New Campus Glasgow: Strategic Benefits Analysis
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tends currently to exist only between colleges whose international products - curricular areas
and programmes - do not compete with each other).
5.12 By co-locating and working together, the three colleges can potentially benefit from
economies of scale in recruiting and retaining international students. Building on the work of
Scotland's Colleges International (SCI), economies of scale in marketing, visits and trade
missions will enhance the colleges' propensity to recruit international students. Moreover, by
being able to offer more articulations with UK-wide HEIs (as noted in the preceding section),
this will also enhance the ability of the colleges to attract international students - the HMIE
report finds that the existence of articulations with universities is a key promotional tool for
colleges in attracting international students.
5.13 The co-location will also permit the three colleges to provide enhanced support
services for international students, including academic support, non-academic guidance and
support on a range of cultural/ integration issues from specialist staff, greater access to
English language provision, and effective development of international learners core and
employability skills - in line with the recommendations from the HMIE report. Additional
student accommodation, although not intended as part of the NCG plans, would also help to
increase the attractiveness of the colleges to international students.
Impacts on staff
5.14 Staff within the colleges have identified a number of aspects of the current premises
which are sub-optimal to various extents. These include:
• Lack of staff common room areas in some colleges for sharing knowledge and
learning.
• Staff in the same faculty spread across several staffrooms, also limiting
opportunities for sharing best practice.
• Inappropriate changing areas in some colleges for staff involved in subjects which
require 'getting dirty'.
5.15 More importantly however, the new campus will provide staff from across the three
colleges to come together more frequently to share learning and best practice more
effectively. Sharing best practice already takes place within each college, and the colleges
are engaged in some joint best practice exercises with other colleges. But the new campus
will offer the scope for doing much more.
5.16 Indeed, a report by HMIE2
concludes that the sharing of good practice can be
improved by:
2 Securing the adoption of good practice in Scotland's Colleges, HMIE (2006)
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Appendix 13: Economic Impact Report