Committee
Education, Children and Young People Committee 21 September 2022
21 Sep 2022 · S6 · Education, Children and Young People Committee
Item of business
Colleges Regionalisation Inquiry
Good morning and welcome to the 22nd meeting in 2022 of the Education, Children and Young People Committee. Our first item of business is an evidence session with college principals and deputy principals for our colleges regionalisation inquiry. On our first panel are representatives from colleges in multicollege regions. I welcome Ann Baxter, deputy principal for students and curriculum at New College Lanarkshire; Sue Macfarlane, interim principal and chief executive officer of UHI Outer Hebrides; and Derek Smeall, principal and chief executive of Glasgow Kelvin College. Thank you all for your time this morning. We have a hybrid meeting today and, on this panel, Sue Macfarlane is participating virtually. Sue, you might be able to catch my eye, as I am looking directly at you on the screen, but it might be best if you could put an R in the chat box when you wish to speak. The clerks will be monitoring that and we will bring you in when we can. The committee has a lot of questions this morning, so we will get started.
In the same item of business
The Convener (Sue Webber)
Con
Good morning and welcome to the 22nd meeting in 2022 of the Education, Children and Young People Committee. Our first item of business is an evidence session...
Graeme Dey (Angus South) (SNP)
SNP
Good morning, panel. What are your views on the extent to which regionalisation has achieved its aims? Can you talk about the positives—and, I guess, any neg...
Derek Smeall (Glasgow Kelvin College)
As I come from a multicollege region, I suggest that perhaps we could start by trying to avoid conflating the concept of a merger and the concept of regional...
Graeme Dey
SNP
Other colleagues, no doubt, will cover the funding issues. Does anybody else want to contribute on this topic?
Ann Baxter (New College Lanarkshire)
Regionalisation has brought us many opportunities. We are able to work collaboratively with our local authority, the national health service and the other co...
Sue Macfarlane (Outer Hebrides College, UHI)
I was not in the college sector when regionalisation took place; I came into it following that. However, I have a view on how it impacted on UHI, having work...
The Convener
Con
Thank you; that is helpful. Mr Dey has some further questions.
Graeme Dey
SNP
Derek Smeall talked about the greater influence that merged colleges have had. With that, has there come parity of esteem with universities? Is it a partners...
Derek Smeall
It has certainly improved, but there is still a journey in that regard. One example is the University of Glasgow, to which there is direct progression from G...
Graeme Dey
SNP
I have one final question. Have merger and regionalisation led to a reduction in the duplication of courses, such that the offering is more tailored? In the ...
Derek Smeall
I believe that the general answer to that is yes. In the Glasgow region, we have a curriculum plan for the whole of Glasgow—the individual colleges at that l...
The Convener
Con
I can see that Sue Macfarlane does not want to come in, so I will follow up on SMEs. We heard from Derek Smeall about engagement with SMEs. Given the very d...
Ann Baxter
I will share something with you in relation to your question that also links to the university sector. At New College Lanarkshire, we have been supporting bu...
Sue Macfarlane
Inaudible.—at higher and further education level. For example, at the college, we have an innovation hub. Small and medium-sized enterprises—in fact, any emp...
The Convener
Con
We will move to questions from Stephanie Callaghan.
Stephanie Callaghan (Uddingston and Bellshill) (SNP)
SNP
What progress has been made on the student experience since regionalisation? How has regionalisation improved the student experience, and what have the chall...
Ann Baxter
As I mentioned, prior to regionalisation, one of our legacy colleges did not have a student association. It is really important that the voice of students is...
Stephanie Callaghan
SNP
I have a wee follow-up to that question. We have heard in previous evidence that independence can be an issue: some students felt that they were at the centr...
Ann Baxter
I suspect that that might have been the view for a period of time. During Covid, when students had less contact with others and there was not as much input o...
Stephanie Callaghan
SNP
Does anyone else want to contribute?
Derek Smeall
It is an interesting issue, and I would reflect everything that Ann Baxter said. There has been recognition, which is important for the student association:...
Sue Macfarlane
I have only a couple of things to add to what Ann Baxter and Derek Smeall have said. Regionalisation has brought a regional student association to the studen...
The Convener
Con
On that subject, we have heard evidence from the Scottish Qualifications Authority that there is a reduction in the assessment content; that is more about fo...
Sue Macfarlane
Absolutely. The funding for dealing with Covid has ceased, but we are still dealing with the legacy of Covid in respect of young people leaving school. We ar...
Derek Smeall
I absolutely agree with Sue Macfarlane. One of the things that colleges do extremely well, but which has been challenging—this work will go on for probably a...
The Convener
Con
I see a lot of nodding there. That is really great to hear—thank you. I do not know whether Ann Baxter wants to say anything further.
Ann Baxter
The comments that have been made reflect our experience. We felt that it was important for students to have a lot of fun at the start of term, so we had an e...
The Convener
Con
A freshers fortnight.
Ann Baxter
Well, it was not quite a fortnight, but it was much longer than it would normally have been. It was very successful.
The Convener
Con
That is great. Bob Doris has a question in this area.