Colleges braced for stringent cuts

COLLEGES this week learned the brutal truth about the scale of next year's funding cuts with the worst hit resigning themselves to slashing student provision and wringing more work from staff.

The Further Education Funding Council allocations for 1997/98 reveal that nearly nine out of ten of England's 446 colleges will be operating on reduced budgets next year. Up to 250,000 students could be deprived of places as colleges axe courses to save money.

The cut, forced by the previous government's squeeze on education funding, amounts to short-changing colleges to the tune of Pounds 245 million. They received just Pounds 315 million out of the total Pounds 560 million they requested for in 1997/98.

Crucially, they cannot make up the shortfall by applying for demand-led element (DLE) funds. DLE funding, which part-pays colleges for student recruitment above agreed targets and is worth Pounds 100 million this year, was axed by the previous government from 1997/98 onwards.

The worst off colleges have asked the new Labour administration to look again at further education funding. Some principals would like at least a partial reintroduction of DLE funding.

Bishop Auckland College, in County Durham, is perhaps worst hit. The college had bid for Pounds 7.9 million for next year but will receive Pounds 3.4 million. Despite FEFC boosting 1997/98 funding by over 18 per cent, the college has been hammered because it has expanded rapidly, exploiting DLE to fund franchised provision.

Principal Joanna Tait said that it meant that up to 5,000 fewer students would be able to study through the college, mainly due to cuts in franchised courses. Staff will be expected to deliver an extra 7 per cent efficiency gain and job losses are a possibility.

Ms Tait said: "The cut is very bad news for our area which, with high unemployment, needs education more than most. We would hope there is some way for the Government to provide some funding which may go some way towards mitigating these cuts."

Halton College, in Cheshire, faces a Pounds 2.5 million funding shortfall next year, amounting to a cut of 15 per cent in the present budget. Principal Martin Jenkins said that this could leave nearly 7,000 students, approaching one sixth of the total, without places. Jobs could also go.

Mr Jenkins said: "We have achieved a lot of growth and have now been capped which means curtailing learning opportunities. I would like to see the reinstatement of some DLE mechanism."

David Melville, FEFC chief executive, said: "We have done our best to be fair to all institutions but colleges everywhere are facing considerable financial pressure and having to make difficult decisions about where and how to make savings." The allocations also show that particular types of institutions will suffer. All of the seven specialist art and design colleges have been hit. And only three of the 30 agricultural colleges are better off next year.

* Leader, page 13

* FE allocations, page 8