EDUCATION bosses are considering whether further changes are needed to staffing structure of a newly-merged International Business School and Isle of Man College.
The Department of Education and Children announced in October that higher education would be brought under a single management structure.
It has announced that 18 posts – 15.45 full-time equivalent – could be affected by the proposals and, in some cases, may not be required under the new structure which details 17 potentially available posts (14.9 full-time equivalent).
It is proposed that the finalised staffing structure for the merged institution will be implemented from July 1 this year.
The merged institution is entitled the Isle of Man College of Further and Higher Education and the International Business School site now known as the University Campus.
A consultation over the staffing structure ended last Friday and director of education Stuart Dobson said a good number of responses had been received.
He said the ultimate aim of the merger would be to provide a ‘more flexible approach’ to higher education in the island.
Mr Dobson told the iomtoday the merger would achieve some savings in terms of having a single infrastructure and he insisted the key driver behind the move was not about losing posts. ‘The key driver is what do we need and how effective can we be – and more importantly, how do we get greater provision in difficult economic times?’
The post of director at the IBS has not been replaced following the resignation of the director Professor Gerald Watts. An inquiry into how the school, based at The Nunnery in Douglas, came to face a potential budget overspend of almost £320,000 was dropped following Mr Watts’ resignation.
Of the staffing consultation, Mr Dobson said: ’We’ve got a good number of responses and we want to take them into account. We will be looking at the responses to see if we’ve got the staffing position right.’
He said the situation had created uncertainty for staff members and his aim was to deal with any issues arising out of the consultation as soon as possible.