After a testing period of college mergers, trailblazed with the creation of Scotland’s first super-college - our own City of Glasgow College - in 2010, the nation’s tertiary landscape has altered dramatically.
We now have a much more dynamic ecosystem of colleges, ranging from international polytechnic-sized institutions to smaller, more regionally focused ones. All are more visible and increasingly valued by our politicians, employers and civic communities.
However, I wonder if our policymakers have really internalised our larger scale, our more efficient higher-education curriculum portfolio, our frontline role in social mobility and (especially) our untapped potential, post-reform, to be terminal qualification destinations in our own right - rather than stepping stones to universities.
Colleges play a distinct, yet too often uncelebrated role as powerhouses of mid- and advanced-level skills training for the Scottish economy’s productive core of technicians and associate professionals.
Indeed, whereas previously employers and school-leavers may have habitually considered universities as the go-to option for crucial employment skills, our larger colleges are now proving a safer bet.
Less convinced by the graduate or degree premium, and anxious not to burden themselves with a lifetime of debt, students are increasingly choosing a college education to gain more directly relevant qualifications, while studying in a more supportive environment.
I would encourage those who minimise our role to get behind this exciting new era
Moreover, the oft-expressed frustration among employers as they search for suitable young recruits is increasingly being assuaged by world-class skills emerging from the new breed of colleges. Many more blue-chip corporates are taking notice of Scottish colleges’ success in international skills competitions.
Ever adaptive, colleges are also working more and more closely with partner schools, offering tailored modules of further and higher qualifications in the senior phase to create seamless pathways through to advanced training or direct employment.
Many forget that a world-class university may have started life as a college, and it is unhelpful that the title “college” is not protected by the Privy Council like “university” is. Perhaps this is another reason why we have become less valued.
Today, however, few will recognise the college sector from 10 years ago. School-college and college-university divides have never been more blurred; 60 per cent of the funded learning at our college is actually higher education.
Besides, younger generations are largely oblivious to whether their learning is classified as further or higher education - as long as it meets their personal learning and life goals more flexibly, and in a more engaging way than ever before.
To those commentators with a fixed mindset who continue to minimise or ignore the socio-economic role of colleges, I would simply encourage them to actually visit our new breed of colleges - and get behind this exciting new era of college education.
Paul Little is principal of City of Glasgow College
