Union questions move to keep ‘supportive’ Gazelle report out of public domain

A decision to keep an allegedly positive report about the under-fire Gazelle Colleges Group under-wraps has been questioned by the University and College Union.

Last week, FE Week revealed that the report by the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) would remain private, despite Gazelle Colleges Group chair Stella Mbubaegbu (pictured) having alluded to its positive nature in an expert piece.

A UCU spokesperson said: “Considering the questions being asked publicly and the private mutterings about the Gazelle Group, you might expect them to be tripping over themselves to release any sort of report that paints them in a positive light.

“We are still puzzled why colleges have handed over so much money to Gazelle and how they have benefitted from these considerable investments. Gazelle’s corporate speak of ‘student outcome enrichment’ and ‘educational concepts’ makes it sound like the cash has been spent on transparent new clothes for an emperor.”

The existence of a report by the ETF on Gazelle’s leadership development programme came to light in an expert piece written for FE Week, in which Ms Mbubaegbu claimed the report was “supportive”.

The piece was written in response to an FE Week story in which the UCU questioned the amount of public money being spent on Gazelle with member colleges having dished out more than £3.5m to the organisation.

However, both the ETF, which recently awarded the Gazelle Foundation a £1m learning technology contract, and Gazelle refused to hand out the allegedly “supportive” report.

A Gazelle spokesperson said it was a “matter for the ETF,” while an ETF spokesperson said the report was written for “internal purposes,” and she also refused to comment on whether it was indeed supportive.

She said: “The ETF will publish reports from time to time. We also commission research and evaluations for a range of internal purposes, including informing our own procurement and programme design. Internal and external reports are different types of work. This was a report for internal purposes.”

The Gazelle spokesperson said: “The report has been seen by Gazelle. We are happy that it is very positive about the benefits of the programme to participants, as well as highlighting areas for improvement, and hopeful that it will help shape the conclusions of the wider ETF work around leadership in the sector.”

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5 Comments

  1. georgie

    Hopefully the Government and FE Commissioner will get a grip on this. Gazelle colleges are funding this organisation to many tens, or even hundreds, of thousands of pounds when taking into account membership and international related trips (which could easily be hidden under CPD during any foi request). In Stella Mbubaegbu’s article on Gazelle “impact” she didn’t actually state a single impact on outcomes and as we know Gazelle Colleges’ data is weak. NCN just obtained a second Grade 3 for Leadership and Management so presumably they didn’t attend the Gazelle’s leadership development programme. Some of these Colleges are also making a high number of redundancies, affecting individuals and the families they support; and of staff whom have given their working life to the public sector and FE. FE staff, tax payers and most importantly students deserve an independent investigation. The high number of comments under FE Week’s articles on Gazelle over recent weeks are unprecedented and show the strength of feeling throughout the sector.

    • FE Commissionaire

      Get a grip. Nothing you’ve said qualifies for the FE Commissioner to intervene. Read the instructions on the tin. You simply don’t like how some colleges, who are clearly trying to do something new and interesting (unlike Government who just recycle failed and half-baked ideas), are run. When you get the kind of college management and governance you approve of, it will be in a failing college run for the staff instead of students.

  2. All FE unions should demand an enquiry into Gazelle. What about Unison, ATL, GMB etc supporting UCU? Their members are suffering too. And what about NUS, if money is being wasted in these austere times then it is the students that suffer.

  3. With many Gazelle Principals earning more than the Prime Minister governors need to challenge them about what exactly they are bringing to the college if they need to pay out to Gazelle in order to get advice on skills and leadership.