NAO Report (HC 424 1984/85): Scottish Education Department

! NATIONAL AUDIT OFFICE : Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General Scottish Education Department: Control of Further Education Establishments Orderedby the House of Commonsto beprinted 5 June 1985 LONDON HER MAJESTY’S STATIONERY OFFICE E3.30 net 424 This report is presented to the House of Commons in accordance with Section 9 of the National Audit Act. 1983. Gordon Downey Comptroller and Auditor General National Audit Office 4 June 1985 ,: ,‘; .,,, ‘~ Contents Scottish Education Department: Control of Further Education Establishments Pages Summary and conclusions l-4 Report 5-10 Central Institutions: courses and student intake Colleges of Education: courses and student intake College capacity Academic staff levels Surplus accommodation Unit costs Jordanhill Demonstration School Funding and financial control Possible reorganisation of Scottish tertiary education Glossary of abbreviations 11 Appendices 1. Central Institutions 12 2. Colleges of Education 13 3. Colleges of Education: college based students 14 4. Colleges of Education: distribution of subjects at secondary level 15 5. Colleges of Education: surplus accommodation 16 Scottish Education Department: Control of Further Education Establishments Summary and conclusions 1. In Scotland there are eleven central institutions offering advanced voca- tional courses, and seven colleges of education which train the majority of teachers in Scottish schools. The net expenditure of these establishments on the provision of facilities and courses, after deducting income from fees and other sources, is met 100 per cent by grants from the Scottish Education Department (SED). In 1983-84 the central institutions received grants of f45.4 million and colleges of education received grants of E26.3 million. 2. This report records the results of an examination by the National Audit Office (NAO) of SED’s responsibilities for the general control of the numbers and grading of academic staff, the range and distribution of courses, and the student intake to certain courses. It assessesthe results of this work against SED’s principal aim of maintaining the output of graduates in the various disciplines at a level commensurate with need and with due regard to national priorities. The report also reviews funding and financial control arrangements. 3. On central institutions the NAO concluded that SED had been reasonably successful in overcoming difficulties in matching the provision of facilities and resources with approved needs in the face of a considerable growth in demand for courses. Central institutions were generally operating up to the limits of their capacity and as a result their main difficulty lay in meeting demands for expansion in the technology and engineering fields. 4. SED had been less successful in overcoming problems at colleges of education caused by a sharp drop in teacher training needs. Although they have managed to achieve staff reductions at the colleges, academic staff levels are still higher proportionate to the students than at broadly similar colleges. Accommo- dation in the teacher training field will continue to exceed requirements by a considerable margin for the foreseeable future. A review by the Council for Ter- tiary Education in Scotland in 1981 concluded that the existence of colleges of education as a separate sector from the central institutions made it more difficult for them to adjust to fluctuations in the level of demand for teacher training. 5. SED have emphasised that control over unit costs and academic staff numbers presents problems of a different order when student numbers are rising, as in the cenual institutions, than when numbers are in severeand sustained decline, as in the colleges of education. They consider that the colleges have made reason- able progress in the face of their unique predicament as more-or-less single pur- pose institutions unable to temper a precipitous fall in their intakes by any sub- stantial diversion to other educational tasks, and in the face of a decision by 1 Ministers not to consider further closures until the Scottish Tertiary Education Advisory Council has reported. 6. On funding, the arrangements for administering and monitoring the distribution of funds to individual colleges and central institutions appeared generally satisfactory; and the financial control procedures at SED and at the individual establishments generally effective. Central Institutions 7. Between 1978-79 and 1983-84, the number of students attending courses at central institutions rose from 11,050 to some 15,000 estimated Full Time Equiv- alents (FTE). This increase was achieved without any significant expansion in facilities, partly through having larger class sizes; over the period SED used their powers to approve staffing levels to raise the average student:staff ratio from 9:l to 11:l (paragraph 1.6). 