College plea tokeep £3m of funding after site sale
A CITY college is fighting to keep £3million of funding from the sale of one of its former buildings.
Glasgow Kelvin College has written to the Scottish Government calling on the cash to be returned to them so they can use it to fund redevelopment work.
It is understood the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) decided to give the money to Forth Valley College, i n Falkirk, despite the fact it comes from the £6m sale of the former Stow College building in Glasgow city centre.
Officials at Glasgow Kelvin College, who were allowed to keep half the money, are particularly concerned because they have already missed out on £1m pledged to them by the SFC to help pay for improvements.
And as part of a programme of college mergers in Glasgow, Kelvin also lost a significant proportion of its funding for teaching with 13 per cent of activity transferred to the larger City of Glasgow College.
The Scottish Government argues that, because the proceeds resulted from a sale of a public asset, they have to consider how the cash could be used to meet the needs of the physical estate of all Scotland’s colleges.
However, the college’s letter to the Scottish Government states: “The board of management is disappointed to note the Scottish Funding Council has not undertaken an impact assessment on the implications of the advice which it provided to the Scottish Government to transfer the capital proceeds from Kelvin to another educational institution.
“It is the view of the board that such a transfer of resources has a major impact on the work of the college and its ability to meet the needs of learners.”
Liz Smith, education spokeswoman for the Scottish Conservatives, described the issue as “cast iron evidence” college mergers had reduced autonomy.
She said: “More than ever, colleges are being told what to do by the Scottish Government, even to the extent that money raised from the sale of assets in one college can now be used to cross-subsidise another college in a different area of Scotland.”