Author Archives: Shirley-Anne Somerville MSP

Scotland’s budget – delivering for colleges⤴

from @ Engage for Education

Last week, the Scottish Government’s budget underlined the importance that we are placing on education.

Overall, total investment in education and skills will go up by £170 million in 2017/18. We will invest an initial £60m in the infrastructure required to deliver our transformational childcare reforms; Scotland’s schools will get £120 million more to tackle the attainment gap; for the sixth year running we will invest more than £1 billion in our world-class university sector and we will continue to fund our expansion of modern apprenticeships.

The budget also delivered for Scotland’s college sector.

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of visiting West Lothian College to see some of the fantastic facilities that are helping the college staff equip the students with the skills they need for employment. The whole college is focused on helping students plan their progression – whether that is into work, or onto further study.

To better meet the demands of the community and industry, the college has expanded its course range and improved its facilities in engineering, construction and computing. It also built a £1.1m skills centre with the support of the Scottish Funding Council.

For example, I was really interested to see the fantastic work going on in the college’s new joinery and woodwork workshop, which is helping young people develop the practical skills they need to enter the construction industry.

Last week’s budget will ensure that more colleges across Scotland are able to focus their offering and improve their facilities just has West Lothian has.

Despite a very tight financial settlement, we have increased college funding overall by 7.4% in cash-terms and by 5.9% in real-terms compared with the 2016-17 draft budget. College resource funding is up  £21 million to £551.3 million  – a real-terms increase of 2.5% over the year.  Over the same period, college capital funding is up £20.4 million to £47.4 million – a real-terms increase of 73%.

This settlement – which has been welcomed by the sector – will allow colleges to continue the great work they do in their communities preparing students to take their place in the workforce of the future.

Commissioner for Fair Access⤴

from @ Engage for Education

Professor Peter Scott has been appointed Commissioner for Fair Access to Higher Education in Scotland.

This was a key point in the report from the Commission on Widening Access published earlier this year. The Scottish Government has committed to implementing its recommendations in full.

Prof Scott is currently Professor of Higher Education studies at University College London.

As Scotland’s Fair Access Commissioner, he will be tasked with driving the fair access agenda and making sure that young people from our most disadvantaged communities are able to reach their full potential

I made the announcement at Glasgow University, where Prof Scott and I were fortunate to be able to speak to students who have benefitted from widening access programmes and are now flourishing in higher education. One of them – Paula – has shared her life-changing story for this blog.

It’s clear from my early discussions with Prof Scott that he has a passion for widening access to higher education.

It’s a passion that I share.  A child born in our poorest communities should, by the time they leave school, have the same chance of going to university as a child born in our wealthiest communities. That is what the Scottish Government is determined to achieve.

UCAS figures published yesterday show the highest ever entry rate to Scottish universities for 18 year olds from Scotland’s 20% most deprived areas. Since 2006, the rate has increased by 3.7 percentage points to 10.9%. That is encouraging, but there is much more to do and the appointment of Prof Scott is an important milestone to achieving that. 

There is more information about Prof Scott below, including the comments he made at today’s event.

Prof Scott said:

“It is a great honour, and challenge, to be appointed Commissioner for Fair Access. The greatest challenge facing all Higher Education systems in the world is how to remove barriers to fair access, and reduce the glaring inequalities in participation between haves and have-nots.

“These inequalities undermine our efforts to build a high-skill economy and, more fundamentally, deny individuals the opportunities that should be available to all citizens in a democracy.

“I look forward very much to working with universities, colleges and schools as well as the Scottish Funding Council and Scottish Government to address these challenges.”

Biography

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Professor Peter Scott is Professor of Higher Education studies at University College London.

Prior to that he was Vice-Chancellor of Kingston University and Pro Vice-Chancellor for external affairs at the University of Leeds. He was a member of the board of the Higher Education Funding Council for England where he chaired its widening participation strategic committee.

His earlier career was spent in journalism and he was Editor of the Times Higher Education.

Professor Scott was knighted in 2007 for services to education and is the recipient of a number of honorary degrees. He has published widely on education, including widening access issues.