Colleges in Scotland 'Still Face Challenges'

Scottish colleges have coped well with significant reforms but still face challenges, according to a report by Audit Scotland.

The sector must now prepare to address future challenges as these changes continue to take effect.

The report, 'Scotland's Colleges 2015', states that reducing the number of incorporated colleges to 20 and creating 13 new college regions has had implications for funding, learning provision, and how colleges are managed and scrutinised.

Planning for mergers has generally been good and carried out on time, with changes having little negative impact on students. But while mergers helped deliver savings through reducing staff costs, it's being recommended that the Scottish Government and Scottish Funding Council (SFC) specify how they will measure other expected benefits of reform, such as better employer engagement and less duplication in course provision. 

The report further states that the SFC needs to improve how it reports colleges' progress against outcomes, to support greater transparency and scrutiny of performance. Reductions in staff costs were achieved mainly through voluntary severances, and auditors found weaknesses in how a small number of colleges had managed severance payments for senior staff.

Caroline Gardner, Auditor General for Scotland, said: "The last few years have placed significant demands on colleges in Scotland as they managed a complex programme of reform. Our report is intended to support them in learning from how these reforms were delivered and addressing areas that need to improve."