The transformative impact of collaborative benchmarking at Ayrshire College and the potential for the wider sector.
Ayrshire College has been at the forefront of implementing the collaborative financial benchmarking model within the Scottish college sector. The College project has been overseen by Alan Ritchie, Vice Principal Finance and Infrastructure. Utilising Etio’s benchmarking service, the College has not only enhanced its internal decision-making but also fostered collaboration across a group of six Scottish colleges. This article highlights the transformative impact of benchmarking on Ayrshire College and the broader sector, with particular emphasis on the value of inter-college collaboration.
Data-driven decision making
For context, Etio’s Benchmarking provides institutions with a comprehensive analysis of their entire operations, analysing the results against sector benchmarks using a model that ensures like-for-like comparison. It reveals the real cost of delivering each area of operations to gain granular insight into the cost-base, productivity and efficiency levels.
For Ayrshire College, the benefits of the exercise started to be realised even before the introduction of the collaborative aspect of the project, one of the most significant being the shift from gut to data-driven decision making, as Alan reflected,
“I now understand how many FTEs are operating in specific departments without having to email everybody in the sector and getting a variety of responses. Having that data and analysis from Etio has started to point us in the direction of areas that we need to look at, in terms of structures and also efficiency levels. We can immediately see where we’re out of kilter with the sector – where we might need to look at costs or where we might need to consider investing, based on how we compare to college A, B or C, for example. We’re able to use this information to make better informed choices, to identify areas of potential inefficiency and explore opportunities for improvement.”
Facilitating inter-college collaboration
Historically, benchmarking comparisons have been anonymised – participating colleges in the comparator group have not been specifically identified - but Ayrshire College is helping to change all that. The now six-strong group comprising Fife College, Forth Valley College, Dumfries and Galloway College, Glasgow Clyde College, and most recently, West College Scotland, has embarked on a collaborative exercise whereby they regularly meet to openly discuss their benchmarking results. This adds a crucial layer of context, peer learning, validation and collective problem-solving to their independent benchmarking exercises.
Alan emphasises the importance of working with other colleges, stating,
“The biggest advantage for us has been sitting down with the other colleges - getting together and looking at the data set. Historically, we haven’t shared data enough - it's only when you start sharing data that you actually start talking about it and start asking the right questions.”
Alan cited how this regular face-to-face interaction, with an independent and robust data-set acting as the basis for conversation, has been critical for fostering genuine collaboration, allowing colleges to ask the questions, “Where are we different, and why are we different?”, sharing insights, comparing efficiencies, and collectively looking at addressing sector-wide challenges.
Alan noted that these discussions often lead to “light bulb moments,” where colleges identify areas for improvement by comparing their practices with peers. He explained, “Every time we’ve done it, something different has come up – there are always those light-bulb moments. And it’s not always actually about sitting there looking at specifics. It’s about looking at that whole picture too from different angles.”
The collaborative sessions are facilitated by Etio’s Lead Consultant, Phillip Moseley, who has worked in Further Education for nearly 30 years. His contribution is not underestimated by Alan.
“I don’t know how he does it really – he’s clearly a real numbers guy and has a way of looking at and representing the data in a way that makes it readable and enjoyable by a wider audience, not just finance people - he provides a great deal of insight for everybody.”
This approach means a logical next step in Alan’s view is to bring more people from the participating colleges into the collaborative sessions, to add even greater depth and context to discussion.
The greater potential for the wider sector
Beyond individual colleges, benchmarking presents an opportunity to strengthen the Scottish sector as a whole. The shared data set not only highlights areas for improvement for participating colleges but also underscores the discrepancies in funding compared to English and Northern Irish sectors, where the benchmarking model has also been widely implemented. The scope for enriching national policy discussion is clear to Alan.
“The sector in Scotland at present is arguably facing a public funding crisis – at best funding has flatlined, which represents a real-time cut, and our per-FTE funding is lower than in other sectors. We now have the robust benchmarking data to help inform ongoing national discussions.”
The collaborative benchmarking group has also opened doors for the exploration of potential shared services and joint initiatives, although Alan acknowledges that transformational funding would need to be factored in to realise such projects. That said, using Phil’s expertise to explore shared services between the six participating colleges is certainly not off the table.
Next steps
Looking ahead, the benchmarking group plans to further expand its membership and continue showcasing the benefits of financial benchmarking to other Scottish colleges via their Finance Directors Network. Wider participation will only serve to strengthen the dataset and the associated advantages, and Alan is keen to dispel any myths about the exercise.
“For those colleges that may have preconceptions about Etio’s benchmarking, it's not as big an exercise as you think it's going to be, and the return on investment should certainly exceed the cost of the exercise if I think it delivers what I think it should deliver.”
Alan summarises the impact for Scottish colleges on three levels:
“One - it aids better, data-driven decision making in individual colleges. Two – it improves understanding and collaboration across the sector. And three – it progresses the debate around funding and efficiency at the national level.”
