Latest news from FE Week

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 through a contract with Nescot’s controversial Saudi Arabian partner, the Jeddah Female College, a state of affairs of which Nescot’s board of governors was reportedly unaware for 18 months.

Despite stepping down as principal of Nescot last week, Ms Mann remains principal of the Jeddah Female College.

A spokesperson for Nescot told FE Week that the college governors were not made aware of the arrangements with Ms Mann’s husband at the time, though Ms Mann has disputed this, claiming that it had been the “duty” of David Round, formerly clerk to the corporation at Nescot, to “ensure that the corporation was fully informed”.

However, Nescot’s chair Professor Mark Hunt has confirmed to FE Week that the college fully supports Mr Round.

Professor Hunt told FE Week: “We do not wish to get drawn into the details of what has been asserted save that we would take this opportunity to make it clear that David Round has our full support.”

He also commented on Ms Mann’s decision to respond to an email he had sent to all staff at the organisation on June 2, breaking the news of her resignation, in which she said she felt there had been “a serious failure by the college” to support her.

In the email, she said she would be continuing at the Jeddah College – a fact which was subsequently confirmed to FE Week by Highbury College and Burton and South Derbyshire College, which both have a 20 per cent stake in the Nescot Consortium.

Professor Hunt told FE Week: “We are disappointed that Sunaina sent a statement to staff in the terms she did last week. Nescot has chosen not to comment on the internal processes that preceded her decision and that remains our current position.

“NBS [Nescot Business Services] is the group entity through which we have an interest in NCL [Nescot Consortium Limited]. We can clarify that Sunaina has been removed as the representative of NBS in relation to the Jeddah College.

“We are, of course, also aware of the article in FE Week last Friday and the assertions made by Sunaina in relation to her husband, Jaswinder Mann’s, contract with NCL.”

Ms Mann expressed frustration at the college’s actions.

She said: “I am surprised and disappointed that Nescot should have issued a press statement.

“Their justification for previously saying nothing in the press, in the face of the untrue allegations concerning the appointment of my husband was that they did not wish to feed the media story.

“The fact that they reference ‘what has been asserted’ by me, but do not corroborate it, is astonishing bearing in mind that the chairman of Nescot was written to by the Chairman of NCL reiterating the situation fully in March 2016.

“That letter reconfirmed that the appointment was a decision of the board of NCL and that I had no involvement in it whatsoever. I note that they do not any longer contend lack of knowledge concerning the appointment.

“The fact that the board has gone out of its way to show support for David Round is in stark contrast with the way in which I have been treated and only confirms that I was right to treat myself as dismissed.

“Mr Round’s duty as clerk to the corporation of Nescot, company secretary to NBS and NCL is to ensure that the corporation was fully informed of all relevant matters and disclosures made known to him.

“I continue to work at the college in Jeddah. I have no desire to be, and nor have I ever suggested that I am, a representative of NBS.”

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.

But it has now been confirmed that colleges will still be able to receive funding to teach resits for these GCSEs until the summer of 2017, if they take on students from September who have missed out on a C grade in English or maths this summer.

The SFA announced today how it will fund this in its weekly online Update bulletin.

Linked guidance explained: “For the 2016 to 2017 academic year only, we will fund those learners aged 16 and above who meet Ofqual’s criteria to study the legacy GCSEs in English, English language and mathematics.

“We will not fund learners who are only sitting the exams.

“From August 1, 2017, we will not fund learners to study or continue to study with the legacy maths and English GCSEs. After this date, all learners must undertake the reformed GCSEs graded 9-1.”

It comes after Ofqual announced in March that pupils who do not pass English or maths GCSE at the end of this academic year will have two resit chances — a decision which was implemented through formal rules published on the gov.uk website today.

They will be in November 2016 and summer 2017.

But concerns had been raised by assessment organisations, including OCR, over whether providers would be able to secure the funding to continue teaching the old GCSE syllabus, if these courses were being replaced by the new system.

It is understood that today’s announcement was intended to ally those fears.

 

The reforms suggested by Lord Sainsbury’s influential review into technical and professional education (TPE) will not be piloted by the government until 2019/20, FE Week can reveal.

It is also now understood that the peer’s report — which is set to recommend the creation of 15 new “professional and technical” routes with apprenticeship or substantial work experience — will not be published until July 8.

This date is four months after the report was first supposed to be unveiled — with further delays expected as a result to the first skills white paper in a decade, which is believed to reflect the recommendations which will be made by Lord Sainsbury’s independent panel.

The pilot timetable will now be unveiled just before parliamentary summer recess. The delays to the report were welcomed by sector leaders, provided it meant time had been allowed to create properly thought-out and tested qualifications.

Mark Dawe, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, told FE Week: “The TPE reform, combined with the apprenticeship changes, should see a step change providing parity of opportunity through vocational learning.

“It is vital that this is not lost, so if delay and piloting is necessary, we fully support the approach.”

Mr Dawe added that good curriculum and qualification change “takes time”, and insisted that the final framework needs to “ensure that vocational education is not seen as second best and demonstrates clear pathways to high levels of learning and work”.

Bill Watkin, chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, said the delays were “unfortunate” but added that it was outcomes “that really matter here”.

