Only a quarter of the providers which applied to offer T-levels in 2020 were successful, and many of those left off the list are confused about why.

Names of the 52 providers that will pilot the prestigious new technical qualifications were announced by the Department for Education late last month.

A spokesperson told FE Week they had selected from more than 200 expressions of interest.

But while 26 colleges made the cut, many – including New City College in London – were told they weren’t eligible as they had grade two ratings from Ofsted.

Published criteria had stated that providers rated either ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ were eligible to apply.

Gerry McDonald, the college’s group principal and chief executive, said the decision “contradicts the policy messages we had been given”.

The college had been “very active in the development of T-levels”, with both the college and employer partners “getting prepared” and “keen to move forward”.

“I am confused by this decision and I will be following this up with the department,” he said.

Other big college groups to have missed out include NCG and Capital City College Group, both of which applied.

Only three of the 21 providers involved in the T-level work placement pilot will be offering new the courses in 2020.

These are Blackpool and the Fylde College, Truro and Penwith College, and Access to Music, an independent training provider.

Among those to have missed out was grade two Bolton College. Its director of curriculum Sharon Marriott described the decision-making criteria as “utterly flawed”.

By using ‘outstanding’ as a yardstick, she said, the DfE had “virtually excluded the sector who are expected to deliver the T-levels”.

Peter Mayhew-Smith, principal of grade two South Thames College, was “disappointed” not to have been chosen.

In January this year the Education and Skills Funding Agency invited expressions of interest from providers which wanted to become the first to offer T-levels.

As well as the ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ criterion, applicants needed at least ‘satisfactory’ financial health to be eligible.

If there was “significant interest”, however, the agency said it would apply additional checks to reach a “manageable number” of candidates, including giving priority to grade one providers.

It would also take steps to ensure there were providers across the range of types, and from the DfE’s opportunity areas, as set out in the government’s social mobility action plan published last December.

Of the 52 providers chosen, 32 are ‘outstanding’ and 14 are ‘good’, while a further six don’t have a current Ofsted rating.

Five of these are academies that were rated ‘outstanding’ before they converted, and the sixth is a university technical college that has yet to be inspected.

“The 52 colleges and providers were picked to deliver the first wave of the new T-levels based on published criteria set out earlier this year,” a DfE spokesperson said.

“This set out that successful colleges must, among other things, be ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’.”

Just three T-levels will be launched for teaching in 2020/21, in digital, construction, and education and childcare.

Full roll-out has been delayed until 2023, amid concerns about the planned pace of implementation.

But education secretary Damian Hinds has refused a request from his permanent secretary to delay the pilot to 2021 and is “convinced of the case to press ahead”.

A free school sponsored by England’s largest college group, and which is led by some of its top people, is closing down.

The Discovery School in Newcastle, which cost £9 million to set up, opened in 2014.

It will shut this year over “capability and capacity issues” that have concerned ministers.

Last July, the school was rated ‘inadequate’ at its first inspection by Ofsted, while it expects to receive another in its next, imminent visit from the watchdog.

Three high-ranking NCG employees have been “members” of Discovery ever since it opened. Their responsibilities included appointing the school’s board of trustees – who ultimately oversaw its collapse and failed to turn it around.

These include NCG’s current chief executive Joseph Docherty, its group director of strategic partnerships Chris Payne, and its director of property services Jeff McCall.

On top of this, Discovery’s chair of trustees, is Gerard Garvey – the principal of Newcastle Sixth-Form College, which is part of NCG.

The group has attempted to distance itself from criticism and lay blame with the trustees.

“As sponsor NCG is only responsible for the appointment of the board and has no further powers to interfere in the running of the school,” a spokesperson said.

“It is the board of directors of Discovery Learning Ltd that has total responsibility for all aspects of running Discovery School, including the design of the curriculum, the quality of provision, safeguarding of students, and the appointment or dismissal of all staff, including the principal.

“This is a very clear and deliberate legal separation of responsibilities.”

Mr Garvey’s roles at Discovery and as principal of Newcastle Sixth-Form College are meanwhile “completely separate”, she added.

