In this post, Gordon Hunt, Head of Insight, Planning and Impact at CDN, shares an overview of college boards in Scotland and highlights the vital role they play. With over 300 mostly volunteer members, these boards are key to good governance and quality education—and CDN provides a wide range of support and training to help them thrive.
I suspect that a lot of people don’t know this, but Scotland’s colleges are supported by over 300 board members, the majority of whom are volunteers. Each college board is made of independent board members, alongside members elected by the college staff and trade unions, and student members who are normally the officers of the college student association. The college principal is also a board member.
Regardless of the route by which they become board members, every member of the board is equally responsible for the good governance of the college and the quality of its educational provision. Colleges are both public bodies and charities, so board members have to fulfil the duties that come with both of those responsibilities.
National Board Development Programme
One of our roles at CDN is provide support to college board members, to ensure that they are able to fulfil their responsibilities as effectively as possible. We do this through the delivery of the National Board Development Programme which includes:
- New board member induction.
- Briefing sessions for boards on core governance topics.
- A suite of online training materials.
- In person training in areas like questioning skills, chairing skills and building high performing boards.
- Publications such as a Guide for Board Members and a College Sector Jargon Buster.
We also support the network of staff who manage the business of the boards, the people we now call governance professionals but in the past might have been called board secretaries, clerks to the board and similar titles. The college governance professionals meet regularly and support each other to provide the best possible service to their boards.
Board Effectiveness
Of course, it’s important to ensure that boards are operatingly effectively, and we support them to understand and fulfil the requirements of the Code of Good Governance for Scotland’s Colleges which lays out their duties and responsibilities.
The Code requires each board to carry out an annual self-evaluation of its effectiveness, and to commission an external review every three to five years. CDN is one of the organisations that carries out the external reviews, and after each cycle we also complete an overview report that looks at the common themes emerging from them. This then helps us to further develop our training offer.
Governance Research
It’s part of CDN’s role to be curious about existing and emerging practice in all areas of college delivery and to come up with evidence-based programmes that help to encourage the spread of ideas, tips and techniques that enable staff to innovate and improve outcomes for students.
The work of our boards is no different, and we regularly produce research reports in areas such as technology in governing, board recruitment, the role of the governance professional and how the outcomes of effectiveness reviews are implemented. You can see these reports on our website.
Becoming a Board Member
The work of boards, or governance as we call it, is generally hidden away in the background when it’s all working well (which is the vast majority of the time). But our colleges can’t run without their boards, and they are always on the look out for new members.
Board members come from a wide variety of backgrounds, some from within the college as I’ve said, but many from business and industry, other parts of the public sector and of course the third sector.
Boards need a wide variety of skills and experience, from financial and organisational development experts to those with knowledge of business, public policy, the law and health and social services among many others. Ultimately it’s about a willingness to give your time and energy to helping the college to be as successful as possible, as part of a committed group of people sharing their knowledge and learning together for the benefit of current and future learners.
If you think you’d like to become a board member, CDN regularly advertises opportunities on our vacancies page and you can also check your local college’s website. If you take the plunge, I look forward to seeing you at one of our training sessions!
