Richmond upon Thames College has appointed Nanda Ratnavel as deputy principal for finance and resources.
Formerly the director of finance at Lewisham Southwark College, he has spent 18 years working in the health service culminating as deputy director of finance at Ealing Hospital before taking up the position of director of resources at the Crafts Council.
He was director of finance and resources at the Fashion Retail Academy between 2008 and 2010 before joining Lewisham Southwark College.
“I am delighted to be appointed deputy principal for finance and resources at Richmond upon Thames College,” he said.
“I’m excited to be joining the senior team and to contributing to the excellent work the college does for its students, for local employers and for its stakeholders.”
And Basingstoke College of Technology (BCot) has a new face among its ranks in Dr Sean Moley.
He has taken on the newly-created role of higher education manager and will lead on both university-level provision and international work within the college.
He has worked in education for the past 24 years, bringing experience from the secondary, sixth form, further and higher education sectors, and joins BCot from the University of Southampton.
“For all of my working life, teaching and learning has been central to what I do,” he said.
“Six years teaching in an East London secondary school proved a very valuable learning experience for me and, after completing my PhD, I was fortunate to be able work on projects to improve young people’s key skills, adults’ workplace basic skills and the quality of teaching and learning offered by work based learning providers.”
He added: “I am very excited to be coming to work at BCot and am especially looking forward to working closely with colleagues to meet the needs of our higher education students, providing them the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in the world of work. BCot has ambitions plans to meet the needs of an increasing number of international students and I am looking forward to contributing to the success of this new venture.”
Jackie Grubb, BCot’s deputy principal for curriculum performance and innovation, said: “We have offered university level professional and academic courses for many years and we are keen to expand on these further.
“There seems to be the misconception that this level of qualification is not available in Basingstoke — that you have to travel to access them — so Sean has been targeted with addressing that.”
Meanwhile, Priestley College’s new principal, Matthew Grant, who used to be its deputy principal, will count on George Contos as his newly-appointed vice principal.
“As a dad of two and a grandfather of two, you see how important education is from my own children’s perspective as well as the future generations like my grandchildren,” said Mr Grant.
“Education faces many challenges going forward, but we will make sure we stick to what we believe in, which is making a difference to the lives of young people and ensuring they are able to progress into work or university. If we can do this then I will be really pleased.”
Your thoughts