Deadline for college proposals ‘ludicrously short’

Mike Russell has today written to Scotland's college principals detailing plans for the £15m Transformation Fund. In it, he has given colleges just one month to submit their proposals on how structural changes can be made within the further education sector.

Scottish Conservative Education Spokesperson, Liz Smith MSP said:

"I am astonished that Mike Russell believes that just one month is sufficient time for colleges to submit detailed proposals on how important structural changes can be made within the sector.

"It smacks of the same shambles that surrounded the inept handling of the Abertay-Dundee situation and it is yet more evidence that the Cabinet Secretary has little understanding of the implications of his policies on college management, staff and students.

"The further education sector has already been severely damaged by the extensive and disproportionate cuts which have been laid at its door through the current budget settlement - cuts which, many experts feel, will ultimately result in further staffing reductions and fewer college places.

"Mike Russell has persistently said that this is an extremely important time for further and higher education in Scotland and that decisions made now will have very important implications for decades ahead. He is right, but he is so wrong to think the necessary strategic thinking can be completed within such a ludicrously short time scale.

"I call on him, yet again, to reverse the budget cuts and to allow colleges more time to respond to the reform agenda."

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