REVIEW OF SCOTLAND'S COLLEGE [SEETLLD R0SCCG/M01]
CORE GROUP
MINUTES OF THE MEETING
FRIDAY 7 OCTOBER 2005, 3.30 PM - 5.00 PM MERIDIAN COURT, GLASGOW
This paper is also available to download as a PDF file
Participants
Stakeholders
Scottish Funding Council - David Wann and Riona Bell
Association of Scottish Colleges - Tom Kelly and Tony Jakimciw
Educational Institute of Scotland - Ken Wimbor
Scottish Further Education Unit - John McCann and Alison Reid
HMIE - Wray Bodys
Confederation of British Industry Scotland- Alan Mitchell
Federation of Small Businesses in Scotland - Niall Stuart
Scottish Enterprise - Katie Hutton
Universities Scotland - David Caldwell
Scottish Qualifications Authority - John Young
SKILL Scotland - John Ireson
National Union of Students Scotland - Gail Edwards
Scottish Executive
Mark Batho, Head of Lifelong Learning Group (Chair)
Aileen McKechnie, Head of Further and Adult Education Division
Col Baird, Reviews Team Leader, Scotland's Colleges
Victoria Beattie, Reviews Team, Scotland's Colleges
Hugh McAloon, Head of Higher Education Strategy and Governance Branch
Colin MacBean, Economic Adviser, Analytical Services Division
Apologies
Association of Directors of Education in Scotland - Michael O'Neil
Highlands and Islands Enterprise - Diane Duncan
Scottish Youth Parliament - Marie Grogan MYSP
Association of Scottish Colleges - Ian Macpherson and Sue Pinder
UNISON - Douglas Black
Issues Discussed & Points Agreed
(i) Minutes of Preliminary Meeting
- Agreed to amend the minute of the preliminary meeting to clarify that the inclusion or not of Bell College and UHIMI may depend on the context of the analysis. It should be clear whether statistics include or exclude them. The minute would be amended then published on the Executive's website.
- Agreed that Secretariat will circulate the paper prepared by Analytical Services Division on what research/information is currently available.
(ii) Update on the Review
- Members were updated on the progress on the workstreams and on the visits/meetings which are being undertaken by the Reviews Team.
- Agreed that Members will be issued with information about the Foster Review once this Review has been published.
- Discussed whether or not the outcomes from the recent consultation on the need for a professional body will be revisited as part of the remit of the staffing and learning environment working group. It was agreed that the working group would not be repeating the work completed by the consultation process but that the working group will be looking at how to take forward the recommendations made by the Consultation Steering Group.
- Discussed the recent 14 college visits and the forthcoming 6 half day visits to colleges. Emphasised that everyone involved in the sector should be encouraged to contribute to the Review and that the Review Team will ensure that college staff and learners are included in the gathering of evidence during visits to colleges and other consultation events.
(iii) Revised Remit of the Review
- Members approved the revised remit of the Review.
(iv) Ministerial Powers of Intervention
- Agreed to revise the recommendation contained in Paper RSCCG-P03 in order to make it clear that the retention of colleges' charitable status is of paramount importance.
- Discussed other possible options for the retention of Ministerial powers to intervene in the affairs of incorporated colleges in Scotland.
- Agreed that the recommendation would be that Ministers exercise their powers under section 7(5) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 to disapply the test of Ministerial independence. Agreed that the report and revised recommendation should now be sent to the Deputy First Minister.
- Agreed to revisit the issue if the need arises.
(v) Bogus Col leges
- Members noted the actions being taken by the Executive and other government agencies and departments.
- Discussed whether there is a need to define what is meant by 'Scotland's Colleges' and whether there is a way in which a simple means of accreditation could be applied in order to formally recognise legitimate colleges.
- Agreed that at the preliminary meeting it had been decided that 'Scotland's Colleges' would cover FE colleges receiving funding from the Funding Council, as per the reference to institutions formerly eligible for funding by SFEFC in the Schedule 2 of the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 2005..
- SQA is due to meet with one of the organisations mentioned in a recent press article and will update members on the outcome of the meeting.
(vi) Consultation Events
- Ideas about future consultation events were discussed.
- Recognised the pressures that stakeholders, including the business community face, in trying to attend the large number of consultation events being run throughout Scotland. Also recognised the need to avoid other clashes with consultation events such as the Funding Council's corporate plan event scheduled for next summer.
- There were a number of suggestions made including:
- that members of the working groups should be tasked with consulting the organisations/sectors that they represent;
- use existing networking events to undertake consultation exercises;
- hosting regional consultation events as these might obtain ideas that have not previously been thought about; and
- the SFEU offered use of their forthcoming events to spread the message about the Review and to seek comments about the Review.
- Agreed that a paper should be prepared for the next Core Group meeting outlining the ideas for future consultation.
Action Points
- Steering Group Secretariat to arrange the date of the next meeting in February 2006.
- Secretariat to put the papers and the minutes from the preliminary meeting on to the Review's website.
- Secretariat to put the cleared position papers from this meeting on the Review's website.
- Secretariat to circulate the paper prepared by Analytical Services Division on what research/information is currently available.
- Review Team to submit the report on Ministerial Powers of Intervention to Ministers.
- SQA to update members about its meeting with one of the organisations mentioned in a recent press article.
- Secretariat to provide a paper on consultation for the next meeting.
Review Team Secretariat
November 2005