The number of colleges in financial difficulty has reduced by almost half, according to the FE commissioner.
Speaking this morning, Sir David Collins said that, since the area reviews had started, the number of colleges struggling with their financial health had reduced from 76 to less than 40.
“Essentially what had happened is that 40 colleges the year before [last] were looking at struggling financial health, and that figure had suddenly gone up to 76 struggling with financial health. Incidentally, over the last year, that has come down significantly and now is below 40, so there was a bit of a peak that happened in 2014-15.”
Speaking at a Westminster Education Forum seminar on the impact of area reviews and the implementing of the post-16 skills plan, Sir David said it was important to keep the financial health of the sector in perspective. Out of around 40 interventions by the commissioner in colleges over the last three years, roughly half were triggered by financial difficulties. But, the situation had improved, he told the audience.
“We go into colleges now, despite the funding regime - and I am not arguing for less money for FE - that are making surpluses, that are managing perfectly well under the existing funding model, and are offering a varied curriculum. Essentially, the reality is, colleges are doing pretty well. There are a few exceptions.”
‘A lot of waste’
He also said there was “a lot of waste still in some colleges in the sector,” and among those colleges which had hit serious financial difficulties, not one had had “decent class sizes of 16-20 or has their staff costs down to 63 per cent, or has not overweighed itself with admin staff or layer upon layer of management”. His third annual report, due to published in the coming weeks, would highlight that the same issues were continuing to emerge in struggling colleges.
Speaking at the same event, former Association of Colleges chief executive Martin Doel, FETL professor of leadership in further education and skills at University College London, said the current situation the sector found itself in was the product of “consistent, repeated cuts to funding within further education” since 2010.
“In terms of the average income to colleges across the period, there has been a 10 per cent reduction. Had that occurred in the school system, we would have had anarchy, headteachers proclaiming across the country about the difficulties they were facing, and had it happened in universities, we would have had the end of civilisation as we know it.”
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