Corrienne Peasgood is preparing for her mainstage address for this year’s Association of Colleges (AoC) annual conference.

This will be the second time she has addressed college leaders as the thirteenth president of the membership body.

But taking on the presidency last year very nearly didn’t happen at all.

“This wasn’t the plan, Shane. I’ll be honest.”

Peasgood’s journey from plumbing apprentice to principal, and then to president, hasn’t featured in one of this publication’s famous profile interviews, despite our best efforts.

What I’m getting on an individual level is a feeling it’s never been as tough

“I explained right from when FE Week first started, [profiles] was the one lot of articles I never really liked. To be honest, I have read other people’s but … it’s never been about me as a person.”

However, approaching retirement after nearly 30 years at City College Norwich, the last ten as principal, the spotlight finally beckoned. At her final meeting as a member of the AoC board last year, the president role, shortly to be vacated by Dame Sally Dicketts, came up and Peasgood’s interest was piqued.

“I started to think about all the skills that I’ve developed and the experiences I’ve had during my time in FE, going right back to being an apprentice in further education. So, learning in FE, teaching and being a leader in FE: what am I going to do with all of that?”

Peasgood admits she didn’t know too much about what the role involved, other than a mainstage keynote speech at the AoC conference. “That was definitely something I thought I didn’t want to do,” she confesses. 

Chats with fellow principals convinced her to take the leap. 

Now, re-appointed unopposed for a second term, she has no regrets about taking on the role and is preparing for what could be a momentous year for colleges. 

Finding her ‘sector voice’

Peasgood could be the first AoC president to work with a Labour government since the former St Helens College principal Dame Pat Bacon held the post in 2009/10. 

While Dicketts’ term in office was dominated by supporting the sector through the pandemic, Peasgood’s attention is on politics. 

With extensive college experience in the bag, representing the whole sector on a national stage requires the president to quickly pick up a whole new set of skills. Early in her term, Peasgood describes how “finding my sector voice” took time. 

“When you’re on panels or in meetings representing the sector, you truly have to have a broad sector voice, rather than before it would have been my college voice.” 

Research, experience, and exposure to different college contexts through AoC’s regional principals’ groups helped. 

And it was at this summer’s political party conferences – which saw Peasgood speaking from panels and answering live Q&As alongside ministers and shadow ministers – that she says she came to realise she had found her sector voice. 

“I could not have done that as effectively at the beginning of the year,” she says.

Which is good for colleges. 

Peasgood says “there can’t be anything more important than finding every opportunity to influence, to advocate and lobby for the sector in the build-up to this election. It just must be that single focus.” 

Another upcoming change in education is the appointment of the new Ofsted chief inspector, Sir Martyn Oliver, who takes over from Amanda Spielman on January 1. Peasgood has some advice for him.

“I listened to his select committee hearing … I didn’t hear any reference to the broader [post-16] sector. You would think that anyone going into a new role, if they’ve got an area that they are not as familiar with it’ll be the first area that you’ve reached out to. I really hope he does that.”

Level three fears worsening

This time last year, in her first speech as AoC president, Peasgood announced her three priorities in post: “system leadership” within the sector, broadening the FE voice, and protecting student opportunities, particularly at level three.

“We need to leave as many doors open to students as possible,” she said from the stage.

Fast forward 12 months, Peasgood has stories to tell about how she’s worked on system-level policy with AoC officials and members, and on encouraging more and different principals to take to the airwaves to represent the sector.

Peasgood chairs AoC’s 2030 strategy group which guides AoC policy on “what’s the system we want to see in 2030, and what are the steps that we need to take to get there.”

Wins on the system leadership side include AoC’s ‘Opportunity England’ document earlier this year which proposed a single “tertiary” funder and regulator for all of further and higher education, and preserving apprenticeships for new employees.

AoC calls on next government to create ‘one tertiary system’

But on qualifications reform, Peasgood says the outlook is looking worse.

I think we’re probably in a more challenging position than we were at this point last year

The first trench of level 3 qualifications deemed to overlap with T Levels will lose access to public funding in August 2024.

