College Cuts see 1300 Lecturers Made Redundant in Three Years

Published 10th Jun 2015

More than 1300 college lecturers have been made redundant in Scotland over the last three years at a cost of ÂŁ46.5m.

Spending watchdog Audit Scotland say senior staff received average pay-offs of ÂŁ110,000 with some facing compulsory redundancy.

In a report to MSPs, the organisation also says the number of students has fallen by 144,000 since 2007, down almost 40%

Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary Iain Gray told Forth News, "These are just appalling figures because we've been left with fewer lecturers teaching fewer students".

"We all believed the Scottish Government when they said there would be no compulsory redundancies in the merger of colleges.

"Now it turns out that they didn't really mean that, they meant there shouldn't be but there's nothing they can do to stop it".

Edinburgh College cut 134 jobs in the last three years at a cost of ÂŁ6,216,000.

Fife College cut 158 jobs in the last three years at a cost of ÂŁ3,764,000.