Background
Regionalisation was the biggest change to happen to Scotland’s colleges since 1992.
In February 2012 Michael Russell, the then Education Secretary for Scotland, announced the creation of 13 college regions. Colleges in regions with multiple institutions were tasked with merging, or forming close partnership arrangements such as a federation under a single, fundable board.
The Griggs Report
Key to this was the Review of Further Education Governance in Scotland, commissioned by the Scottish Government. The chair of the review was Prof Russel Griggs, and Griggs' report was published in January 2012. Among other things, it called for students' associations that were sustainable, autonomous and appropriately funded.
Regionalisation proved to have a massive impact on colleges and students. To help, the Partnerships for Change (PfC) project was commissioned by the Scottish Government, managed by NUS Scotland and sparqs, to support colleges through the process. The project provided consultancy support and resources over a two and a half year period, to help students' associations and colleges understand regionalisation, the impact on student representation, and how to create strong and effective student's association in line with the Griggs' recommendations.
See the Partnerships for Change webpage for more information about the support to colleges through the regionalisation process by both sparqs and NUS Scotland.
See the Supporting the development of college students' associations webpage for information on our continued post-regionalisation support.
