News

‘I’ve never experienced anything like this’: Shrewsbury College in grade 4 battle

A college is battling Ofsted to prevent the publication of a grade four report after inspectors claimed to have…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

Investigation: Highest principals’ pay plummets

The top ten highest college salaries have dropped by an average of more than £50,000 after six of the…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

FE is a ‘ticking time bomb’, says college chief

Further education is a “ticking time bomb” and more colleges will have to close campuses unless government gets serious…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

Cornwall campus closure – MP demands government probe

The local Conservative MP for Saltash has called for a government investigation into Cornwall College Group after it announced…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

Most learners don’t know they’re apprentices at management provider, Ofsted finds

A provider of management courses has been declared ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted after it was found learners and their bosses…

Fraser Whieldon
Fraser Whieldon
News

Suspended principal to leave earlier than planned

A college principal who was suspended following government intervention has brought forward her retirement date. Stella Mbubaegbu announced today…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden


News

Williamson pledges to work ‘hand in glove’ with sector to argue for more funding

Education secretary Gavin Williamson has pledged to work “hand in glove” with the sector to argue for further investment…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

London college pulls out of T-levels plans 19 months before launch

A financially troubled college subject to FE Commissioner intervention has decided to withdraw from delivering T-levels, the Department for…

Fraser Whieldon
Fraser Whieldon
News

Five colleges handed DfE warnings over finances

Five colleges have been hit with a notice to improve by the government this afternoon, after they were all…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

New culture of ‘openness and trust’ paves way for KCC merger

An embattled London college has announced it will officially merge next month, after the FE Commissioner found a new…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

DfE to develop ‘alternative arrangements’ in case UK leaves Erasmus+

The Department for Education is to develop its own “alternative arrangements” for international education exchanges in case the UK…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

Saltash to lose campus as Cornwall College desperate to save millions

A large college group in the south west is to sell-off a 35-year-old campus in order to balance the…

Billy Camden
Billy Camden

Must read

Colleges, Long read

Colleges on the frontline of a divided nation

As social media algorithms fuel intolerance and binary thinking, college staff increasingly find themselves dealing with the fallout. Jessica…

Jessica Hill
Jessica Hill
Colleges, Long read

Alun Francis, chair of the Social Mobility Commission

Deprived areas need vision – not victimhood – to level up, and Social Mobility Commission chair Alun Francis is…

Jessica Hill
Jessica Hill
Long read, Prison education

The prison that’s offering hope for a new life upon release

‘We’re saving people’s lives as well as turning them around’

Jessica Hill
Jessica Hill
Apprenticeships, Politics

Phillipson to exempt young people from level 7 apprenticeships funding axe

Education secretary makes ‘important concession’ amid backlash from other government departments

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
Colleges, FE Commissioner

Weston chair felt powerless over £2.5m payments to former principal

Ex-Weston college chair gives tell-all interview following FE Commissioner probe

Anviksha Patel
Anviksha Patel
Colleges

Weston College governance failure allowed ‘concealment’ of £2.5m payments to former principal

Paul Phillips was paid £1.8m in 2023, including a ‘significant’ six-figure retention payment which his COO son ‘resisted’ paying…

Anviksha Patel
Anviksha Patel