Merged campus ready for business

The merger for what officials hope will be called the University of the West of Scotland was given the go-ahead by the Scottish Executive earlier this year after an extensive consultation that highlighted a number of benefits, primarily the creation of a regional university serving the west and south of Scotland which also establishes a university presence in Lanarkshire for the first time.

In addition, the fact that the merger creates Scotland's largest school of health, nursing and midwifery was seen as a much more effective way of meeting the needs of the five health boards in the area.

Those in favour of the move believe there will be other benefits. The merger comes as the higher education sector is under financial pressure and it was stressed that there would be long-term savings in efficiencies generated by a merger of this scale.

More importantly, there is a twofold educational rationale behind the merger. At a time when Scotland's population has been predicted to decline, a major challenge in higher education is the knock-on decline in the number of secondary school students taking up funded places in higher and further education.

The fear is that there may be for the needs of the Scottish economy unless those in work have opportunities to re-enter education, and a wider range of school leavers can take advantage of tertiary education.

The second issue is the uneven spread of participation in higher education in Scotland. Overall, Scotland has the highest participation rate in the UK in higher education, although it is still lower than a number of international competitors. However, the relatively high participation rate masks low participation rates among certain groups - usually from deprived backgrounds or rural areas.

One of the key missions of the new university will be to widen participation to ensure that an increased proportion of Scotland's population has an opportunity to access high-quality education, particularly in rural areas such as Dumfries and in the many centres of deprivation across the west of Scotland. Lanarkshire in particular, officials argue, will benefit from the opportunities for students to study to degree level without leaving the area.

Beyond its contribution to maintaining and growing the overall number of well-qualified employees needed by the Scottish economy, the merged institution hopes to make a significant economic impact across Scotland and raise GDP by £7m from current levels. However, the benefits of the new merged institution have not convinced everyone.

There are those who privately say the merger was necessary because neither Bell nor Paisley alone were able to compete with the nearby universities of Glasgow, Strathclyde and Glasgow Caledonian and were struggling to recruit students. There are also some who question whether the new institution is sustainable in the long term over four campuses.

Meanwhile, community colleges in the area fear that a newly-branded university that is offering courses similar to theirs will threaten their long-term stability.

During the consultation, the response from the board of management of Ayr College accused the two institutions involved in the merger of being disingenuous in claiming that the satellite campuses would work in successful partnership with local colleges. The board highlighted that Paisley University and Bell College have struggled to meet their student recruitment targets and, as a result, accused them of engaging in "unnecessary competition" with local colleges rather than meaningful partnerships.

The board added: "Recent strategic plans for Ayr published by the University of Paisley have shown scant regard for existing college provision and existing partnerships when planning curriculum expansion.

"The duplication of activity that has resulted in the past from such competition has incurred significant wastage of public funds. We believe that merging these two institutions will exacerbate this competition in all four regions resulting in further unnecessary competition which would undermine the executive's efficient government initiative."

The board pointed out that the introduction of Paisley University to the joint Crichton campus in Dumfries had already resulted in a "significant decline" in higher education participation in Dumfries and Galloway College.

"Ayr College believes that this experience would be mirrored in Ayrshire and that if this merger were to go ahead Ayr College's higher education provision would be severely diminished.

"Such a reduction in higher education provision would have a negative impact on our ability to offer non-advanced provision locally and thereby our ability to fulfil our widening access agenda. The inevitable reduction in resource in this area would also impact on our ability to continue providing the considerable support currently offered by Ayr College to local industry."

However, Seamus McDaid, the principal of the new institution, is adamant that the merger has created a new centre of academic excellence in Scotland.

"What we are getting is a better academic institution," he said, arguing that with the additional financial strength the university would be able to employ more academics and therefore recruit high-calibre students from across its target area.

The plan is to move to full merger of all provision by 2009-10.

Don't mention name, there isn't one Advertisements describe the country's newest university as Scotland's biggest and most modern, but are careful not to mention it by name - because it doesn't officially have one.

After a consultation, officials at Paisley University and Bell College decided that the University of the West of Scotland would be the most appropriate title. Alex MacLennan, principal of Bell College, argued that the name better reflected the university's wider purpose in serving Lanarkshire, Ayrshire, Renfrewshire and Dumfries and Galloway.

However, politicians from Paisley had different ideas. Scottish Secretary and Paisley MP Douglas Alexander was one of the first to decry the fact that the town would no longer have a university named after it.

Along with Labour colleague and Paisley South MSP Hugh Henry, Mr Alexander launched a petition to keep the university's previous name.

"Paisley is Scotland's largest town and has given the university its original existence and identity. For the university to turn its back on Paisley would be an act of betrayal," said Mr Alexander.

Mr Henry added: "The suggested name is a meaningless title because it has no specific identity. Paisley is very successful in attracting students and there is no need to drop the name."

To appease doubters, those behind the merger suggested that each campus should use its local name under the banner of the University of the West of Scotland.

The final decision rests with the Privy Council.

Facts and figures The new university has . . . More than 18,000 students 2000 members of staff Scotland's largest school of health, nursing and midwifery, with 5000 students £100m investment programme planned Four campuses, in Ayr, Dumfries, Hamilton and Paisley, for more than 40% of Scotland's population £75m Ayr campus development planned