35 Jan 17, 2010 08:41 PM Consultation of staf and trade unions has not even begun by the date of end of this consultation
period.This does not augur well for the future.
The comment on harmonisation is hard to believe given the lack of willingness to progress this matter
in the merger between glasgow college of food technology and glasgow college of building and
printing.
Academic staf in all three colleges are deeply concerned by this precedent.
36 Jan 17, 2010 08:51 PM The College of the City of Glasgow; The City of Glasgow College ; Glasgow City College ; The College of
Glasgow.
It is recognised that the authors of the merger document have had a dii culty as the bulk of the
content is directed towards the "New Campus Glasgow" while the "three - four" year lead-in period for
the project the "Colleges" will still be operating on dif erent sites. Certainly some of this time will be
spent on harmonisation of working practices, Staf Development issues and the creation of approriate
quality schemes, BUT there is "silence" on the real matters of governanace such as "accountability,
monitoring, decision making for the existing separate campuses etc." other than to note Shadow Boards
and Shadow executive management".
37 Jan 18, 2010 8:16 AM It is worrying that the merged college plans to take on the policies of Glasgow Met on vesting day. This
is the college with the most oppressive culture and the poorest record for industrial relations. I can think
of no worse starting position for the new college. If the college wants a harmonious college with a unity
of purpose then it needs to think again about this. If the new management has a real wish to rid itself of
the distrust that has existed between the three colleges then they need to show this is genuinely a new
college. There are several models that could avoid this disastrous step. New policies could be written
prior to vesting day, vesting day could be postponed by three or four months to allow new policies to
be put in place or, the existing policies of the three colleges could be kept for a limited time of, say, six
months.
What is required is a management which understands the current situation and is prepared to give the
committment to change.
38 Jan 18, 2010 12:13 PM Staf must be kept informed about potential redundancies and a clear, standard message must go out
to them.
Communication from the Shadow Board to date has not been good. The openness, honesty and
transparency espoused in the document has not been evident in their operation so far. Their role is not
clear to most people and does not seems to match what was outlined in the merger "road map".
Suggested names:
Glasgow College
The College of Glasgow
Glasgow International College
Glasgow Premier College
39 Jan 18, 2010 01:32 PM The host model does make sense as the mechanism to deliver merger. There is currently equal College
representation in the makeup of the Shadow Board and all other management committees therefore
no one College should dominate the merger process. The merger process has to be fair, open and
transparent in all decisions.
The harmonisation of staf pay and conditions is one of the main stai ng issues that will be very dii cult
to resolve quickly and could add to tensions between staf .
As soon possible staf and student membership of the shadow board should be appointed.
The College name is very important as this can have a major impact on students and stakeholders.
Any name change or rebranding will be very expensive. All 3 existing names should be considered
with any other alternative. My opinion is that Glasgow and College are both essential parts of any
future name. Given this and the dii culty previously experienced in having suitable alternatives when
Glasgow Metropolitan College was named, I believe Glasgow Metropolitan College is best name for
the merged College. It is a generic and modern sounding name that also has a catchy abbreviation
Glasgow Met.
CONTINUED OVERLEAF
145
Appendix 10: Consultation Results