Author: Billy Camden

The local Conservative MP for Saltash has called for a government investigation into Cornwall College Group after it announced plans to sell-off a campus in her constituency. Sheryll Murray wrote to education secretary Gavin Williamson this week after being “so disappointed” to hear the site was closing down. She said it was “particularly disappointing” considering […]

A college principal who was suspended following government intervention has brought forward her retirement date. Stella Mbubaegbu announced today that she will officially leave Highbury College at the end of April 2020, instead of July 2020. The college said she has decided to leave early to “enable the college to accelerate the search for her […]

Education secretary Gavin Williamson has pledged to work “hand in glove” with the sector to argue for further investment in 16 to 19 education. But he stated he was unable to make any firm commitments on future funding in the address to the Sixth Form Colleges Association winter conference this morning. “I will be very […]

An embattled London college has announced it will officially merge next month, after the FE Commissioner found a new culture of “openness, transparency and trust”. Kensington and Chelsea College will join with Morley College on 3 February. The resolution follows a governing body meeting last night, and the outcome of Richard Atkins’ final monitoring visit […]

Five colleges have been hit with a notice to improve by the government this afternoon, after they were all assessed to have poor financial health and leadership. They are for: Kensington and Chelsea College, Richmond upon Thames College, East Sussex College Group, Gateshead College and Highbury College. Two others, Havering College of Further and Higher […]

A large college group in the south west is to sell-off a 35-year-old campus in order to balance the books. Cornwall College Group, which last year secured a £30 million government bailout to drive forward a “fresh start” business plan, will close its site in Saltash in July. A total of 74 jobs are at […]

The Department for Education is to develop its own “alternative arrangements” for international education exchanges in case the UK drops out of Erasmus+, Gavin Williamson has said. Speaking in the House of Commons, the education secretary said his department was “open” to future participation in the programme, but that arrangements for after Brexit would be […]

Former Conservative Party researcher and policy chief Innes Taylor has been appointed as a special adviser at the Department for Education. FE Week’s sister paper FE Week understands that Taylor has replaced Katharine Howell, Gavin Williamson’s former policy SpAd, who moved to Downing Street last month following the election. According to her LinkedIn, Taylor was head […]

A government commissioned review is set to heavily criticise the Education and Skills Funding Agency and their intervention regime for failing to spot when colleges get into finance trouble, FE Week understands. Dame Mary Ney, who had a 40-year career in local government, was commissioned to undertake the review in August after the FE Commissioner’s […]