Let’s be blunt: the traditional FE boardroom is broken. We celebrate hours of debate as diligence, add mistake-dense paper packs for depth, and often value anecdote over evidence. This isn’t governance; it’s ritual. While we’ve been busy governing in retrospect, a revolution in decision-making has arrived. Artificial Intelligence is no longer a futuristic concept; it is poised to dismantle and rebuild the very foundations of how our colleges are steered.
The choice before us is not whether to engage with this change, but whether we will be its architects or its casualties. The emergence of the ‘augmented governor’ is inevitable. The question is, what will we become?
From gut feeling to guided insight
The greatest myth is that AI will coldly replace human intuition. The reality is the opposite. By cutting through corporate jargon and presenting data in a stark, simple format, AI doesn’t replace the “gut feel”, it focuses it. Consider a debate on student retention. Instead of wading through conflicting reports, imagine an AI synthesis stating: “The core issue in course Z is not academic ability, but a correlation between late-stage financial challenges and drop-out.” Instantly, the discussion is elevated. The governor’s lived experience validates the insight; strategic proposals target the true cause. The AI provides the ‘what,’ and the human board provides the ‘why’ and ‘how.’ The college’s soul isn’t lost; it’s empowered by clarity.
The clerk’s radical elevation
This evolution spells the end of the clerk as a procedural secretary. The role is being reborn as that of a strategic facilitator. This new clerk curates the AI, interprets its outputs within legislative frameworks, and ensures the board’s wisdom is applied to data-driven insights. This is a radical elevation. Tech-savviness will differentiate the best from the rest, but the core skills are still facilitation, influence, and impact. It demands a seat at the senior management table, with the recognition and remuneration that reflects this critical, strategic function.
A pragmatic path forward
For boards hesitant to begin, the path is pragmatic, not perilous.
- Start with the Minutes: Use AI to draft minutes for human review, freeing the clerk for higher-value work.
- Summarise Submissions: Introduce AI-generated summaries of board papers, ensuring every governor, regardless of background, grasps the core of every issue.
- Automate to anticipate: Allow AI to populate risk registers and suggest agenda topics based on emerging trends.
- The live dashboard: Integrate financial, academic, and safety data into a simple dashboard, giving the board continuous oversight without burying executives in report-building.
Satisfying the regulators: No black boxes
The Department for Education and Charity Commission will rightly demand accountability. The answer is transparency, not retreat. A strong AI usage policy is essential. It must delineate how AI is used and, critically, identify the unambiguous human intervention points in every process. The minutes must record that “the board considered the AI’s analysis on X, debated its implications, and made the following decision…” This demonstrates that the technology is a supplement to governance, not a substitute for it.
The augmented board is here
A new model is emerging: The augmented board. It is data-informed but human-centred; efficient yet deeply deliberative. It empowers every governor, supports the executive, and elevates the clerk. This is not a threat to tradition but an upgrade to relevance. By embracing this change with courage and clear frameworks, we can forge FE boards that are not only more compliant and financially sound but also genuinely strategic, fully equipped to secure the future of our students and our communities. The time for speculation is over. The time to build is now.
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