Research collaboration explores impact of college governance in England

Published on 22, September, 2025

Education experts at the University of Sunderland have joined forces with a leading education and charities law firm for a ground-breaking new study exploring the effectiveness of college governing in England.

In the summer of 2024, the University and Stone King agreed to undertake a piece of research that aimed to try and understand the impact of governance reviews in further education colleges in England.

Governance reviews, more commonly known as External Reviews of Governance (ERGs), are independent evaluations of a college's governing body's effectiveness, structures, and operations. These reviews provide an expert, unbiased view of how well the governing body is performing its functions, offering fresh insights, identifying strengths, and highlighting areas for improvement to enhance overall board performance and stakeholder confidence. 

Over 18 months, researchers worked with a range of colleges across the country whose governance reviews had been conducted by Stone King, carrying out interviews and analysing reports.

The study looked whether governance reviews bring about measurable and impactful change; who the key individuals are within the review process are and how their roles impact outcomes and potential changes in practice; what insights were gained by reviewers and how these were subsequently enacted within each college’s governance framework.

Leading the study for the University is Professor of Professional Education, Gary Husband, and Visiting Professor and Stone King Consultant, Ron Hill.

Discussing the findings, Professor Husband said: “We were able to gain critical insights into the review processes and see positive impact alongside areas for improvement, whilst gaining a clear understanding of the importance of the key roles in institutions.

“We could see that the way in which governance reviews were conducted, and the establishment of positive relationships between reviewers and governance professionals, led directly to changes in practice of boards. These changes often led to improved experiences for people attending the colleges and better more efficient ways of working for senior leaders and governors. Examples include a much sharper focus on strategy and better ways of managing risk.”

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Professor Husband added: “Being a part of this study was hugely rewarding and provided us with an opportunity to work in new and collaborative ways with multiple partners. We were able to really see the importance of the people in the processes and structures and had a privileged view of how our partner colleges operate.

“Governance structures are often considered to only exist to provide assurance mechanisms, but the reality is much more complex. Yes, assurance and compliance are a part of the remit of boards but importantly, so is institutional strategy.

“This work has helped us to see how we can support organisations to make room for a greater focus on innovation and strategy; and that is exciting because we have found an impactful way to support institutional development, which ultimately, benefits students and communities.”

Tom Morrison, Partner and Head of Further Education at Stone King, said: “We are proud to have been able to support this important work. Like the University of Sunderland, Stone King cares about colleges. Colleges are critical actors in society:  if we believe in their transformative power and if we think that effective governance supports a college to be at its best, then it follows that we need to find ways help governance be at its most effective. 

“For the first time, the sector has access to independent research based on evidence which provides a strong foundation on which to build some key messages.  One of those relates to the importance of the role of Governance Professional and the need for it to be appropriately resourced and supported. 

“Alongside the positive contribution which we hope that governance reviews make at institutional level (and we now have evidence to demonstrate they do), our hope is that the sector as a whole will benefit from the work carried out as part of this collaboration between University of Sunderland and Stone King, with the support of all those colleges who participated.

“We are planning further work together to support the sector and are eager to hear everyone’s thoughts on what will add the most value.”

The research findings will be shared with all participating colleges, as well as key sector bodies such as the Association of Colleges (AoC), the Sixth Form Colleges Association, the Education and Training Foundation (ETF), the Further Education Commissioner, the Department of Education (DfE) and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

A conference – Educational Governance in Practice: Research, Reflection and Reform – took place at the University’s Sir Tom Cowie Lecture, St Peter’s Campus, on Friday 19 September to officially launch the report.

A welcome and keynote speech was delivered by Vice Chancellor and Chief Executive of the University, Sir David Bell, who also provided the foreword for the report, in which he says: “This review of further education college governance in England is timely, relevant and necessary if we are to learn lessons and improve practice.”

You can access the full report here.