Student leaders have urged colleges to protect long-term funding for their associations and to look seriously at budgets to ensure students are properly represented.
The reaction comes as the findings of an exclusive survey by Tes Scotland reveal that a number of colleges’ student associations do not have full-time staff beyond the elected sabbatical officers. Of the 13 colleges that responded, four said that their student association did not have any full-time staff - although Dundee and Angus College each planned to recruit one employee.
Seven colleges reported that their associations had one or two full-time staff, while Edinburgh College Student Association had three full-time staff, according to the college, and City of Glasgow College’s student association had four.
The recently established code of good governance for Scotland’s colleges states the board “must encourage a strong and independent students’ association and should ensure that the students’ association is adequately resourced”.
In June 2015, the Framework for the development of strong and effective college student associations in Scotland was published by the NUS students’ union, backed by Colleges Scotland, the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and the Scottish Government. It states: “Dedicated, highly skilled staff who are accountable to the students’ association are absolutely fundamental to developing effective students’ associations, and to their ongoing success.”
NUS Scotland president Luke Humberstone said: “Five years on from the start of college mergers, and two years since the SFC issued guidance on the college students’ associations, it’s clear that there are still many colleges failing to properly support and fund their students’ associations.” He explained that association staff provided vital support to elected officers, “bringing continuity and experience that enables them to improve student lives on campus”.
Ensuring long-term funding
“Colleges must ensure students’ associations have staff, and are given the funding and support that they need to attract, recruit and retain them,” Mr Humberstone added. “All colleges must protect long-term funding for their students’ associations and look seriously at whether the budgets allocated are enough to ensure students are properly represented.”
A spokeswoman for New College Lanarkshire said the association had no full-time staff other than the two sabbatical posts of president and vice president. However, she added support was provided to the sabbatical officers from a number of college teams, as required.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for West College Scotland said its students’ association did not include full-time staff members, but was “effectively supported by several nominated staff”, as well as marketing and graphics teams.
A spokesman for the Scottish government told Tes Scotland that while staffing the student association was “primarily a matter for individual colleges, the SFC is continuing to fund and support NUS Scotland in the ongoing development and sustainability of student associations and the student voice in college governance”.
Shona Struthers, the chief executive for Colleges Scotland, said that the allocation of resources to students’ associations was “for each college to negotiate directly with their students’ association”.
However, she added: “Colleges Scotland believes that the development of students’ associations is a work in progress, and that through the step change in students’ association activity since the regionalisation process, significant and positive contributions have been made to the student experience directly because of stronger partnerships between colleges and their students’ associations.”