He added: “All over the country there are sixth form colleges achieving the highest standards in both academic and vocational curricula, sending countless young people to university or a great job.

“It is vital that they continue to offer young people the opportunity to study A-levels alongside BTECs, in a way that focuses on one or the other and often blends the two, according to the aptitudes and interests of each student.

“The sector is hoping for clarification at the earliest opportunity.”

Iain Wright, chair of the Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) committee, claimed that the government had been “paralysed” by the EU referendum debate — but when the TPE report and skills white paper finally arrived, they “promise a shake-up of the post-16 sector”.

He added: “It is vital that the government allow time for a proper reflection on these issues so we can ensure we have a system where technical qualifications are valued as highly as academic achievement and one which is better able to meet the skills requirements of a modern economy.”

FE Week reported last month that the Department for Education (DfE) had been prevented from publishing Lord Sainsbury’s report before the referendum on June 23, due to purdah rules governing the release of important information during periods of national campaigning.

The DfE said it would not comment on “speculation”, when approached by FE Week about the pilot and new review release date.

Colleges have been warned to be on their guard against “sophisticated” fraudsters, after a scam involving fake faxes was detected by staff at one provider in London.

The Mary Ward Adult Education Centre nearly fell victim to the con last week, before the college’s bank contacted them to question a suspicious payment.

A fraudster had sent a fax requesting a £4,437 clearing house automated payment system (CHAPS) payment after researching the college’s personal bank details, which are in the public domain.

But Allister Duncan, head of finance and resources at the college (pictured), explained: “Thankfully the bank picked up on the questionable nature of the instruction and queried it with us.”

However, he warned: “It may well be that whoever is behind this may try this on with other colleges.”

Mr Duncan also told FE Week: “Clearly the sort of amount involved in this case is enough to be worthwhile, but not enough to generally cause a lot of interest. If the sum was in the tens of thousands of pounds it is likely to raise questions, so this is quite a clever and sophisticated pitch.”

The Education Funding Agency (EFA) also sent out an alert on May 26, warning that customers of an attempted scam involving Portakabin Ltd, which makes portable buildings often used by schools and colleges.

It said: “We have been advised by Portakabin Ltd that some of their customers may have received a fraudulent letter about a change to their bank account details.

“The letter is attempting fraud and, if you have received one, you should ignore any instructions.”

Portakabin told FE Week it had been able to flag up the attempt internally and report it to the bank being used by the fraudster.

Company director James Robinson said: “As a precaution, we immediately alerted all our customers, even though the bank account no longer existed. We also reported it to the National Fraud and Cyber Crime Reporting Centre.

“We do not believe any of our customers have been affected. The letter was speculative and no data security has been breached.

“Unfortunately, fraud crime continues to rise and we all have to be extremely vigilant and highly suspicious of any unsolicited communications unless the company concerned has been contacted to check any new payment instructions are completely genuine.”

This is not the first time colleges have been targeted by these types of scams.

In January last year FE Week reported that college finance directors had been targeted in a bailiff scam involving a series of phone calls with con artists.

Staff from at least eight colleges, including the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London and City of Southampton College, were subjected to the rip-off attempt.

The fraudsters employed the same tactics on each occasion, centring their bogus story on Northampton County Court, to which a non-existent debt running into thousands of pounds was meant to be owed.

At the time it was understood no college had fallen for the scam.

Colleges are significantly less likely to challenge GCSE and A-level exam grades than schools – and they are more likely to be rejected when they do.

The exams regulator Ofqual looked at the number of enquiries about students’ results which were filed by schools and colleges following last summer’s exams.

It found that between them, schools and colleges challenged one GCSE exam result out of every 16, and one in 13 A-levels.

But the figures were much higher just amongst FE, sixth form and tertiary colleges — which challenged just one GCSE result in 22, and one A-level grade in every 19.

Independent schools had the highest proportion of challenges, querying one GCSE in 11 and one in eight A-level exam results.

What’s more, the report discovered that GCSE, FE, sixth form and tertiary colleges “have the lowest percentage of grades changed” at just 17 per cent.

In comparison, secondary selective schools had a 25 per cent success rate with grade challenges, while independent schools managed a rate of 23.1 per cent.

And for A-levels, FE, sixth form and tertiary colleges again experienced the lowest percentage of grade changes at a mere 15.1 per cent, even though independent schools, city academies, secondary comprehensive/middle schools and ‘other’ schools have “similar rates of grade changes” of between 16.1 per cent and 16.6 per cent.

Ofqual said it did “not have any information which might explain these differences”.

It costs institutions up to £50 to appeal each individual exam paper, although there is no charge if the appeal is successful, which can perhaps explain why the generally wealthier independent schools have more success.

Catherine Sezen, the Association of Colleges’ senior policy manager for 14-19 and curriculum, said of the Ofqual figures: “Colleges always act in the best interest of their students and where they think there is a case to answer, they will suggest querying the grade.”

She added: “We may see an increase in the number of exam grade queries at GCSE level over the coming years as the system adjusts to the standards that will be expected to achieve higher grades.”

Julie Swan, Ofqual’s executive director for general qualifications, said: “It’s up to each school or college to decide the extent to which it uses the marking review provisions.”