College reforms: MSPs told Edinburgh's progress is behind Glasgow

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-35698728

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Edinburgh's progress is behind Glasgow's in the recent college reforms, MSPs have been told.

Holyrood's education committee has been taking evidence from college principals.

It heard that City of Glasgow College is "forging positively ahead" while Edinburgh College still has a "long way to go".

Some members of the committee said they were "slightly baffled" by the discrepancy between the two cities.

Edinburgh College principal Annette Bruton said more funding would have helped.

In a submission to the committee, City of Glasgow College said: "Despite the undeniable challenges facing the college sector in Scotland, City of Glasgow College is forging positively ahead, cementing a world-class reputation amongst staff, students, strategic partners, employers, policy makers and other stakeholders."

Principal Paul Little added: "We received £2.5m from the Scottish Funding Council.

"It would be great if all colleges had received that, but one of the things that the City of Glasgow College did for the sector was to produce a report which we circulated with our lessons learned."

He said this went on to assist 20 colleges with their mergers.

'Transformational change'

Edinburgh College principal Annette Bruton said: "Although we did have some funding to support the college going forward in voluntary severance, 18 months ago, before I took up post, the college asked the SFC for a significant increase in their cash for that year to invest in the college to help turn the college around.

"Some small sum of money was coming. I think about £2.5m was asked for and the college was able to get £300,000."

She added: "That's the kind of investment that the college was needing at the time.

"So therefore without being able to hold reserves it's difficult to see how the colleges can make that investment when they needed to for transformational change.

"I do think more investment at that stage would really have helped Edinburgh College."

'Quite depressing'

Conservative MSP Mary Scanlon said: "When I read the Glasgow one I thought: this is wonderful, it's what everyone is looking for.

"Then I read the Edinburgh one and, to be honest, I thought it was quite depressing: 'Working hard to achieve,' 'long way to go'.

"All we hear about is the problems, and the merger was so difficult."

Liberal Democrat MSP Liam McArthur said: "Like Mary, I was slightly baffled by the discrepancy in the reports from Edinburgh and Glasgow colleges."

Education Secretary Angela Constance acknowledged that the reform project "has been extremely challenging" due to its scale and pace.

She added: "Structures have changed very considerably, placing great demands on college leaders and their staff, but to their enormous credit we are now beginning to see evidence of the impact of the reforms."