Scrutiny by the Education and Culture Committee (Lead Committee)
The Post-16 Education (Scotland) Bill was introduced to the Scottish Parliament on 27 November 2012. The Education and Culture Committee has been designated lead committee in consideration of the Bill at Stage 1.
The Policy Memorandum states that the Bill will introduce provisions covering six areas—
University governance: to allow Ministers, when providing funding to the SFC, to impose conditions relating to the need for higher education institutions to adhere to good practice in governance.
Widening access: to allow Ministers, when providing funding to the SFC, to impose conditions relating to access to higher education institutions for under-represented socio-economic groups.
Tuition fees cap: to allow Ministers:
- to set an upper limit on the level of higher education tuition fees which post-16 education bodies can charge UK students and certain others who are not entitled to be charged tuition fees at the level set by the Scottish Government; and
- when providing funding to the SFC, to impose conditions with a view to ensuring that post-16 education bodies adhere to such an upper limit.
College regionalisation:
- to provide for two types of incorporated colleges with different duties, composition and appointment provisions, depending on whether they are in single-college or multi-college regions;
- to establish new regional strategic bodies for colleges in multi-college regions to support a regional approach to the planning and funding of college provision; and
- to introduce Ministerial powers to remove chairs and other members of incorporated colleges and regional boards for reasons of failure (in addition to mismanagement).
Review of fundable further and higher education: to allow the SFC to review the provision of fundable further and higher education with a view to ensuring that such education is being provided by post-16 education bodies in a coherent manner.
Data sharing: to allow Ministers to make secondary legislation to impose a legal duty on relevant bodies to share data with Skills Development Scotland on all young people between the ages of 16 and 24 moving through the learning system to identify those who have disengaged with, or may be at risk of, disengaging with, learning or training.
For further information on the Bill and its accompanying documents, please see the Post-16 Education (Scotland) Bill
Evidence
The Committee launched a call for written evidence on 4 December 2012. The closing date for written submissions was 18 January 2013.
Report
The Committee published its Stage 1 report on 20 March 2013.
The following letter was received from the Scottish Government in response to the report:
The following letter was received from Skills Development Scotland in response to the report:
Debate
The Stage 1 debate took place on Wednesday 27 March 2013.