For a former business secretary who presided over swingeing cuts to the further education budget under the coalition government, Vince Cable has undergone something of a renaissance when it comes to further education.

Dr Cable claimed to have fought off the government mandarins calling for colleges to be axed to save government funding during the era of austerity.

And during his enforced break from Parliament after losing his seat in 2015, Dr C spent time getting to know the sector more intimately as governor of Richmond Adult Community College and life fellow at City Lit. He even worked with the NUS students’ union on a report on giving students a greater say in how the sector is run. In July, he told Tes he was keen to use his return to politics for “taking forward” the FE agenda.

Only, one college student seems not to have got the memo. During the Lib Dem grandee’s appearance on the BBC’s Question Time last week, a student at Bridgwater and Taunton College - where the filming took place - took issue with the Lib Dems’ volte face over the introduction of £9,000 university tuition fees.

“You’re in a college building. I’m going to this college,” the outspoken young man declared. “But not once have I heard tonight you say sorry for what you did. Just say sorry. You’re here. You’re in front of me. Next year, I go to university. I’ll probably be in £50,000-worth of debt... you have no idea of the damage you have done.”

Dr Cable went some way to defusing the situation, by alluding to former leader Nick Clegg’s infamous apology for failing to stick to the pledge not to increase fees in the run up to the 2010 election. FErret doubts whether this went quite far enough to placate the student concerned.

But if colleges are full of young people prepared to stand up on the national stage and take on the Westminster elite, the FE sector must be doing something right.

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