England
Provision for further education colleges was laid out in sections 41 to 47 of the Education Act 1944; their role was to offer "full-time and part-time education" and "leisure-time occupation" for persons over compulsory school age.[1] In the 1960s, A-level students predominantly studied at school rather than colleges (often referred to as "techs" at that time). More types of colleges were introduced over the next decades, and by 1990 colleges took in almost half of A-level students.[2]
Colleges in England are corporate bodies under the Further and Higher Education Act 1992, which removed further education colleges from local government control.[3] Types of college include:
Policies relating to colleges are primarily the responsibility of the Department for Education (DfE). Until July 2016, colleges were also covered by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS); on the abolition of BIS and formation of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), responsibility for FE colleges moved to DfE.[4] The regulatory body for sixth form colleges was already DfE prior to the 2016 changes.
Following the merger of the Education Funding Agency and the Skills Funding Agency in 2017,[5] funding for colleges is provided through the Education and Skills Funding Agency[6] for all further education students.In 2018/19, colleges’ income totalled £6.5 billion, of which £5.1 billion (78%) was public funding. Most college funding follows the learner. Colleges must attract students, competing with each other and with other types of education and training provider. Colleges can borrow commercially, own assets, employ staff and enter into contracts, and they may make financial surpluses or deficits.[7]
The Technical and Further Education Act 2017 laid out a framework for an insolvency regime for further education colleges known as "Education Administration". This is a form of corporate administration adapted to the needs of further education, to be used "where a further education body is unable to pay its debts or is likely to become unable to pay its debts" and intended "to avoid or minimise disruption to the studies of the existing students of the further education body as a whole".[8] Education administrators were appointed to run Hadlow College and West Kent College in 2019.[9]
All colleges and FE providers are subject to inspection by Ofsted, which monitors the quality of provision in publicly funded institutions in England. Membership organisations for providers include the Association of Colleges and the Sixth Form Colleges' Association.
In 2020, the government allocated £200 million for repairs and upgrades of FE college buildings, subject to a degree of matched funding by the colleges,[10] and the Department for Education is allocating this to colleges via the Further Education Capital Transformation Fund (FECTF).[11] Sixteen colleges with sites in poor condition have been selected, and detailed proposals were invited for submission before October 2021, for projects which can be completed by December 2024.[11]