Discovery was heavily criticised by Ofsted, has suffered from low student numbers, and was forced to launch an urgent review of its safeguarding procedures after a pupil was left in London following a school trip to the capital.

The 14-year-old was left at King’s Cross station when the rest of his group boarded the train two months ago.

Mr Garvey helped appoint a new headteacher last July, Gareth Rowe, even though he knew he didn’t have the full capabilities for the role.

“Governors asked if the newly appointed headteacher had the experience to deal with the current issues faced by the Discovery School,” read minutes from an NCG meeting in June, attended by Mr Docherty and Mr Payne.

“The Newcastle Sixth-Form College principal explained that he did not but they were confident that he had the ambition and capabilities to undertake the role effectively.”

It added that Mr Docherty was “confident that he would be able to deliver”.

This is a crunch time for the nation’s biggest college group, which is cutting staff and had Ofsted breathing down its neck during a full inspection last month over poor achievement rates.

The watchdog took the highly unusual decision to extend its visit, suggesting not all went well.

Discovery is a specialist science and technology free school.

In a statement, the school said the decision to close had been taken “based on well-documented issues at the school including safeguarding problems, poor teaching and leadership and the results of a recent Ofsted which is expected to deem the school ‘inadequate’”.

Year 11 or 12 students are being offered places at Newcastle Sixth-Form College or Newcastle College – both members of NCG.

A spokesperson for the Department for Education said the school had “let down” pupils, parents and teachers.

Highbury College has dropped two grades from ‘outstanding’ in an Ofsted report that brands its teaching “uninspiring” and raises concern over low attendance.

The verdict was a serious blow to a heavily criticised leadership team led by Stella Mbubaegbu (pictured above), who maintains that the college has “already embarked on our journey back to ‘outstanding’”.

In addition to her role as principal of the Portsmouth provider, she is also a director of several high-profile FE bodies: Collab Group and the notorious Gazelle Colleges Group.

Ofsted rated the college ‘requires improvement’ overall, in a report that gives grade threes in headline fields including effectiveness of leadership and management, quality of teaching, learning and assessment, 16-to-19 study programmes, and apprenticeships.

It was ‘outstanding’ when Ofsted last inspected in 2011.

“Leaders and governors have been slow to reverse the college’s decline in performance,” the new report warned.

Leaders’ and managers’ “evaluation of the quality of provision, particularly teaching, learning and assessment” is “overoptimistic”, though governors were recognised for having a “good oversight” of most areas of the college.

Inspectors warned that “overall performance has declined and they have not been effective in challenging and supporting senior leaders to stem this decline”.

“Too much teaching is uninspiring and attendance at most lessons is low.”

Too few teachers and assessors “encourage students on study programmes and apprentices to gain the skills and knowledge they need to achieve well”.

The report recognised that the college, which taught almost 7,000 learners last year, was “undergoing a period of some turbulence” at the time of the inspection.

“Leaders were tackling significant financial challenges but had yet to reverse the decline in performance of the past few years,” it said.

The college declined to comment on its current financial position, but according to the 2016/17 ESFA accounts, it had a deficit of £1,663,190.

Ms Mbubaegbu preferred to focus on the more positive elements of the report.

“We are enormously proud of our students and pleased that Ofsted recognises their motivation, work-related skills and their enjoyment of learning,” she said.

“The improvements outlined in the report are well underway and we have already embarked on our journey back to ‘outstanding’. Our focus will remain on enabling all our students to succeed.”

Inspectors did recognise that “students and apprentices are well behaved, confident and respectful, and a strong culture of safety permeates the college”.

Managers “maintain a strong focus on promoting equality of opportunity and creating a culture that welcomes diversity”, resulting in a “respectful and harmonious college community”.

But efforts to improve the quality of teaching “have had limited success”.

Ms Mbubaegbu is listed as a director of Gazelle Colleges Group, which is still active according to Companies House.

The group, registered at Highbury College Portsmouth, was subject to an FE Week investigation in 2014 which revealed how the five founding member colleges had each paid more than £530,000 to the group since it was launched.

But it had drastically scaled down its operations by January last year, when we reported that its membership numbers had fallen from 23 colleges to six.

Despite its problems, the college still describes itself on its website as “a key member” of Gazelle.