THE discord that has afflicted Scottish colleges in recent years is showing no signs of abating.
Since the 2013 Post-16 Education (Scotland) Act the sector has been transformed with the creation of 13 regions, ten new colleges formed through mergers and the overall number of institutions cut from 37 to 20.
The Scottish Government said mergers would improve engagement with employers, create financial efficiencies through reduced duplication and unnecessary competition and, crucially, boost student performance.
A rather different picture emerged from a recent analysis by public watchdog Audit Scotland.
The body said there was “variable evidence” mergers had changed how colleges engaged with businesses and highlighted a drop in student attainment and an increase in drop-out rates.
Audit Scotland also took issue with financial analysis from the Scottish Funding Council which said savings had stemmed from the mergers arguing instead that money had been saved because of sector-wide cuts which have seen part-time courses slashed and staff numbers reduced.
Throughout this process the one bright spot for college lecturers has been the carrot of national pay harmonisation which was dangled by First Minister Alex Salmond and his then Education Secretary Michael Russell as the messy process of mergers and financial cuts was forced through at an unseemly pace.
Under the previous system of local bargaining, significant differences have opened up in lecturers’ terms and conditions, with some staff earning as much as £12,000 more for a similar job to colleagues in other parts of the country.
However, the move to harmonise pay is costly and college managers are insistent it has to be delivered hand in hand with reforms to working practices which would mean a contentious increase in the amount of time spent teaching for some lecturers.
Despite these difficulties an agreement was struck in March between Colleges Scotland and the EIS-FELA union to make £40,000 the top of the salary scale for a lecturer, with increases phased in over three years.
But rather than accelerate a harmonious end to the battle over equal pay little progress has been made since then and unions are becoming increasingly restless.
According to the fag packet calculations of Colleges Scotland the pay deal is likely to cost the sector some £80 million, although no detailed analysis of costs has yet been conducted, which is in itself a concern.
Regardless of the actual cost it is clear many individual colleges are concerned about what Colleges Scotland signed up.
The board of Ayrshire College has been clear the deal is unaffordable without hard cash from the Scottish Government to back up their manifesto commitment.
Unless that happens it is difficult to see how the stalemate will be resolved without recourse to strikes in a sector desperately in need of peace.
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