THE Scottish Government has confirmed that the nation’s colleges are to work together within regions – with James Watt’s Greenock campuses becoming part of the west area with Reid Kerr and Clydebank Colleges

Education Secretary Michael Russell said today that colleges will work more collaboratively within 12 regions allowing them to plan regionally and deliver locally. James Watt’s Kilwinning campus will join the Ayrshire region, working with Ayr and Kilmarnock colleges.

James Watt had already announced that it intended to merge with Clydebank and Paisley’s Reid Kerr colleges although the Government in its consultation document said it wasn’t insisting that colleges in each region merge and that there were various options for working together.

-- Story About Merger Plan

Mr Russell said: “I believe developing a regional basis for colleges will make the sector more efficient and responsive to the needs of students and local economies. This approach was proposed in two Scottish Government consultations last year and regionalisation has been strongly supported by the college sector and others in their responses.

“I expect colleges to collaborate and plan together within 12 newly-created regions and I expect provision to continue to be delivered locally. We will now work with the sector and the Scottish Funding Council to put these new arrangements in practice.

Full list of college regions:

•    Highlands & Islands – will include Perth, Lews Castle, Orkney, Shetland, Inverness, Moray, North Highland, Argyll, and West Highland Colleges
•    Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire – will comprise Aberdeen, and Banff and Buchan Colleges
•    Fife – where we will see Fife, Adam Smith, and Carnegie Colleges, and the non land-based provision at Elmwood College
•    Tayside, of which Dundee & Angus Colleges will form part
•    Glasgow – a single region comprising Anniesland, North Glasgow, Stow, John Wheatley, Cardonald, Langside, City of Glasgow
•    West - Reid Kerr and Clydebank Colleges, and the Inverclyde campus of James Watt College
•    Ayrshire – will include Ayr, Kilmarnock, and the Kilwinning campus of James Watt
•    College Dumfries & Galloway – comprising Dumfries & Galloway College
•    Borders – comprising Borders College
•    Lanarkshire – will comprise Coatbridge, Cumbernauld, Motherwell, and South Lanarkshire Colleges
•    Edinburgh & Lothians - Jewel and Esk, Stevenson, Telford and possibly West Lothian Colleges
•    Central – Forth Valley and possibly West Lothian