Colleges protest at new inspections

Computing was a weakness of Redbridge College

Further education colleges in England are protesting that new inspections - with Ofsted inspectors stressing the quality of education students are getting - are unfair.

Under the new arrangements, inspections are being carried out jointly by Ofsted - the Office for Standards in Education - and the Adult Learning Inspectorate. They used to be done by the sector's funding council.

So far, three further education colleges in England have been visited and all are said to have shortcomings.

The Association of Colleges has protested that the judgements were made against criteria which were too new to the colleges to allow them to do well.

Redbridge College in London came off worst.

Learning English

It was described as providing inadequate education overall, with five of the 10 curriculum areas "unsatisfactory" and with "weak" leadership and management.

Its one good point was the teaching of English for speakers of other languages - the college's intake reflects that of the local area, where 27% are from minority ethnic groups.

The inspection report said: "Student retention and pass rates are low in many areas and the college does not provide good value for money.

"There is a high proportion of unsatisfactory teaching."

Teesside Tertiary College in Middlesbrough provided a satisfactory education but the leadership and management were unsatisfactory.

Brooklands College in Surrey was satisfactory in both its education and training and its leadership and management - but even it needed to improve the proportion of students who finish their courses successfully.

New focus

Two other colleges - Stockport and Suffolk - have also been visited, but the reports on them have yet to be published.

Ofsted said that the new system involved "significant changes of emphasis from the previous regime".

It is putting students first, with an emphasis on the quality of teaching, training and learning.

The head of Ofsted, Mike Tomlinson, said: "Although it would be premature to draw too many conclusions from the first three joint inspections, it must be a matter for concern that we have already identified inadequate management and leadership in two colleges and inadequate curriculum provision in one.

Warning

"Where provision is judged to be inadequate, inspectors will work closely with the Learning and Skills Council and individual providers to monitor progress and support improvement.

"These reports will send a clear message that the inspections we shall be conducting ... will be rigorous and searching.

"The greater emphasis on teaching right across the curriculum will give us a clear picture of teaching quality in FE colleges for the first time in England.

"Set beside Ofsted's inspection of school sixth forms and sixth form colleges it will also become possible for the first time to make comparisons between the quality of teaching and learning in the three different areas of education for 16-18 year olds."

David Sherlock, chief inspector of adult education, said: "In the past decade further education colleges were encouraged to grow at all costs.

"As a result, many offer programmes in which they have few traditional strengths and standards have suffered."

Plea for more time

Judith Norrington, director of curriculum and quality at the Association of Colleges, said: "We welcome Ofsted's emphasis on the learner's experience, but the fact is that colleges up to March 2001 were inspected against very different criteria. "

Under the Further Education Funding Council for England, 94% of lessons had been assessed as satisfactory or better - what had changed was not the lessons but the inspection systems.

"Colleges will take some time to swing their quality assurance and available resources round to Ofsted's new perspective and so judgements about the sector's performance should not rely on these reports at this stage," she said.

The Ofsted guidance to colleges had only recently been published in draft form.

"Colleges have the right to know in advance exactly what they are being judged against, and to change their practice where necessary."

Ms Norrington also said that current method of grading courses favoured the relatively simple structures in schools rather than the often large and complex structures in colleges with thousands of students.

Short of money

The association also pleaded poverty - arguing that colleges were operating at 1995-6 funding levels.

"Underlying funding problems inevitably impact on the quality of lecturers who are being attracted into or retained in colleges, at a time when many well-qualified and successful staff are leaving for better-rewarded jobs in schools," it said.

"One college recently reported to us that they currently had 40 teaching and learning vacancies, and our national survey this year indicates that difficulties with recruitment and retention are widespread."

In the circumstances it was not surprising that colleges would struggle to provide continuing high quality teaching, the association said.

The lecturers' union Natfhe is calling on its members to vote to reject the college employers' offer of a 3.7% pay rise - because it contains no "catch-up" on the pay gap with schoolteachers, which the union puts at more than 7%.

Lecturers at 290 colleges across England and Wales went on strike for a day in May and further action is on the cards if the ballot goes the way the union's leadership has recommended.