Author: Alix Robertson

A decision to ban a Christian union from holding prayer and Bible study meetings at an unnamed FE college is “clearly ludicrous” – according to the prime minister himself. A charity called Festive, which supports Christians in FE colleges, has complained that religious students at a college it declined to name were barred from celebrating […]

LATEST: Nescot accepts former £360k a year principal was unfairly dismissed A row has broken out between the chair of the North East Surrey College of Technology (Nescot) FE Corporation and Sunaina Mann, who last week stood down as Nescot’s principal. In May, FE Week reported that Ms Mann’s husband had been paid almost £200,000 […]

The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) has published guidance on how it will fund legacy GCSEs in English, English language and maths in 2016/17. Existing GCSEs are now referred to as “legacy” courses by the government and are due to be replaced by supposedly tougher reformed GCSEs, after pupils have sat the last exams this academic year. […]

LATEST: Nescot accepts former £360k a year principal was unfairly dismissed The highest-paid college principal in the country has left her job as head of North East Surrey College of Technology (Nescot), FE Week understands. The chair of Nescot FE Corporation Professor Mark Hunt is believed to have announced the departure of Sunaina Mann in […]

Falling FE membership is an issue that has long been playing on the mind of Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union (UCU). The union’s FE membership dropped by 3,000 between April 2015 and the same month this year, almost a 10 per cent fall, whilst figures suggest that the higher education […]

The outgoing president of the University and College Union (UCU) has slammed ignorance among politicians towards FE, in her speech to conference. Elizabeth Lawrence addressed delegates at the start of the union’s annual conference at the ACC Liverpool this morning. She spoke of a need to spring to the “defence of FE” – which she felt […]

Members of the University and College Union (UCU) at South Downs College are being balloted for strike action, in what the union describes as a “row over new contracts”. UCU claims that the college has threatened to dismiss staff who refuse to sign up to new contracts, which it says “would lead to worse pay […]

The government has announced the second wave of apprenticeship frameworks that will be closed to new starts, with of total of 60 facing termination in December. The announcement was made by the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) on the gov.uk website today, indicating that frameworks will be shut down towards the end of the year. It said: “We […]

LATEST: Nescot accepts former £360k a year principal was unfairly dismissed The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) has demanded an explanation from North East Surrey College of Technology (Nescot), after FE Week revealed evidence last week of controversial payments amounting to almost £200,000 to the principal’s husband. A spokesperson for the agency told FE Week yesterday […]