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15 May 2026

Author: Billy Camden

Ofsted watch: Three colleges slide to grade three

Three colleges dropped from Ofsted ‘good’ to ‘requires improvement’ this week, in a bad week for FE. The only silver lining was for Abingdon and Witney College, which maintained its grade two rating. Southampton City College lost its ‘good’ rating following an inspection report published May 9 and is now deemed to ‘require improvement’, after […]

Allocations shock: ESFA ‘mistake’ sees massive firms listed as small

The allocations “horror show” has got even more alarming, after FE Week found the government has been wrongly categorising giant firms including Santander as non-levy payers. Other smaller employers have meanwhile been classified as subject to the charge launched last month, despite their payroll being drastically short of the £3 million point from which firms […]

Lib Dems commit to defending 16 to 19 funding

A “real-terms” commitment to protect 16 to 19 FE funding per pupil has been announced by the Liberal Democrats. The party announced today that over the course of the parliament, it will protect FE per pupil funding “in real terms” at £660 million, and “invest in continuous professional development for teachers” through a £165 million […]

Principal leaving UTC as year 10 recruitment stopped

An ‘inadequate’ university technical college will not take on any new year 10 students from September and is on the hunt for a new leader, following the resignation of its principal. UTC Plymouth revealed that the college would not be admitting any 14 year olds – through a year 10 intake for 2017/18 – although […]

Sixteenth studio school confirms it will close

An ‘inadequate’ studio school in Essex has announced it will close in August following dwindling student numbers, making it the 16th of its kind to shut its doors. The closure of New Campus Basildon Studio School means just 34 will be left open, after 14 others have already closed and another, Future Tech Studio School […]

Crisis deepens as learners drop at two thirds of UTCs

Learner numbers have dropped at around two thirds of established university technical colleges this academic year, an FE Week investigation has found. We submitted freedom of information requests to the 26 UTCs that opened in 2014 or before, asking for their 2016/17 student numbers. FE Week analysis of their responses (see the full breakdown in […]

Government secretly grading all colleges and training providers

UPDATE: It has been brought to our attention that there were inaccuracies in the full PAT list previously published, which FE Week downloaded from the DFE website. Whilst we investigate we have removed the link to this data. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. The data was sent to the DfE in advance of publishing […]

Ones to watch at AoC Sport National Championships 2017

With just one day to go until this year’s AoC Sport National Championships kick off in Nottingham, FE Week profiles three of the regional teams tipped to feature prominently in the battle for college sporting supremacy, and what individual stars to keep an eye on. [You can read full details of the national championships here] South […]

Excitement builds ahead of AoC Sport National Championships 2017

Excitement is building for this year’s AoC Sport National Championships as around 1,650 student athletes make their final preparations for the major event that kicks off next weekend. The sporting stars will head to Nottingham to compete in the 39th national championships, described as the “pinnacle of the college sporting calendar”, after successfully battling through […]