City colleges in merger talks

Two Glasgow colleges have entered into merger talks, it has been revealed. 

Staff at Cardonald and Anniesland College have been informed the two institutions have entered discussions that could prove to be the first stop in the pair entering into a long-term arrangement.

Cardonald College on Glasgow’s south side has a student roll of 12,000 while the smaller Anniesland College teaches 8,000 students per year.

The news was confirmed by principal of Cardonald, Susan Walsh, albeit she insisted talks are at an extremely early stage.

She said: “We are not merging with Anniesland – we are talking to Anniesland about the potential for merger. It’s kind of like we’re going on a first date – we’re not quite at the forced marriage yet.

“We’re at a really early stage. Merger processes take a long time if you want to do them properly and it’s probably going to take us maybe a year to actually get a document together that we can then take to the cabinet secretary.”

Scottish education secretary, Mike Russell, has publicly supported the notion of college mergers in recent months with mergers pinpointed as bearing "a great deal of educational and financial sense".

“City of Glasgow College was created by a three college merger and has reported a saving of £4m in the first year alone. HMIE has reported no detrimental impact upon learners. Recently Jewel and Esk College and Stevenson College have taken the view that merging will deliver significant benefits to learners of Edinburgh. I expect that others will follow suit," he added

Colleges in Scotland are facing a budget cut of 13.5 per cent over the next three years and Walsh, speaking to the student newspaper at Cardonald, the Cardonald Courier, insisted the sector’s approach required a change as a result.

She said: “I think if you look at the level of budget cuts that we’ve got, it’s pretty well inevitable that we will have to change how we deliver for students. It’s about how we can best use the resources we’ve got to deliver for as many students as possible, and that’s a huge challenge.

“There isn’t one bit of our sector that’s secure. There’s a lot of discussion and it’s not just Cardonald and Anniesland who are talking, there’s a federation of Glasgow’s community colleges, so there are six of us.”

Scotland’s Colleges, the umbrella body that represents principals across the country, recently estimated as many as 20,000 college places could be lost as a result of steep budget cuts.

And president of Cardonald College Student Representative Council (SRC), Stefani Millar, expressed concerns that a combination of cuts and mergers will inevitably result in a reduction of student places.

She said: “A merger can be done well if the time is taken to go over every detail. The fear I have is that if this merger passes the talk stage students won’t be at the heart of it.

“I hope that everything possible will be done to protect the education of every student, both at Cardonald and Anniesland.”