A sector divided on the path ahead
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If you have ever wanted to share the collective fantasies of the country’s college principals, you’ll need to get to Birmingham smartish. All 400 or so of them have been invited to spend today trying to envisage the shape of further education in 2020. Their host, John Denham, secretary of state for innovation, universities and [...]
When is a behemoth a white elephant
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Though nobody could be more anxious to discover the fate of the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) than the people who work there, the rest of the further education sector also watches with interest.It was the incoming Labour government 10 years ago that constructed the behemoth, and the same party that has begun, at least, [...]
Nowin situation
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There was a time when an advert for a college principal’s post would draw a flood of applicants. At the start of the decade, it was not unknown for 60 candidates to apply for a single job. But no longer.”These days it’s not unusual for colleges to struggle to get shortlists of four or five [...]
Technophobes lurk in FE
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An orgy of construction is taking place in FE colleges up and down the land. While some managements strive proudly for individuality of design, all make the same two boasts: their new building is green, and it is packed with computers.Few would deny that these palaces of learning are well kitted out, cyberwise. Becta, the [...]
Further speculation
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Buildings in London’s Mayfair are studded with blue plaques recording the famous people who lived in them. But there is little chance that the owners of Flemings Hotel, a smart little establishment in Piccadilly, will countenance sporting one with the legend “Further education died here”.Officially, the dozen or so men and women gathered there for [...]
The end of colleges as we know them
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Is the face of education about to change for good? If a recent announcement from the prime minister is anything to go by, further education colleges as we know them, serving all ages from mid-teens to the grave, could be a thing of the past.Students aged over 19 may soon have their own institutions. The [...]
How to win overseas friends
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The nights are drawing in and college leaders are gazing longingly towards hotter countries. This has less to do with approaching winter than with the squeeze on further education funding that everyone expects to be confirmed this week in the government’s grant letter to the Learning and Skills Council.One student from outside the European Union [...]
Universities get down to business
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Even 10 years ago, the idea that academics from Cambridge would be offering workplace courses to ophthalmic dispensing assistants at Specsavers would have been about as likely as Lambrusco being served at high table. But universities’ involvement with business continues apace, and the government has now focused its vision on expanding higher education by inviting [...]
Colleges soon big enough to go out on their own
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Amid the frenzy of excitement about Labour’s funding arrangements, the latest education bill has slipped virtually unnoticed into the parliamentary lists.The only bit of the education and skills bill that has interested the media so far is the raising of the leaving age. The spotlight has not settled yet on another clause near the end [...]
Universities swamp skills
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The “funding gap” relating to the government’s more generous treatment of 16-year-olds in school sixth forms than of those in colleges is not the one that should be causing concern, according to the authors of a new report.They say the real funding gap ministers and civil servants should be addressing is %26pound;7bn wide, and separates [...]
