Glasgow Clyde Education Foundation
The Glasgow Clyde Education Foundation was a grant making charity, founded in 2014 to improve the learning and life chances of students, potential students and the wider community served by the College, which was its main grant beneficiary.
The charity was known as an arm's-length foundation, born out of major changes to the governance and fiscal arrangements of colleges in Scotland. It was independent from the College, but its Board of Management benefitted from having two trustees appointed by the College from its own Board of Management.
The charity’s initial funding was donated by the College in 2014. Governed by a donation agreement between the charity and the College, trustees were entrusted to ensure the funding made a lasting impact. Over the charity’s existence, through careful management of funds by the Trustees and trusted advisors, the capital grew by 31%, which was no small achievement through a volatile time which included a global pandemic.
Over its 10 years of activity, the charity disbursed £20.4 million pounds worth of grants across over 90 projects. Highlights include a collaboration with TEDxGlasgow to deliver the first TEDxYouth event held in Scotland to coincide with Scotland's Year of Young People in 2018; two Community Partnership awards to Scottish Refugee Council and Beauty with a Conscience, supporting pioneering research and services development within the College; collaborations to increase employability skills such as "Material World" (a STEM textiles online resource for schools developed by the College for Engineering Development Trust and Scottish Textiles Skills Partnership) and "Science for a Successful Scotland" (a collection of online family learning resources accredited to SCQF level 4 by the College working with the Workers’ Education Association Scotland); and innovative teaching and learning models including the DELTA (Developing Excellence in Learning, Teaching, and Assessment) project and the Mentally Healthy College model to support wellbeing and development across College students and staff .
In 2025 the charity was wound up having fulfilled its original aim to support and promote the teaching and learning experience of Glasgow Clyde College students, staff, and communities.
David Newall, Chair of Glasgow Clyde College Board of Management said “On behalf of the Board of Management, I’d like to thank the Foundation for the tremendous positive impact it has had over the last ten years, enabling Glasgow Clyde College to offer its students excellent learning facilities, new ways of acquiring knowledge and skills, and more effective systems of support.”
To mark the end of the charity’s journey, we are pleased to share with you the Foundation’s Legacy Report, which outlines the charity’s milestones, success stories and lessons learned across its 10-year lifespan.