Registers of interests become the norm

Eight out of ten further education colleges have registers of governors' and senior staff's interests, or plan to have them soon, according to a Further Education Funding Council survey. Three quarters of these plan to make them publicly available.

The council conducted the survey following a Public Accounts Committee recommendation. The council said it would encourage the remaining colleges to establish registers but for the time being it did not intend to make this a condition of funding as suggested by the PAC.

The FEFC also said this week it had analysed college accounts for the year ending July 31 1995. The analysis showed that the sector's finances had deteriorated since the previous year although the figures were not as gloomy as colleges' financial forecasts had suggested.

The number of colleges reporting operating deficits rose from 204 (47 per cent of the sector) to 236 (60 per cent) over the year.