New principal is settling in at Fife College

Jim Metcalfe officially took up the position on Monday, following the announcement of his appointment last December. The former chief executive of College Development Network (CDN) succeeds Dr Hugh Hall, who stepped down as college principal after six years in the job.

Now he’s in the door, Mr Metcalfe said: “I have been looking forward to starting my new role as principal at Fife College and I’m delighted that I’m now here and excited about the future. I’m very honoured to join a fantastic team. My focus over the coming months will be to meet and listen to as many of our staff, students and stakeholders as possible, to hear their views on how we can drive achievement for our students and economic growth and opportunity for the Fife economy.”

The new principal will be responsible for around 21,000 students and nearly 1000 staff across five main campuses throughout Fife as well as prison learning centres across the country. He will also oversee a successful commercial operation, conference and events centre and university hub with an overall turnover of over £61 million.

Mr Metcalfe’s focus will be raising the college’s profile in terms of education provision, skills training, community benefit and economic growth across the region. He joins Fife College at a time when a new ground-breaking net zero campus is being built in Dunfermline and the college has reported the best ‘positive destination’ figures of any college in Scotland.

With a longstanding affinity with, and knowledge of, Fife and its communities Mr Metcalfe says he is ready to hit the ground running and build on the work currently undertaken by the college throughout the Kingdom.