Potential merger (Les Sinclair)
The Shetland Times of 1st May carried a report which quoted a senior SIC manager as saying that Shetland’s present tertiary education provision could be merged into one entity within 15 months.
Time has shown that this estimate was clearly based on rampant optimism.
Friday’s Shetland Times reported that the NAFC Marine Centre is doubtful about a merger with Shetland College and Train Shetland.
Why wouldn’t they be?
The NAFC is apparently on an upward course, with established links with the community it serves, whereas Shetland College is experiencing plummeting student rolls and staffing crises.
The Orcadian of 18th February carried a full-colour, eight-page supplement on tertiary education in Orkney. It contained 10 personal statements from current Orkney College students, and three articles on different tertiary courses being run in Orkney at the college and at ICIT, a separate but linked institution.
This supplement stated that Orkney College enrolled 474 FE students and 304 HE students in the 2015-16 session, plus 3,670 part-time students over the 2014-15 session.
Surely slightly better than a “message from the principal” and a barely comprehensible list of courses available in a range of venues, which was all Shetland College could manage by way of an attempt to attract potential students.
Surely Shetland deserves better than this?
Les Sinclair
8 Annsbrae Place,
Lerwick.
John Tulloch
GIven that the return of Britain’s fishing grounds to British jurisdiction may reasonably be expected to lead to an expansion of Shetland’s fishing fleet, is it not important to protect NAFC’s independence to ensure its excellent contribution to the fishing industry continues?