UHI Rural and Islands College merger proposal: consultation analysis

2. Background

1. A proposal has been put forward, by the governing bodies of North Highland College (NHC), Lews Castle College(LCC) ( also known as UHI Outer Hebrides) and West Highland College (WHC) to merge to form one single, incorporated college.

2. The merging parties have suggested a “host” model, whereby the LCC and WHC are closed and their property, rights, liabilities and obligations are transferred to NHC.

3. LCC is an incorporated college under the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 1992 (“the 1992 Act”) and as such requires a statutory instrument, made by the Scottish Ministers, in order to give effect to its closure and any consequential transfer of property, rights, liabilities and obligations. As WHC is not incorporated under the 1992 Act that college will be wound up through non-statutory means which does not require any Ministerial involvement.

4. A ten week Scottish Government consultation on the proposed merger was conducted. It ran from 24 February until 5 May. The consultation sought views on the merger proposals as a whole to inform the decision on whether to take forward a statutory instrument to close LCC and transfer the assets to NHC as the ‘host’ for the merger.

5. All responses to the consultation were analysed and themes identified, as presented in the analysis section of this report.