A Northamptonshire land-based college is celebrating coming out of FE Commissioner intervention after seven years thanks to increasing student numbers, asset sales and a £13 million government loan.
Moulton College, which has more than 3,000 students and 450 hectares of land, had been under intervention from the FE Commissioner since 2017.
This was due to spiralling cost pressures and knock backs including a commercial loan of more than £20 million, declining learner numbers, two consecutive ‘inadequate’ Ofsted judgements and being taken off the apprenticeship register.
Today the college announced it is entering ‘post-intervention management support’ after restoring its financial health from growing learner numbers and raising its Ofsted grade to ‘good’ in 2021.
However despite repeated requests in recent months, no one from the college was been available for an interview with FE Week.
According to a press release, the intervention was withdrawn after a meeting with the Further Education Commissioner (FEC) last month.
The Department for Education quietly confirmed the withdrawal notice on its website this week without explanation.
In a written statement, chief operating officer Alicia Bruce said: “Moulton College has made great strides over the past few years to address the issues identified by the FE Commissioner (FEC) and Education and Skills Funding Agency (EFSA).
“We’re delighted that these efforts have been recognised with the withdrawal of the notice.”
Chair of the board of governors David McVean added: “By focusing on the quality of our education and the student experience, as well as prudent sales of non-essential assets, we have created a turnaround that very few thought possible.
“We are incredibly thankful to our former Principal and CEO, Corrie Harris, and her senior team, who led the College out of intervention and has built a secure foundation for her successor as CEO, Oliver Symons.
“Moulton College has an extremely bright future, and we are looking forward to the new opportunities that lie ahead for our students.”
Moulton had the longest running intervention at the time of its withdrawal, with Brooklands College holding the next longest at five years.
According to the FE Commissioner’s most recent investigation report in 2019, Moulton’s “exceptionally high” debt levels, understood to have peaked at more than £21 million, funded facilities that made it “one of the best specialist college estates in the country”.
In the same year the college had reduced its debt slightly to £18 million, but faced a deficit of £4 million on an annual income of £21.5 million.
Its financial recovery is understood to have involved selling several unspecified “surplus” asset sales worth more than £4 million.
According to the college’s board minutes, the government agreed to take on the remaining £13 million commercial loan that the college had with Santander UK after “extensive” negotiations.
The previous year, an FE Commissioner-recommended merger with Abingdon and Witney College collapsed due to concerns about a bond Moulton College had entered into as part of its “operation” in Saudi Arabia.
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