Scottish Government

Strategic Investment Fund:- Project update meeting - 25 November

Minutes

Attendees: Julia Amour, BC Scotland Lindsay Galbraith, SG

Glenys Watt, Blake Stevenson Mandy Callaghan SG

Lorraine Simpson, Blake Stevenson Mark Newlands, SDI

Alasdair Stuart, Blake Stevenson Stuart Fancey, SFC

Derek Smeall, Cumbernauld College Sue MacFarlane, SQA

Wendy Livingstone, Forth Valley College Dominic Scott, UKCISA

Catherine Thwaites, NUS Scotland Isabel Hui Liu, Universities Scotland

Russell Gunson, NUS Scotland Ed Nash, University of Edinburgh

Ben McLeish, Scotland's Colleges Jim Campbell, University of Edinburgh

Carol Booth, Scotland's Colleges Stuart Forsyth, University of Glasgow

Alex Young, SG Steve Gallagher, UWS

Apologies: Bill Harvey, QAA

Tariq Durrani, RSE and University of Strathclyde

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Welcome and Introductions

Alex Young (AY) introduced himself as the Acting Chair for this meeting and refreshed the group on the original aims and criteria of the Strategic Investment Fund

Main Discussion

Scotland's Colleges International - ALLIES Project

Ben McLeish (BM) updated the group on the progress of the project:

• They have been realigning the project into a Team Scotland approach.
• SDI, SQA and SG have been working in loose collaboration with the project
• Four working groups have been established - O&G, LS, CI, H&T
• They have a Business Development Management Toolkit that can be used across al seven Scottish Government key sectors
• They have marketing tools and a quality framework to ensure selection of the best people and standards of delivery
• A number of business development trips have been undertaken
• The key outcome has been the partnership development toolkit

Wendy Livingstone (WL) discussed the O & G Group:

• Initially the best developed but it has been challenging
• One of the most successful markets has been in Libya
• Looking to give a solution to deliver vocational training in Libya
• ALLIES term has been dropped in the working group
• Business and opportunities have been shared

BM spoke of the challenges:

• A number of changes have been made, project work has now been embedded into Scotland Colleges International Team
• Other sectors have enquired about the model - SCI would like to come back in the future to discuss potential future funding

Wendy added:

• Individual colleges going into the market are not effective, however a collaborative approach via this project is much more positive and effective. Trust between the colleges has developed that was missing before.

Comments from the Strategic Investment Fund Panel:

· Mark Newlands (MN) asked what was currently being funded, given the finance of the project was heavily skewed towards staff cost and also enquired about future sustainability?

- WL highlighted that it is more cost effective for colleges to fund half the people to go one mission as opposed to the old model where twelve colleges would go on one mission

· Sue MacFarlane (SM) asked what value the project is bringing to the sector?

- BM replied that there was none as yet but that the project was about infrastructure and that the next stage will be to refine what the income streams are and how to refine them.

- AY commented that this might be the best way to ensure buy in from the colleges.

· Stuart Fancey (SF) asked how the market had changed in how we view colleges?

- WL replied that it seems to be positive at the moment. People like that it is non-profit i.e. the income generated is being reinvested in education.

· Julia Amour (JA) asked if there was any reflection on what works best for the sector approach based on experience so far

- BM said that there is a need to work in bigger partnerships with a bigger ethos. It is early days though and there is limited experience.

· Mark finalised the update by encouraging the project to continue reporting the gains.

AGCAS- Scotland Virtual Careers Fair Project

Jim Campbell (JC) provide a summary of the project:

· Feedback from employers was about demand and that the best time for Asia was in October.

· Demand has increased for the event going from 750 students to 1662.

· Feedback from students improved this year in terms of the number of employers and the vacancies available.

· There needs to be some thought about including internet employers in the future.

· There is increased competition from abroad - Melbourne, English Universities and private providers.

Sustainability

· To sustain the project the software needs to be in place, currently it is mid-range and there is a need to upgrade this in order to compete if the project is to continue (Grad Prospects charge about £1500).

· There is also a need to keep a project manager in place or make a case to universities / career service providers / Scottish Government to help keep resources in place

· The project can be sustained but the issue is of quality.

Comments from the Strategic Investment Fund Panel:

• SF commented that the Melbourne software is better but the cost is not high therefore why not get the employers or students to contribute? Is it a real obstacle?

- JC advised that some careers services across the country are very small and therefore cannot contribute as much, but it does need to be looked into.

• AY asked how well the success of the fairs is being disseminated and commented there was a high success for a low cost.

• JA asked if there was any potential for fairs to be applicable across wider student groups or trans-nationally?

- The event is not marketed as international but is open to all.

• AY commented on the need to talk to others in other areas of institutions
• MN commented on the feedback from students and stated it was a good benchmark but asked about where they had been critical?

- There were a range of employers and vacancies last year but this was even better this year. There were small criticisms this year, for example, could people have known earlier? However, notifying people too early can sometimes result in people forgetting whereas notifying them too late does not leave enough time.

• MN asked what success looks like for the project and commented he would like to see a model for sustainability

- An increased number of vacancies and students coming in

• Dominic Scott (DS) stressed the need for improved software and also keeping in contact with employers not just for the event. He added there was real business potential.
• Carol Booth (CB) asked about opportunities of opening this up to colleges.
• Stuart Forsyth (SFo) added that the student barometer highlights that students expect to receive institutions support.

- SF stated that this is not a stand alone exercise but ties into other activities going on in markets by other organisations.

