Colleges 'will need £2.5bn to maintain campuses suitable for teaching'
Colleges will need £2.5 billion of investment to deal with its creaking estate
Colleges will need £2.5 billion of investment to ensure buildings are fit for students, a new report has found.
Underinvestment is creating an infrastructure problem that is also threatening the financial sustainability of colleges themselves, the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) says.
As tertiary education institutions struggle financially, annual SFC capital maintenance funding has met only around half of reported lifecycle requirements.
The College Infrastructure Investment Plan published by the Scottish Funding Council reports on the condition and potential investment needs of Scotland’s 24 colleges.
Growing challenges on some 99 campuses and 270 buildings include ageing infrastructure, rising maintenance costs and the need to support future skills delivery, digital learning and net zero ambitions.
The report notes that £1.3bn is needed for maintenance and estate condition works, with a further £1.2bn required for transformational projects.
Gavin Donoghue, CEO of Colleges Scotland, said staff and students are learning and working in estates that are ageing and no longer meet the needs of students.
“This plan provides clear evidence of the scale of the challenge, and makes a compelling case for investment to come forward quickly in order to ensure the college estate continues to be safe and compliant, and sustains our existing assets, while delivering essential transformation,” he said.
“The report makes clear that investment in the college estate needs to start in the next Financial Year.”
The college sector is calling for investment in December’s draft budget.
Colleges Scotland claims a flat cash settlement will only just allow some institutions to address urgent issues and maintenance.
The plan outlines that the investment required in 2027/28 alone is £262m, whereas this year's capital investment was under £44m.”
Mr Donoghue added: “There is clearly a distance to travel in reaching the investment required to truly transform Scotland’s college estates.
“We recognise that the plan is clear that ‘current levels of public funding are insufficient to sustain or transform the college estate on its own’.”
Tertiary Education Minister Alyn Smith called the report a “useful piece of work on the extent to which their collective estate will need significantly more funding over the next 10 years unless things change”.
He said the Scottish Government will “work closely” with the sector.
“We are well aware that significant transformation is required across the sector to guarantee its long-term future, which is why we provided a 10 per cent uplift in core college funding to £764 million in this year's budget, and we’re working on the College Sector of the Future which looks to pave the way to a more equitable, future-proofed, empowering and financially sustainable college sector for generations to come,” the minister added.
Colleges Scotland has called for significant investment into college estates ahead of many previous budgets.
In September 2026, Audit Scotland noted in its annual report into Scotland’s colleges that despite the recent uplift in funding “this means that a significant gap remains between the funding available to colleges and that needed for estate repairs and transformation.”
The SFC also reported in its report, Financial Sustainability of Scotland’s Colleges in October this year that: “Estates issues are directly driving financial issues in many colleges.
“Issues such as extensive backlog maintenance, reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), and defective cladding are key drivers of costs in this area.
“However, the estates also require to be modernised and rationalised in some colleges to meet current teaching, curriculum and regional skills needs.”
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