Professor Seamus McDaid, Principal of the University of the West of Scotland (pictured right), reflects on why collaborative working is important for everyone working in higher education after the university’s Ayr campus was officially opened last week.

“Friday, January 27, 2012 marked a major event for the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) – one that had involved a great deal of negotiation and cooperation, over a fairly lengthy period of time – as we formally launched our brand new £81m Ayr Campus, a landmark building on the banks of the River Ayr.

The new campus truly is a perfect case study of successful higher education partnership working.

As well as housing UWS, it’s home to the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) in Ayr and the launch ceremony was a partnership in itself, involving me and Professor Bill McKelvey, Principal of SAC, with Mike Russell, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, Lord Jamie Lindsay, SAC Chairman and Lord Robert Smith, UWS Chancellor. Colleagues and students of both institutions were in attendance, along with guests from the worlds of education, business and industry.

SAC and UWS students share use of the new building’s library, computing labs and lecture theatres, as well as the social and eating areas, and there are also places for SAC students in the UWS hall of residence on campus. Our co-location on the site, of course, opens up many possibilities for potential collaboration, in portfolio development for example, and marks a very exciting development in higher education.

During the planning and construction of the project we enjoyed a very positive working relationship with stakeholders including the Scottish Funding Council and South Ayrshire Council; while on the environmental and heritage aspects of the build, we worked with a range of organisations including Historic Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Scottish Wildlife Trust. This enabled us to create one of the UK’s most modern, environmentally friendly and sustainable learning environments.

With some of the finest facilities in Scotland and, indeed, further afield, the campus will benefit not only UWS and SAC students, but also our stakeholders including business and public sector partners, such as NHS Ayrshire and Arran.

In education, we’re all trying to work smarter, to make our resources go further, to maximise the return on our investment. Hence at UWS we’re actively engaged in partnership working and collaboration in a whole range of areas, as well as our new campus development.

This includes collaboration with our college partners to offer local delivery of our programmes and articulation routes from college awards to degree study; work on a unique government-funded project – the College Partnership Study Route – to enable international students to study in Scotland at Higher National level with one of the project college partners, before articulating to degree and potentially postgraduate level study afterwards with UWS; and, of course, collaboration with a number of HE partners on a wide range of research and development projects, which currently includes a project to look at boosting the effectiveness of healthcare practice in Malawi.

Strengthening partnerships is important for all of us in higher education – just look at what they can help achieve!”

Professor Seamus McDaid CBE,  Principal & Vice-Chancellor
University of the West of Scotland