So, students that have just started in year 11 will have fewer post-16 options to choose from if they want to go on to study a subject where there’s a wave 1 or 2 T Level.

“We’ve done a lot of work [on qualifications reform] over the year. Lots of letters, lots of lobbying. I think we’re probably in a more challenging position on that than we were at this point last year.”

Peasgood says this year’s increased intake of 16-year-olds enrolling at colleges, particularly with GCSE retake requirements, makes defunding T Level alternatives even harder to swallow.

“When we look at the GCSE grade profiles of this year’s year 11s and what that’s done for the enrolments we’re seeing in colleges, the huge amount of extra students needing to re-take English and maths … I don’t think I’ve spoken to a college leader that hasn’t had to put on more level one and two provision at the expense of level three provision.”

Peasgood’s hypothesis is that declining entry-grade profiles coming through the system means the leap to a rigorous T Level could be too much for a growing cohort of young people, with colleges unable to offer level three alternatives.

“You can almost see the unintended consequences of lots of young people being channelled into provision that’s not in their best interests,” she warns.

As colleges delete swathes of BTECs and other level 3 qualifications from their websites for 2024 entrants, Peasgood feels for the parents and careers advisers guiding young people nearing the end of their school journey.

“You’ve got the tried and tested A-level route that everybody knows about. Then you’ve got a T Level route, and I’m a great advocate of T Levels for the right students in the right areas, that is still untested. We haven’t had enough cohorts of students go through all of the T Levels.”

The AoC is not a member of the Protect Student Choice campaign, a coalition of organisations, spearheaded by the Sixth Form Colleges Association, lobbying against the government’s defunding plans.

Instead, it has lobbied on this independently.

But neither has been successful in securing a government U-turn.

Indeed, the government is pressing ahead with defunding even though they’ve announced they now want to overhaul the system again by replacing A-levels and T Levels with the Advanced British Standard.

Light at the end of the tunnel

Peasgood ponders her response carefully when I ask her about her interactions with ministers and civil servants when making the case for colleges.

Decision makers are “in listening mode” she has found but admits “a skill I need to get better at” is pushing back when politicians dodge questions. When pressed, she wouldn’t name names.

Meetings with skills minister Robert Halfon have “in most instances” reflected his public passion and enthusiasm for FE. And in early discussions, his new Labour shadow, Seema Malhotra, has been asking AoC for “very sensible” requests for information.

Politics aside, Peasgood says she is interested in testing the mood of college leaders at this year’s conference.

This year’s student over-recruitment challenges come on top of existing pressures on staff retention and recruitment and continuing rising costs.

“What I’m getting on an individual level
is … a feeling it’s never been as tough on a day-to-day basis.” And being a principal is still “the best job in the world” though “can be lonely.”

Though new funding for staff pay awards and hearing colleges feature in the keynote party conference speeches by the prime minister and leader of the opposition this year, Peasgood thinks there is a, “very, very initial sense of optimism, that maybe there’s light at the end of the tunnel.”

The year ahead

Talking about legacy when you’ve just been reappointed might feel premature. Recent AoC presidents have all made their mark on the role. People remember Ian Ashman’s focus on mental health, Sally Dicketts’ interest in the future of learning, and Steve Frampton bringing sustainability in colleges to the fore.

Despite having spent the year rubbing shoulders with the movers and shakers of education policy, Peasgood retains her earlier humility.

“If people know that I really helped to lobby and advocate for the sector in the run-
up to what’s going to be one of the most important general elections for a generation, I’ll be pleased. I’ll have done what I can do.”

The AoC’s annual conference takes place November 14 to 15 in Birmingham.

Colleges are taking on trainee teachers from universities, expanding class sizes and hiring additional invigilators to manage an influx of GCSE resit students this year, which are set to dent their finances.

But other areas of recruitment, such as higher education and adult courses, have taken a hit.

