More than 150 staff at colleges in Fife and Tayside accepted voluntary severance deals before their workplaces merged costing the taxpayer more than £4 million.
The Scottish Government announced plans in February last year to merge Scotland’s colleges, claiming the move would save the taxpayer £50m a year.
Education Secretary Mike Russell said grouping the sector into 12 regions would make it “more efficient”, although critics claimed colleges were being forced into “shotgun marriages” that undermined the further education sector’s independence.
Adam Smith College and Carnegie College in Dunfermline merged to form Fife College, while Dundee and Angus colleges also merged into one.
According to figures released to The Courier under Freedom of Information laws, 114 staff working at Adam Smith and Carnegie colleges accepted voluntary severance package deals before the two institutions merged in August.
Between them, these 114 staff shared £2.97m in severance payments.
The highest single payment was £53,535, while the smallest was just £4,523.
In Dundee and Angus, fewer staff accepted a severance package.
Just 40 left the two establishments before the merger, receiving payments totalling £1.58m an average of £39,500 per person.
Another nine staff took early retirement before the colleges merged earlier this month, while another 30 are due to depart over the next 12 months after accepting voluntary severance or early retirement packages.
A spokesman for Dundee and Angus College said the staff departures would have no impact on the teaching hours offered in college classrooms.
He said: “More than 63% were management and support staff, not lecturers, and a large number of the remainder had a variety of duties predominantly a mixture of teaching and managing responsibilities.”
A spokesman for Fife College said: “As part of an ongoing staff restructure Fife College recently offered staff the opportunity to apply for voluntary severance, which was supported by additional funds made available at merger.
“The average payment made was £26,053 per person.”