North East Scotland College expects to avoid any “significant” cuts to the number of full-time college places it offers despite multimillion-pound budget pressures.
The education and training provider faced having to cut student numbers from August because of feared funding cuts.
But now bosses have been told by the Scottish Funding Council that teaching funds will be maintained at the same level as 2023-24.
In an update, Nescol said it therefore expects “no significant change” to the number of full-time places available to students.
It currently delivers courses to around 6,000 full-time students across four campuses in Aberdeen, Peterhead and Fraserburgh.
Read more: How cuts to north-east college could upset the future economy of the region
Across full-time, part-time, distance learning and school programmes, this rises to around 20,000 students who enrolled on courses in 2023-24.
The college had been bracing itself for funding cuts that would have left Nescol with a deficit of £4.5 million in 2024-25. This has been reduced to £2.7m.
It is focused on cutting staff costs through its ongoing voluntary severance programme and developing commercial streams to raise cash.
‘Stark’ funding deficit
Neil Cowie, principal and chief executive of North East Scotland College, said: “The positive news is that the announced funding reduction did not come to fruition.
“Rather than a cut to our core funding, we will receive a flat cash settlement.
“What that means is another year of real terms cuts and significant challenges as we grapple with the impact of flat cash settlements in previous years, inflation bringing significant cost increases across our operations and the pending pay awards in the college sector.
“While we waited for the indicative funding allocation we had planned for various eventualities.
“Funding cuts at the levels we had been signposted to would have left Nescol facing a deficit of £4.5m in 2024/25.
“The flat cash settlement reduces that gap to £2.7m – but that remains a stark figure.
“Our focus remains on reducing non-staff costs through a varied programme of initiatives, exploring opportunities to reduce staff costs through an ongoing voluntary severance programme and developing revenue streams to reduce our reliance on diminishing public funding.”
The college has already seen training opportunities withdrawn after the Scottish Government scrapped a “flexible workforce development fund”.
Conversation