The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) has announced capital funding for colleges to support economic recovery in the wake of coronavirus.

According to the announcement, colleges and universities will share £10 million of the government’s £230 million Return to Work package of investment, aimed to reduce the potential economic harm arising from the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown for the financial year 2020-21.

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‘Additional supportive contribution’

The SFC said: “This investment provides an opportunity to make an additional supportive contribution to the maintenance of college and university estates, and to build on what is already provided via SFC capital grant and financial transaction funding.

“Funding can be used by colleges and universities to support a range of capital projects, which may have been put on hold as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the initial lockdown.

“SFC expects institutions to reassess their capital spend plans with the aim of prioritising maintenance and construction activities to ensure the provision of core business in academic year 2020-21 and beyond.”

Individual college allocations

“The college sector was facing significant financial challenges even before the pandemic and these pressures are being exacerbated by its impacts with a calculated £12.3 million loss of income in the 2019-20 academic year and a forecast loss of £70 million in 2020-21 across the sector. We are working closely with the Scottish Government and its agencies to find positive solutions to these challenges and to maximise the sector’s role as a national asset in tackling this major crisis.

“The college sector has an essential role in driving Scotland’s social and economic recovery through upskilling and reskilling the workforce, providing people with valuable employability skills, assisting specific economic sectors which have been badly affected by Covid-19, and by harnessing our local and regional partnerships to customise our support appropriately to reflect regional variations across the country.”