginning. The scope of the future college is essential.
The unique position is with Orkney College, the only one still owned by a local authority, while some of UHI’s partner institutions – such as the Scottish Marine Science Society (SAMS) in Oban – are world renowned. We are keen to explore both areas in the coming weeks and months.
Then there are the colleges in Edinburgh, the Borders, Perthshire and Moray and the north-east, all of which are anchor institutions for their communities in the same ways as the colleges we visited.
Of course, we are extremely proud of what we have already achieved. In writing these articles, we have learned about the nearly half a billion pound funding gap facing the colleges, the drop in student and course enrollments, the impact the venom of a years-long industrial dispute, and what appears to be a complete lack of funding. faith in the Scottish Government’s approach to the college sector.
We also learned about adult education provision across the highlands and islands, including Scotland’s only Gaelic college, as well as the importance of the sector to the country’s zero-net ambitions.
Read more: State of Scotland’s Colleges: Find all articles in this series here
Inside Sabhal Mòr Ostaig – Scotland’s only Gaelic college
Above all, we learned that colleges boost communities and change lives.
Although our series only provided a glimpse of what is happening on campuses across the country, the overall picture became clear: the sector faces significant challenges and lacks solutions. Bar one.
Even in this week, it has become clearer than ever that almost everyone involved in colleges believes that the government must step in to save the sector.
The Scottish Government funds colleges, because they are public sector institutions, but then says that the institutions themselves are responsible for salary deals with staff, even though they have to do them within a framework national bargaining introduced as a policy by the Scottish Government.
As we have now shown – and as the colleges minister himself has now accepted – a huge financial gap has opened up in the last three years, and colleges simply do not have the money they need. on them to keep up with the costs they face.
That is why everyone we spoke to, whether running colleges, teaching courses, or representing students, offered some variation on the same argument and told us that the government must act.
The choice seems stark: step in and solve the current crisis, or stand back and let the college sector collapse.
What does ‘stepping in’ look like? The first and strongest call is that more money is needed.
Audit reports on the financial health of the sector have shown that the current level of funding is putting a significant number of jobs at risk. It is important to remember that this is completely separate from any new salary deal. Nor does it take into account the large capital costs colleges face in keeping buildings wind and water tight and maintaining equipment for technical learning.
The national bargaining system has also come to an end. Years of bad blood make negotiations slow and tedious, and major conflicts over pay and terms dominate, leaving no room for employers and staff to come together and make positive, proactive decisions to help the sector to flourish.
Problems like this are the reason why, for many, more money is not enough, and it would be tantamount to sticking a plaster over an appalling, gaping wound. They want much more fundamental questions – up to and including talks about possible renationalisation – to be asked instead.
Speaking to us anonymously, one respected figure with decades of experience across the college sector said that “regionalisation has been an abject failure for students and staff, and a return to unfunded national bargaining was going to lead to inevitable given the current financial situation.” .
They added: “The cuts by the sector to pay for free university fees are the elephant in the room that never get the serious attention they deserve for obvious political reasons. It is hard to see a way out of it without radical change which is unlikely with the current Scottish Government or, frankly, anyone else who might be in power.”
If they are right, or even not completely wrong, then a one-off budget boost, although badly needed in the short term, will be nothing like saving Scotland’s colleges.
The story of the Scottish college sector is a complex and controversial one, and it has been a privilege to try to tell it over the past week – but we are not stopping there. This particular piece was not meant to be a one-off installation piece; it was always a starting point.
To that end, we’ll be running a few more stories about Scotland’s colleges over the next few days, offering even more insight into these amazing institutions.
And after all this coverage, we would also like to hear what you, our readers, think about Scotland’s State Colleges.
