After so many mergers, why so few statistics?

....Is the TES headline accompanying the letter from Oakleigh’s Head of FE of Practice, Julie Tolley published on 14 May 2010.

Julie's letter highlights the lack of statistical evidence that is available in the sector to inform future restructuring processes despite a large number of mergers in recent years.

Oakleigh’s call is for the systematic collection and dissemination of key data on the outcomes of mergers in relation to their proposed benefits and of an holistic, organisation-wide view of lessons learned to offer the right pointers to others intending to travel along the same path. It stems from research Oakleigh is undertaking more widely into the merger landscape

The letter can be found on the TES website here and is also given below:

"The FE sector is diverse, rich and complex and never more so when contemplating the past and future landscape of partnerships, collaborations and mergers between different institutions. Most weeks the TES has news and articles covering some aspect of the changing landscape around collaboration and merger (Most recently “Female heads chopped more swiftly when colleges merge”. TES 30 April 2010).

There have been merger programmes in FE on a large scale. In Northern Ireland (NI) and Wales, after national reviews recommended re-organisation, the merger process reduced 16 NI colleges to 6 and in Wales, following the Webb Review, there are now some 7 mergers involving 15 colleges and 16 different consortia-type arrangements. In England, there were some 69 mergers or more between 1997 and 2008-09, despite the fact that mergers have not been promoted as the result of any national review process.

Considering all of this activity it would be quite reasonable to expect that there was now a body of objective evidence around the outcomes of collaboration and merger. Evidence which considered the original planned and expected outcomes and assessed them against those achieved - with a clear rationale around why benefits had been exceeded, which benefits had not been met and why and identifying any unforeseen benefits and dis-benefits that had emerged in the process.

This evidence is important because much is promised in the process of re-structuring, the re-configuration is expensive and the outcomes are of great significance to learners, to staff and to employers and local communities – and to other providers now in the process of considering re-configuration.

A recent review undertaken by Oakleigh of the research available around collaborations and mergers in the FE sector would appear to suggest there is a very limited body of data that has been systematically collected, collated and published for use by the sector. If and where evaluation reports do exist they appear to largely remain internal to the institutions involved.

There have been some over-arching reports (by LSN, LSNNI and for the LSC by University of Warwick and Leeds Metropolitan University) and some consideration of college size in relation to mergers. The drivers for merger and re-structuring can be gleaned from the policy review documents and framework requirements (e.g. Models for Success from DIUS in 2008) and, in some of the reports, the views of Principals involved have been sought giving a perspective on critical success factors.

But, the evidence base stops there and no objective, statistical evidence on benefits and outcomes is visible. We argue that, for such an important issue, it should be .

It would be a fairly simple matter for research to be commissioned taking a cross-section of merger and collaboration projects and their clearly-stated, intended benefits at the outset (both the intended benefits of the education case and business case) and compare the resultant outcomes some two to five years later.

Not only should the statistical evidence be collected but a broad spectrum of stakeholders views (and lessons learned) sought from across the previously merged organisation, at all levels and across academic and service areas and from learners , employers and key stakeholders.

Then we will have the evidence required to judge how well the restructuring process has gone and to provide the right pointers to others travelling the same path."

Oakleigh has a successful track record of working with organisations in the HE , FE and LA sectors on strategic options and feasibility studies and proposals for re-configuration and re-structuring - for further information or to discuss the issues raised as they apply to you contact Julie on julietolley@oakleigh.co.uk.