FE Week looks at the latest data on college enrolment, after 95 – nearly half of all FE colleges in England – responded to a survey run by the Association of Colleges (AoC).

English and maths resit boom costs colleges £24m

FE Week reported in August that there would be around 60,000 more students needing to retake English and/or maths compared to last year, after they failed to achieve a grade 4 or above.

The AoC estimates this flood of resitters will cost the sector around £24 million, including £21 million for additional teaching time and an additional £3 million in exam registration fees.

Colleges speaking to FE Week cited instances of 50 per cent increases in the number of resit students, but with little in the way of financial support to meet those demands.

Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group is expecting to spend north of £500,000 this year due to an extra 770 resitters – to be spent on hiring five extra teachers, holding extra online tuition, exam registration fees and more invigilators for the November and May resits.

For Craig Hodgson, principal of NSCG, teacher recruitment poses the biggest challenge.

“Everything is a challenge, but the recruitment and retention of good English and maths staff is the biggest,” he said.

To cope with that, NSCG partnered with Keele University so that trainee teachers from the university could work part time at the college. They will not be running their own courses, but will work alongside teachers in larger classes.

At City College Norwich, which has an extra 1,000 resitters, class sizes have risen from around 16 to 28, while they are expecting to fork out £100,000 on extra exam entry fees alone. The college also expects up to half of its exam entrants to have special educational needs.

That means more of them will be spread across different rooms, and that more staff will be needed to invigilate all the exams and to assess the students for their exam needs.

16-18s on the rise

Most colleges saw an increase in 16- to- 18-year-old enrolments, compared to 2022/23.

But while there was a similar trend last year, the level of growth was much greater in 2023/24, with 38 per cent of leaders who responded to the survey saying their college had seen a growth of 10 per cent or more. Last year, just seven per cent reported the same.

In total, 85 per cent of colleges said they recruited more than they had targeted for, compared to 58 per cent in 2022/23.

The proportion of colleges which took fewer 16 to 18 enrolments than they had targeted did drop as a result, at six per cent in 2023/24. Last year, 24 per cent recruited fewer 16-18 learners than they had targeted.

ESOL recruitment booms, waiting lists creep up

Colleges have also been coping with an uptick in ESOL learners, or English for Speakers of Other Languages.

Nearly half of all the colleges recruited more than their target, with 18 per cent of that amount taking on a fifth more than they had planned.

The AoC said “by far the biggest reason” for the increase was an increase in demand due to “displacement, refugee status, and asylum seeking”.

Many colleges also increased their waiting lists after they realised they could not meet the high demand.

The number of adult Ukrainians enrolling for ESOL courses also stayed high, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year. More than a fifth recruited between 51 and 200 Ukrainians this year, up from four per cent last year.

Around four in ten colleges took on up to 50 Ukrainians for ESOL courses, which was similar to last year. But the data also shows a quarter of colleges did not take on any Ukrainians, up from 16 per cent last year.

HE numbers slip

Fewer colleges are meeting their targets when it comes to higher education enrolments. The survey data shows that just 31 per cent successfully met their targets in 2023/34, in comparison to 42 per cent the year before.

Nearly a fifth missed their targets by between 10 and 19.9 per cent.

Those who are managing to grow their higher education enrolments also remain few and far between. Just nine per cent grew their enrolment numbers compared to 2022/23 – the same proportion as last year.

Adult education numbers improve, but continue to miss the mark

Two in five colleges recruited their target number of adult learners this year – more than the third that did so in 2022/23. Over a third had more adults enrol on courses than their target number – with the remaining portion seeing a small decrease, in all but one cases, of below 14.9 per cent.

AoC’s survey showed that six per cent of colleges saw increased recruitment of over 20 per cent beyond their target recruitment number.

The principal of the first college to be put in administration has agreed to never work in the education sector again, FE Week can reveal.

In what is thought to be a sector first, Paul Hannan (pictured right) will be fined £250,000 if he breaches the ban which has been imposed following a three-year investigation by BDO, the liquidators for both Hadlow and West Kent and Ashford Colleges.

