New Campus Glasgow: Strategic Benefits Analysis
46
5 Institutional impacts
5.1 This section considers the potential impacts of New Campus Glasgow on a range of
what may be termed institutional impacts:
• Efficiency of operations
• College profile and internationalisation
• Impacts on college staff - knowledge sharing, facilities, and retention
Efficiency
5.2 By co-locating on a new shared campus, the colleges will be able to benefit from a
number of potential cost-saving efficiency gains. For many stakeholders, this potential is one
of the key benefits of the new campus - particularly if the savings made from greater
operational efficiency are re-invested into increasing the breadth of provision available for
learners.
5.3 On one level, these efficiency gains will flow from the fact that the three colleges
combined will have a lower overall level of floorspace than they currently have as separate
institutions. In moving from out-of-date premises to a new purpose-built campus, the Queen
Margaret University for example reduced its estate area per student by 40%. The impact of
reduced estate area in running costs can be significant - the new Borders Campus, a
partnership between the Borders College and Heriot Watt University in Galashiels, is
expected to deliver efficiency savings of £0.25m per year to the two institutions combined in
running costs.
5.4 However, it is in sharing specific services where there are most opportunities for
creating operational efficiencies. The colleges are already exploring the scope for sharing
services in a number of areas, including:
• Corporate services (finance, health and safety, mail, quality etc.)
• Information services (IT infrastructure and support, library, timetabling)
• Customer services (marketing, procurement, stores, student services, student
recruitment)
• Estate services (catering, cleaning, maintenance, security)
5.5 The potential financial benefits from sharing services are significant. Glasgow City
Council for example reduced its administration costs by over 20% on moving to a shared
service model across all its Service Areas. And in addition to the financial impacts, wider
benefits from sharing facilities in terms of increasing the scale, range, quality and breadth of
services offered (e.g. in terms of learning resource facilities).
212
Appendix 13: Economic Impact Report