Cash call for FE growth

IAN McCALMAN, president of the Educational Institute of Scotland, has called for the proposed expansion of further education to be matched by an injection of cash.

Mr McCalman, speaking this week to the EIS College Lecturers' Association at Dundee College, said that both the Kennedy and Dearing reports backed expansion. But this required a funding reappraisal for new buildings, technology and facilities, he said.

Dearing's recommendation of a three-year planning cycle for higher education should also apply to further education. "It is rather contradictory to have a situation whereby Dearing advocates that 60 per cent of funding in higher education should be student-led, but there is an objective of achieving 100 per cent of funding of this nature in FE," he said.