However, a secret deal has been struck between his deputy Mark Lumsdon-Taylor (pictured left) and BDO that keeps the details of his “undertaking” under wraps. Lumsdon-Taylor, who appears to have already agreed to pay £5,000, will be forced to pay further compensation if he breaches this confidential agreement, and on that basis the liquidators have withdrawn all claims against him in full.

Both leaders of the Hadlow Group resigned in 2019 after applying for emergency funding from the government to keep the colleges open, as Hadlow had run up £40 million in debts, while WKAC owed over £100 million.

The college entered the new education administration process later that year and were moved into liquidation in August 2022. Top Department for Education civil servants previously revealed how the process has cost the taxpayer around £60 million, with a “gut-wrenching” £6 million spent on administrators’ fees alone.

Hundreds of staff lost their jobs and thousands of students had to be moved to other colleges.

The government’s Insolvency Service has been investigating the conduct of the former leaders of the Hadlow Group since the catastrophe unfolded, but it concluded last year that “no further action” should be taken.

However, liquidators BDO have also been investigating the former directors and came to a different outcome.

A recently published creditors’ report states that the joint liquidators “undertook detailed investigations for over three years and intimated claims against Mr Paul Hannan in a letter before action”.

Hannan “disputed liability regarding the claims” and a “full and final settlement was reached on commercially acceptable grounds without any admission of specific liability”.

The settlement required an undisclosed “nominal initial payment”, which was received by the liquidators.

A “further payment of £250,000 in the event of breach of Mr Hannan’s personal undertaking not to take a position in the education sector as a trustee, director, governor, principal, manager, consultant and/or employee,” the report added.

It means that while Hannan has not received an outright directors’ ban from the Insolvency Service, he has been barred from working for another college.

FE Week could not reach Hannan for comment.

‘It’s right that those responsible are held to account’

Lumsdon-Taylor “strenuously disputed all liability”, according to the same BDO report, which revealed his settlement required an initial nominal payment of £5,000.

Lumsdon-Taylor has also “given an undertaking to the joint liquidators” but this is “subject to confidentiality provisions between the parties”.

In the event of a breach, Lumsdon-Taylor will “pay compensation and on that basis the joint liquidators have withdrawn all the claims in full”, the report said.

Responding to the report, a representative for Lumsdon-Taylor told FE Week: “The Hadlow College compulsory liquidation notice confirms that the joint liquidators have withdrawn all claims against Mark J Lumsdon-Taylor unequivocally and in full. This reconfirms our position that there was no case to answer for any ‘claims’ reported or otherwise stated. This matter is concluded.”

Lumsdon-Taylor refused to share any details about the undertaking he has agreed with the liquidators.

The Hadlow and West Kent insolvencies were the first carried out under the laws passed in 2017 which created a special administration regime for colleges.

Julian Gravatt, deputy chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said he is “fairly sure” that this is the first case in which liquidators have “agreed restrictions with former college employees”.

Gravatt said the insolvencies were “exceptional cases in a sector where leaders have an impressive track record of professionalism and skills at leading and managing complex organisations with great probity and integrity”.

“Where things go seriously wrong, it’s right that there are investigations and that those with responsibility are held to account for their actions,” he added.

The liquidators’ fees are different to the £6 million charges paid during the education administration process. BDO’s report reveals the joint liquidators have also racked up remuneration costs of more than £200,000 between August 2022 and August 2023, at an average rate of £175 per hour.

Significantly reduced hourly rates have however been agreed for this work between BDO and DfE. For example, standard charge out rates for a BDO partner ranges between £869 to £994 per hour, discounted to £320 for DfE, and for the £1,304 per hour rate for the BDO tax department has been discounted to £221 per hour.

The process and costs could drag on for years, with the creditors’ report revealing they may need to wait until 2026 for the college’s land at Court Lane to be sold. This is due to a “pre-emption agreement” which currently requires the land to be offered to a third party before it can be sold on the open market.

BDO said it could not provide any further detail than what is already included in its report.