Colleges face rebel swell

Gang rivalry, swearing and joy-riding are spilling from the streets into further education colleges as their student intake expands. Potential flashpoints range from care in the community patients to adult returners unused to disciplined learning.

Colleges are unwilling to expel disruptive students, partly because they believe in open access to learning and partly because losing students means losing cash.

Now the Further Education Development Agency is working on a model for preventing and managing difficult behaviour.

Many colleges have already increased their security staff and the Suzy Lamplugh Trust is providing training to staff and students in personal safety.

Pembrokeshire FE College at Haverfordwest this week became the first further education college in the country to establish a police station on site, manned three days a week by officers from the local Dyfed/Powys force.

Carole Mitchell, a research and development officer with Feda, said college complaints included graffiti, bad attendance, drugs and gangs with "street disputes being resolved in class" and "vehicle misuse in college car parks".

"Colleges are opening up their premises to new student groups and traditional classroom barriers are also breaking down," she said. "Students are being expected to work more independently and not all of them have the discipline."

Barry Fyfield, director of the Islington campus at City and Islington College, said colleges were often taking on 16 to 19-year-olds who had not settled well at school. "They have a macho street style, which they are bringing into the college," he said. "They don't have to be there and we don't have to have them. But we feel an obligation, particularly in this area where there is a large amount of deprivation."

The other problem was adult returners, who occasionally displayed their feelings of stress and lack of confidence through aggressive behaviour.

Graeme Hill, vice principal student services at Croydon College, said care in the community patients were a source of concern. "Because of the Care in the Community Act, people are presenting themselves at the college who may not display normal behaviour," he said. "We want to deal with this as positively as possible and not create an environment that doesn't allow the community access to what we offer."