- Jim added that British Council China have been very supportive of the event

• JA also added that CBBC and globalscot network could tie in.

• Alex asked how strong the competition is and how ahead we are?

- We are ahead of the game, we have met with other universities that got PMI funding for events also and the pull for employers was UK level.

ACTION: Meeting about future funding

SUIG- International Communications Campaign (India and China)

The panel were given a project update from Ed Nash (EN) and Stuart Forsyth (SFo):

• The project has changed slightly in the second year - there were no employed staff, the workload was too high and so in the second year an assistant in the British Council was recruited.
• There is approximately a £5-£6 return every £1 spent
• The India return is four times that of China

Sustainability

• There are three options which will be looked at over the next few months:

• Maintain the same group and fund within it;
• Work with the Scottish Government, and
• Increase collaboration and rollout to work with other Scottish or UK institutions.

Comments from the Strategic Investment Fund Panel:

• DS asked how difficult it is to determine what would have happened anyway without the project?

- Cannot prove the articles have had a certain effect but they promotes awareness.

• DS also enquired about the return on India being four times more than China.

- SFo advised that this is because of the language and that it is more expensive to advertise there.

• Following on from this, DS asked if it would have been better to put more into China which is more difficult to crack?

- EN highlighted that the report does not include online coverage, only print. In China online is the more developed market. What is in the report is what institutions are contributing to the project, things may be happening outwith this.

• MN commented that the amount of articles were slightly skewed to certain universities but if you can go to HEIs with a demonstration of Return on Investment (ROI) then they should hopefully get more involvement.

- SFo commented that if anything the campaign provides great potential and benefits to smaller institutions.

• AY commented it would be useful to see some scenarios of what could be presented in future (if a persons time or part of it is devoted in the future).
• Finally, DS added that the articles are not institutions stories but largely Research and Development and Science based. There is a national response to the project not just institutional.

NUS Scotland- Students Without Borders

The project update was given by Catherine Thwaites (CT):

• Summarised the three main project aims- 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 in report
• Summarised activity as in the bi-annual report
• The Beyond Borders report was launched in May.
• Four buddy systems have been implemented (one was already in place, that of Abertay). Napier got PMI funding to do this.
• This year the Edinburgh and Inverness festivals have been split to have a study and working day. This is usually attended by about 100 students.

Sustainability

• The sustainability issues are as outlined in section 3.
• Best practice forum is on 3.6 and facebook site

Comments from the Strategic Investment Fund Panel:

· SF asked about rolling this out to organisations and institutions

- The third part of the project is about packaging up the project for dissemination to other organisations.

· SM commented that there is a need to ensure everything is joined up - i.e. looking after students from the start (Beyond Borders project) to the end (AGCAS project) ?

· CB asked about colleges that are involved; why those ones and whereabouts geographically.

- This is not strategic , just represents where the opportunity was.

· CB further suggested working with Scotland's Colleges to widen this net and get the colleges more involved.

· EN asked about any thoughts to connecting current students to Alumni networks.

- Not at the moment but this is a good thought for the future.

· JA added that this is what the British Council are looking to do so they could work together.

· MN commented on part of what NUS are doing, stating that Universities Scotland have an immediate response to any negative stories we get in the press.

- Indian and Chinese students are harder to reach.

· AY commented that the research was on student representations structures and that some don't feel they benefit, are not interested or may not be here for long enough.

· JC added that there could be a language issue as there is a need to be confident, therefore if English is not the first language then this can affect students.

· CT added that they are working with NUS UK to piggy back on some of their projects, such as the summer long training programme, to build confidence for their student officers.

University of the West of Scotland

Steve Gallagher (SG) updated the group on the progress of the project:

• The project started late due to recruitment and resource issues.
• Confident what can be achieved this year will add to sustainability.
• The market focus changed slightly to Turkey, Kuwait, India and Nepal. China was pushed to the side due to the amount of time it would take and the resources it might need. However, they have been approached so activity is increasing again.
• Huge amount achieved in terms of information sharing between colleges, fees and commission rate etc.
• The operational team is now in place and there is a forum for colleges to meet with them every month to be heard.
• Colleges and universities are collaborating and there has been a new idea on home and international markets so the project is very much in the beginning stages.

Comments from the Strategic Investment Fund Panel:

• CB asked if there were any plans to widen this project to other colleges?

- This is still a pilot project

• JA asked about clarifying International Property Rights (IPR) to which Lindsay Galbraith (LG) responded that this was covered in the grant letter and the Scottish Government owns the IPR.
• JA also asked if anything was being done that would change the size of the cluster?

- Unsure, a lot was underestimated at the start; volume, scale of work, legal issues, resource required to manage the project etc.

• MN asked how student numbers are measured and what are the benefits of different types of colleges? He also asked why such disparate markets and not just one?

- The application process has been aligned to the University of West Scotland directly so there is an easy measuring mechanism. The markets are significant and they were, and possibly still are, too ambitious. It is still a learning process. Finally, it would not be fair to cut a lot of the markets out and focus on one - this may limit learning.

• Glenys Watt (GW) commented that it would be important to link up the NUS project with those colleges involved in this project, to get the student experience in this new entry route right.

- Derek Smeall (DS) added how difficult it has been to express this route overseas as a credible route.

- It has been difficult as colleges have been damaged recently by the problem of bogus colleges. It has been difficult to sell but hopefully the website and materials will help. The SCQF is also hard to explain, as is the thought of a four year masters.

Summary

Alex summarised the importance of disseminating projects and ideas for future budgets for which he invited thoughts.

The date of the next meeting will be circulated in due course