It’s not difficult to love colleges. They do so many great things, including helping millions of people to transform their lives and thousands of businesses to get the people and skills they need. It’s much more than that, though. It’s hard not to be impressed by the enormous passion and dedication of everyone who works in a college and it’s impossible not to be touched when the students succeed and make progress in their lives and in work. All in all, it’s a great sector to work in and one I am proud to be part of.

But there is a “but”, of course. What can be hard at times is being part of a sector that gets overlooked so often when it comes to education announcements. Having been in the college sector for more than 20 years, I’m used to most of the new funding going to schools and universities, particularly during the decade of neglect we’ve suffered since 2010. What’s difficult is seeing college students missing out time and again when they deserve so much better.

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Working life more intense

Given so many years of experience, last week’s announcement on catch-up funding for school pupils should have been water off a duck’s back. Just another injustice to add to so many others over the years. It wasn’t, though. I felt this one more than usual. That may be in part because lockdown has made working life even more intense than usual with fewer distractions, resulting in work seeming to matter more. It was also in part the way the announcement happened. But only part. The main reason I was so disheartened by the announcement is that it is so unjust, so impossible to defend.

I need to backtrack. For the past few months, we have been making the case for additional support for students at colleges in the next academic year. Every student, young and older, will have missed out on some face-to-face teaching and support this term. For many, the online offerings will work well, for others - perhaps because of poor internet connection, the lack of a suitable device or home circumstances - it won’t have worked as well.

We have been particularly concerned about the year 11s moving on to college because schools will have had little incentive to engage them this term. On top of all of that, the numbers starting college each year with low grades in English and maths GCSEs are very high, and that group will surely struggle more than normal after a 6-month break from learning.

So, we have been providing the evidence to officials and proposed a simple student premium for students without a grade 4 in English and maths, a bit like the Pupil Premium, which stops at age 16. Our version was to propose £375 per student, costing just under £150m: simple and something we felt had widespread support as a targeted investment to make sure this group of young people could make the best start to their college studies.

Late on Thursday afternoon we were given the good news that there would be funding for college students, along the lines we had proposed, in an overall catch-up announcement of £1 billion. Finally, a schools announcement that included college students, and so vital as well. When the press notice came out just before 7pm confirming this, we happily prepared our response and our communications to members. Less than 2 hours later, the press notice was “amended” to expressly exclude 16- to 18-year-old students, with a focus on schools only.

This was a first for me. I have been hopeful, expectant even about imminent announcements before now only to be disappointed when they have not arrived. But never before have I had my emotions played with in this way and been so bemused and baffled by a U-turn at the last moment.

There can be no justification for it and certainly none has been offered as yet. When asked publicly, the education secretary has promised to work with us on it, so the door is ajar, perhaps. I hope so because this has been hard to swallow. A U-turn that, unusually, was made in spite of the good reception the announcement would have received from far and wide.

We’ll carry on fighting for what is right for the 700,000 college students who deserve more support. We’ll work with the education secretary. We’ll carry on pointing out the injustice if this is not put right. My optimism is returning, slowly, but I hope our other proposals for a skills-led recovery don’t take me through the highs and lows of last week. Resilient I may be - but that would be too much.

David Hughes is chief executive of the Association of Colleges