It takes skilled and committed lecturers, of course. But it also takes something that is becoming increasingly difficult to find in Education: time and space to do the job properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Across the College sector lecturers are dealing with increasingly complex student needs, demanding assessment requirements, new qualifications and significant evolution of methods of delivery. At the same time, staffing levels and support structures have been under pressure. The sector is being stretched as politicians and employers seek increasingly opaque \u2018flexibilities\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Through Annual Conferences and Member Surveys members have been clear about what would provide the greatest protection for quality college education; establishing a national agreement on maximum class sizes and reducing weekly class contact for lecturers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In many areas of college education, learning is practical and competency-based. Workshops, laboratories, kitchens, salons, studios and other specialist environments require close supervision and safe management of equipment and materials, thereby increasing health and safety risks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As class sizes grow, the ability to provide an appropriate level of individual attention becomes increasingly difficult.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n As class sizes grow, the ability to provide an appropriate level of individual attention becomes increasingly difficult. This can have a disproportionate impact on students from disadvantaged backgrounds and those with additional support needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Large classes create additional workload. More students mean more assessments to mark, more individual support, more pastoral demands and more administration. The impact is not confined to the classroom: excessive workloads contribute to stress, burnout and difficulties retaining experienced colleagues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n EIS policy sets an ambition of reducing class sizes to a maximum of 20 across Scotland\u2019s education system. EIS-FELA believes colleges should be part of the same ambition for nationally agreed maximums and lower limits where practical work, safety or additional support needs apply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even with a manageable number of students, lecturers need time to prepare and deliver high-quality education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The current maximum class contact for many full-time lecturers is 23 hours per week. At the 2025 conference, FELA unanimously backed reducing this to 21 hours, recognising that high-quality college education demands the same kind of preparation, assessment and student support that exists elsewhere in the education system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reducing contact would create valuable time for professional development, for lecturers to continue their own professional journeys.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Students are presenting with increasingly complex needs. Reasonable adjustments and alternative assessment arrangements can require significant additional planning and individual support. Lecturers are also adapting to new qualifications, new technologies and new delivery models \u2014 often while specialist support services in colleges have reduced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The additional hours would provide time to plan lessons, develop more inclusive and accessible resources and assessments, mark and assess student work and adapt learning for individual needs. There would also be more time for curriculum development, collaboration with colleagues, health and safety responsibilities and engagement with new qualifications and technologies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Reducing contact would create valuable time for professional development, for lecturers to continue their own professional journeys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 2025 FELA survey provides a stark reminder of the pressures members are under: 49% of lecturers reported working beyond their contractual hours. This cannot simply become the new normal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is not simply about making lecturers\u2019 working lives easier: reduced class contact and capped class sizes will protect the quality of learning and teaching in Scotland\u2019s colleges, recognising that lecturers\u2019 working conditions are students\u2019 learning conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Better workloads can support staff wellbeing and retention.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Reducing weekly class contact is about creating the capacity to do the job properly. Likewise, reducing class sizes is about ensuring lecturers have the opportunity to provide the individual attention, support and feedback that students need and deserve. Research consistently demonstrates that students benefit from increased access to lecturer support, timely feedback and more personalised learning experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And there are benefits beyond the classroom. Better workloads can support staff wellbeing and retention. Colleges can benefit from a healthier working culture, stronger curriculum development and greater staff involvement in the changes taking place across the sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These are ambitious objectives. But they are also necessary ones. Scotland has a national bargaining system in the college sector. That gives us something important: the ability to establish consistent standards rather than accepting a race to the bottom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Education reform must be driven by educational improvement; at times this will require increased investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Smaller classes. Less class contact. More time to teach, support, assess and develop. That is not an unreasonable ambition, it is a vision of quality college education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What does it take to deliver high-quality college education? It takes skilled and committed lecturers, of course. But it also takes something that is becoming increasingly difficult to find in Education: time and space to do the job properly. Across the College sector lecturers are dealing with increasingly complex student needs, demanding assessment requirements, new […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2795,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/oct2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/oct2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/oct2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/oct2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/oct2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2633"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/oct2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2796,"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/oct2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2633\/revisions\/2796"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/oct2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/oct2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/oct2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/oct2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The case for lower weekly class contact<\/h3>\n\n\n\n