Scotland

For general information see United Kingdom.

However, Higher Education is devolved by the UK government to the four home nations so that many details are specific to the home nation involved.

Scotland details

The capital of Scotland is Edinburgh.

Scotland has a population of just over 5 million - thus it is comparable in population with many smaller European countries.

Higher Education

Higher Education in Scotland is overseen by the the Scottish Funding Council (SFC). This allocates resources for teaching and learning, research and other activities in Scotland's colleges and universities in support of the Scottish government's priorities.

Scotland has fourteen campus-based universities, and in addition the Open University in Scotland, one college of higher education, two art schools, one conservatoire, and the Scottish Agricultural College. (Data from Universities Scotland - see also their Facts and Figures report.)

Higher Education in Scotland is also delivered via most of the further education colleges.

There are two universities who are or were involved in the Higher Education Academy Benchmarking programme:

1. University of Strathclyde (Pilot) - with blog
2. Glasgow Caledonian University (Phase 2) - with blog

This might be thought to be a rather small number (e.g. compared with Wales) - however seven Scottish universities have set up the Scottish Benchmarking Group, with a little support from the Higher Education Academy, to carry out collaborative activities related to benchmarking. (The universities involved are Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Glasgow Caledonian, Paisley. Stirling and Strathclyde.) There are as yet few public details of activities or outcomes but it is expected that this situation will change before the end of Phase 2 benchmarking.

Further Education

Post-16 education in Scotland is also overseen by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC). In 2006 they commissioned a Developmental Self-Audit of all Scottish FE colleges. This was carried out by Sero. (Sero are now also carrying out an e-maturity study - essentially benchmarking - of part of the English FE sector.) Some might find it perhaps surprising that the Scottish FE study has not had more visible influence on Scottish HE benchmarking of e-learning.

Conclusions

The limited involvement of Scottish universities in the benchmarking programme and the limited information as yet available on Scottish participants means that information from that programme does not help to determine whether or not any Scottish universities have Virtual Campus initiatives.

However, from other sources the following is already clear:

Universities without such an initiative:

• University of Edinburgh
• University of Glasgow
• Napier University
• University of Stirling

Universities likely to have such an initiative:

• Heriot-Watt University
• Robert Gordon University

Universities needing further investigation:

• Glasgow Caledonian University
• University of Aberdeen
• Paisley University

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