Created on: 05 Dec 2025
The Educational Institute of Scotland – Further Education Lecturers’ Association has released a major new report, Follow the Money: EIS-FELA’s Report on the Future of Further Education in Scotland, revealing deepening financial, structural, and governance issues across Scotland’s college sector.
Drawing on national data, freedom of information findings, and testimony from educators across the country, the report exposes a sector facing unprecedented strain after years of real-terms budget cuts, increasing marketisation, and widening inequality in provision. Nonetheless, the report also highlights the benefits and strengths of Scotland’s colleges for students, staff and communities.
Findings released by the SFC and Audit Scotland last month showed that a 20% real-terms funding cut (2021–26) has pushed most colleges toward projected deficits by 2027–28.
With staffing already down 7%, projecting another 6% decrease, colleges have suffered the biggest decrease in the numbers of staff in the public sector. Severe reductions in courses and community provision mean student enrolments are down 12%.
The EIS-FELA report finds this government defunding comes at a time when there has also been rising privatisation and outsourcing, including multimillion-pound commercial contracts, international ventures, and private training partnerships operating with limited transparency.
EIS-FELA President, Anne-Marie Harley, said “Behind the warm words about skills and productivity lies a reality of deep cuts and a narrowing curriculum which harms students and communities. Scotland needs a publicly funded, community-anchored college sector that values education, not profit. Instead, Scottish Government’s continued emphasis on commercial income and financial resilience has accelerated a shift away from education as a public good towards an increasingly fragmented system which allows increasing levels of privatisation. This means we are being faced with potential campus closures, for example in Alloa, as well as mergers across the Highlands and Islands, and more redundancies, for example at Dundee & Angus College.”
EIS-FELA Vice President, Dr Thora Hands, said “With cuts to Access courses, additional support for learning, ESOL and community learning disproportionately impacting vulnerable learners and rural areas, it is shocking that some of those in management positions seeks to shift towards a market-driven, employer-led model which undermines colleges’ core educational and civic mission. Instead, our report shows clearly that the marketisation experiment is failing and that money should not be removed from the sector to pay private companies. Governance issues and opaque decision-making structures need addressed just as urgently as funding needs to be increased.”
Key recommendations from the EIS-FELA report are that real-terms funding must be restored for core teaching, with specific focus on ASL and ESOL provision. Governance of the sector must be reformed, including bringing Principals and senior management salaries under public pay controls, and strengthening transparency and accountability. Further Education’s distinct role must be protected within the tertiary landscape by rebuilding social and community learning which is vital for inclusion, social mobility and democratic literacy.
In order to do this there must be a move away from outsourcing and privatisation, ensuring public money is used for public education. Within this context, fair work, academic freedom, security of employment and nationally agreed terms and conditions must be strengthened.
The report concludes that Scotland’s colleges can remain essential anchor institutions for local communities, but only if their core educational mission is restored and supported with sustainable public funding and accountable governance.
Please visit our website and read the full report.