8. Effective machinery exists for SED approval of courses provided at central institutions, and steps are taken to avoid unnecessary duplication with other higher education establishments (paragraph 1.5). However, continuing demand for central institution courses means that resources overall are likely to remain fully stretched for the foreseeable future. This may well inhibit desirable develop- ments in the range and balance of courses. For example, recent surveys have indicated growing demands by employers for courses in engineering subjects over the next decade or so, but despite recent decisions to allocate extra funds to expand the output of technical graduates, the three colleges likely to be the main beneficiaries are already operating at or fairly close to full capacity and other courses cannot readily be curtailed to accommodate the increased requirements (paragraphs 1.10 to 1.13). Action may also be needed to reduce the surplus of graduates identified in courses on town and country planning and on architecture (paragraph 1.9). 9. More generally, although SED in balancing resources and courses seek to have regard to graduates’ career prospects where possible, there was little evi- dence of any systematic analysis of graduate output statistics as an aid to identify- ing trends in the employment market; and information collected by the institutions appears to be of limited use (paragraphs 1.7 to 1.8). i of Education 10. Owing to a marked decline in the school population in Scotland, the total number of students taking initial courses of teacher training in colleges of education hasfallen substantially since the mid-1970s-from11,320 in 1975-76to 3,362 in 1983-84. Even taking into account teachers undertaking in-service training at the colleges and other students, mainly in social work and community education fields, the total number of students under training at about 7,070 is less than half what it was eight years ago (about 15,000). During this period, the colleges have managed to reduce academic staff levels, mainly through voluntary redundancy and premature retirement. But staff numbers have not fallen in pro- portion to the reduction in students; the 1983-84 student:staff ratio averaged 8.4~1 compared with 11:l at DES voluntary colleges and SED central institutions, and SED’s eventual target ratio of 1O:l (paragraph 1.28). 11. Other matters noted included: (a) though SED take account of future requirements for trained teachers in determining the intake to colleges, the absence of reliable detailed information means that the allowance made for the considerable reserve of unemployed teachers is an arbitrary one; and certain other adjustments reflect factors not directly related to the need for teachers (paragraphs 1.16-1.17). (b) an SED statistical survey indicates that around 60 per cent of 1981 and 1982 primary education graduates and 70 per cent of secondary graduates had found teaching posts by the second September after graduation (paragraph 1.20); (c) reliance on a policy of voluntary redundancy has resulted in imba- lances in academic staffing (paragraph 1.29); (d) unit costs at the colleges of education are higher than those at the central institutions (paragraph 1.32). 12. Looking ahead on colleges of education, SED’s latest projections of student numbers are that although future requirements for trained teachers are starting to rise again, there is no prospect in the next decade of a return to the levels of peak demand experienced prior to 1975-76 when intakes were more than three times their present level. Taking account of students in courses other than teacher training, the total college based population is projected to grow from 5,000 students in 1984-85 to around 7,400 in 1995-96; the effects on surplus capacity at the colleges are considered below. Surplus accommodation: 13. Although SED began taking steps to review the college capacity in Colleges of Education 1976-77, they have not undertaken a comprehensive full accommodation survey since that time. Nor do they have accurate estimates of the number of students that the colleges can accommodate, because of a lack of consistency in the methods of assessingcapacity. They have recently initiated an exercise designed to revise estimates of college capacity on a consistent basis, but in the meantime thay have relied on existing assessments,some of which they recognise are no longer completely reliable (paragraph 1.22). 14. Following a review in 1977, SED took action to reduce net capacity (that is excluding accommodation leased to other users) from the estimated 14,450 teaching places to 11,150, mainly by the sale and lease of surplus accommodation. A further review in 1980 demonstrated that the colleges were still signifi- cantly underused, and SED decided that their net capacity should be reduced to 8,000 places. Two colleges were closed and another two merged: and changes in teaching methods have effectively reduced the capacity still further. The gross capacity of the colleges is now estimated at 10,550 places and the net capacity 8,900. This assessmentexcludes two colleges which have been closed but not yet disposed of.

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