This adaptability is a great strength; we cite it, rightly, at every opportunity. Yet we have seen the advocates of the leading edge crash and burn time and time again as the policy wind changes and the leading edge becomes yesterday’s news. So, ‘fewer, larger colleges”? The policy direction was set by the former minister in what was in reality as much a former government as if we had experienced a general election. Well, maybe.
The fact is that there are fewer colleges now than there were at Incorporation. There have been a number of mergers. Some have worked, some haven’t. That is no different than the experience of the private sector where one study gave a 75% failure rate to the process.
So with a success rate equivalent to the survival prospects of a WW1 fighter pilot, should this then be a policy we quietly shelve or bury in studies or ‘preparatory work’? My view is no. And that is not because I make my living from it these days (there, interest declared). The fact is that many colleges cannot survive on their own and there are many examples where eliminating competition and combining resources would not only make for a stronger sector but better prospects for students, communities and, yes, staff too.