College closure has hampered the impact of Games on the East End

The Herald Scotland - Saturday 18 October 2014

We found this article to be quite interesting but have some questions ....? .... although the threats to Kelvin College's curriculum, staffing and provision and the proposed closure of the Stow Campus will have a disastrous effect on the community it serves.

Agenda:
alan middleton
Saturday 18 October 2014
Thirty years ago, a group of academics at Glasgow University produced a book on the regeneration of the East End of Glasgow that supported the creation of a college of further education in the area, the building of an Olympic swimming pool that could produce Olympic champions, and the setting up of a theatre in which local groups would mount productions that would win awards at the Edinburgh Fringe.

It was ambitious thinking for an impoverished area in serious decline. Before the Commonwealth Games arrived on the horizon, the only one of these proposals that saw the light of day was the setting up of John Wheatley College.

Precisely a year before the opening of the games, when spending on the incredibly successful sporting spectacle was at its height, the closure of the college was approved by Michael Russell MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning. The closure came as the college was absorbed by Glasgow Kelvin College, which is now facing further substantial cuts.

"Alan Middleton is chief executive of the Governance Foundatio and Emeritus Professor of Urban Studies at Birmingham City University."

Read the article here -