CITY OF GLASGOW COLLEGE / MERGER PROPOSAL DOCUMENT
3
SECTION 1
Executive Summary (continued)
1.6 Due Diligence
A Due Diligence exercise has been
carried out by each of the three merging
colleges. The Legal Due Diligence was
carried out by the legal i rm Maclay
Murray and Spens and covers the period
up to 21/12/09. The Financial Due
Diligence has been carried out during
January 2010 by the Accountancy i rm
Wylie & Bisset.
The Legal Due Diligence reported in an
'exceptions only' style, highlighting the
major issues in the context of merger.
For the three merging colleges, the
Due Diligence process has found no
material obstacles to merger, in the
areas of: Commercial Contracts, Property
Contracts, Intellectual Property and IT
Contracts. There are some practical issues
noted regarding alignment of policy
in the areas of Data Protection, Library
Services, Freedom of Information and
Websites and these are detailed in the
main Due Diligence Report.
1.7 Support for Merger
We have been very encouraged by
support for the merger which emerged
from the responses to the consultation
process from students, staf and
stakeholders including other
Glasgow colleges and universities:
Linda McTavish, Principal
of Anniesland College
and Convenor, Principal's
Convention, Scotland's Colleges
'The City of Glasgow College will no
doubt further develop the business and
international links for our city, which is
known throughout the world.. The sector
has every coni dence that you will
build on the business proi le of the
three merged colleges.'
Professor Jim McDonald,
Principal University of Strathclyde
'I and my senior colleagues warmly
welcome this development. We believe it
will create a major new institute of tertiary
education in the heart of the city - one
that will make a major contribution to the
educational attainment and economic
regeneration in Glasgow and beyond'.
Please refer to Appendix 14.12:
Stakeholder Testimonials>>>
1.8 Finance
Work has been undertaken to identify
merger costs and merger savings and
i nancial forecasts for the new merged
College have been prepared and these
forecasts have been subject to Due
Diligence.
1.9 People Strategy
As we stated in the public consultation
document, we recognise that the
process of organisational change must
be handled fairly and sensitively. We are
creating a new College of an exceptional
scale and we will therefore need new
systems and structures that are i t for
purpose to deliver a world class learning
experience for all of our students.
At an early stage in the pre-merger
process, a review of the organisational
structures of the three partner Colleges
will be undertaken and a proposed new
structure developed. The development
and implementation of this will be
undertaken in consultation with staf
and trade union representatives and
progressed sensitively and sensibly, with
minimum disruption to service provision
for staf and students.
It is not envisaged that there will be
major changes to stai ng levels but
there is likely to be some realignment
of management and specialist roles.
It is therefore envisaged that this will
provide increased career and personal
development opportunities for talented
staf with increased opportunity to
specialise in more diverse roles within our
larger sized College.
All staf that transfer to the new College
from Central College and GCNS will
have their terms and conditions of
employment protected under TUPE
regulations. The New College will extend
the same principles of protection of
terms and conditions of employment
to existing staf of the former Glasgow
Metropolitan College. Any subsequent
change to contractual terms of
conditions will be subject to negotiation.
Trade Union consultation has already
commenced on merger and staf related
matters, and this includes negotiation
on the development of the appropriate
terms and conditions of employment for
the new College.
1.10 Quality
We recognise that mergers create risks
in the area of quality and we will learn
from the experiences of other Colleges
to ensure that curriculum standards are
not compromised during the merger
process. Stretching targets against the
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of
early retention, retention and student
outcomes have been set for the new
college, using benchmark information.
The new College's aim is to be a top
decile performer in each SFC KPI
category by 2015.