Four of the best!
New College Lanarkshire (NCL) – Scotland’s College of the year – celebrates a quadruple nomination at the Herald Education Awards.
Following the landmark year where NCL brought home the inaugural ‘Further Education Institute of the Year’. The College is back in the running with nominations recognising outstanding achievement in business engagement, student contribution, community impact and strategic partnership working.
Outstanding Business Engagement in Colleges
New College Lanarkshire - Scottish Institute for Dental Education
NCL’s Scottish Institute for Dental Education (SIDE) is a sector-leading first-class model of employer-college partnership, it’s built on a shared commitment to transform dental education in Scotland. It’s the root of NCL’s wider strategic vision: a future-fit, employer responsive curriculum that addresses real workforce needs, tackles educational inequality, and creates lasting opportunities for learners across Lanarkshire. SIDE is directly aligned with the Scottish Government’s ‘Developing the Young Workforce and Skills Strategy’ and represents one of the most ambitious examples of that in action.
Flexible learning pathways, including Modern Apprenticeships, blended learning, and a fully online Dental Nursing programme designed for those already in employment in Scotland and internationally, ensure the Academy's reach extends well beyond the traditional classroom and serves a genuinely diverse learner population.
This is a wholesale reimagining of what dental education can look like when colleges and employers work together with a shared sense of purpose and ambition.
Outstanding Contribution from a College Student
New College Lanarkshire - Brooke MacFadyen
Brooke MacFadyen, a student on the Access to Teaching programme at NCL, is nominated for Outstanding Contribution from a College Student after turning personal adversity into meaningful impact.
She was diagnosed with a grade II brain tumour in her early 20s, since then Brooke has excelled academically while becoming a powerful advocate for people living with brain tumours.
Alongside her studies, she has led awareness and fundraising activities on campus and beyond, and played a key role in campaigning for access to the treatment vorasidenib, recently approved for use in Scotland. Widely praised by staff and peers, Brooke is recognised for her resilience, compassion and determination to improve outcomes for others.
Outstanding Contribution to the Local Community
New College Lanarkshire - Walking Football, Social Medicine
The initiative is a strategic partnership between NCL and the Motherwell FC Community Trust (MFCCT). It places NCL's Physical Activity & Health students within MFCCT's Walking Football club, where they provide older men facing physical and neurological health challenges with individually tailored strength, balance, and fall prevention training, leading to transformative results.
Rather than asking vulnerable participants to come to the College or a clinic, NCL came to them. These 'hidden' health interventions allow participants to believe they are simply attending a social football session, while through student-led conversations and individualised strength programmes, they receive targeted motor-skill rehabilitation. Students gain professional confidence while helping individuals with a range of physical conditions regain their independence and reduce risk of falls.
The ongoing project has been so successful that NCL is now partnering with Brain Health Scotland to create a template for colleges and community trusts across the country to replicate this model.
Partnership Award - sponsored by QAA
New College Lanarkshire - Brain Health Scotland Centre for Health and Social Care
NCL has forged a transformative strategic partnership with Brain Health Scotland, the preventive arm of Alzheimer Scotland, to develop and deliver an ambitious response to Scotland's dementia prevention agenda.
The Brain Health Scotland Centre for Health and Social Care, launched at NCL's Motherwell Campus in October 2025, was established in direct response to dementia being the leading cause of death in Scotland and the evidence that 45% of dementias are potentially preventable through lifestyle changes.
New College Lanarkshire is proud to see its students, staff and partners recognised once again, and congratulates everyone involved in these outstanding projects.
The Herald Education Awards: For Further and Higher Education 2026 will take place on Wednesday, May 20th, 2026 at DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, Glasgow.