Colleges face significant deterioration without urgent funding, warn MPs
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- 16 Dec 2020
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MPs have condemned the government’s record on further education (FE), saying it has been too slow to address the emerging financial crisis in the sector.
A report by the cross-party public accounts committee said there were serious concerns about the future of FE in England, with many colleges in a dire financial state. It warned of “substantial further deterioration” without prompt intervention.
The committee said there were “potentially serious consequences for learners and local economies”. Funding and oversight bodies had failed to step in quickly enough to address emerging problems, and there was confusion about who should intervene and when.
It said any further funding cuts to FE would result in “significant financial challenges”, and it dismissed the government’s response to the crisis – an area-based review of post-16 education – as limited in scope and potentially haphazard.
The FE sector has been warning that many colleges are on the edge of a precipice after years of funding cuts. The government’s skills funding agency found 29 colleges to be financially inadequate in 2013-14, and the latest forecasts suggest 70 colleges will be in the same position by the end of 2015-16.
Meg Hillier, chair of the committee, said: “The government has been desperately slow off the mark to tackle a looming crisis in further education. This is deeply worrying for a sector which equips people with skills and qualifications that can transform their life prospects, and by extension those of the communities in which they live and work.
“There is no doubt further education is under significant pressure and it is both frustrating and sad to think of the potential going unfulfilled, particularly in cases where earlier intervention could have prevented problems from escalating.”
She added: “There must be greater clarity over who is responsible for taking action when colleges face financial difficulties, when that action should be taken, and a fuller understanding of its effects. There is a real danger of substantial further deterioration in the sector and government must act now to ensure FE is put on a stable financial footing.”
The skills minister Nick Boles defended the government’s record, saying funding for FE had been protected and real-term spending would increase by more than a third in the next five years, with funding for apprenticeships doubled since 2010.
“We recognise the important contribution the sector makes to increasing opportunity for young people and businesses, and ensuring our long-term economic security,” Boles said. “With early intervention from the funding agencies, the FE commissioner and locally led area reviews, colleges will become more efficient and financially resilient while ensuring the best return on investment for public funding.”
Neil Carmichael, chair of the Commons education select committee, which plans to investigate post-16 funding, said: “Funding for further education has to match the government’s ambitious goals for the FE sector and ensure colleges have the financial security to plan ahead and achieve these aims.”
Jonathan Tummons, an expert in education and work-based learning at Durham University, said: “We do not need to look ahead to note the impact of the decline in investment in the FE sector because it has been underfunded for so long. Already there are too many instances of students being pushed together in order to make a class financially viable, or of students being pushed on to courses that they are not yet ready for, or that are inappropriate in terms of aspiration or motivation.
“This does not make for good learning, or for good teaching. If colleges are to provide environments for learning that are authentic, are properly equipped and are linked to the needs of local industry or business, then they require a level of funding commensurate with their importance to local economies.”
