Warning courses could be scrapped at Leicester College if Government claws back funding
Video report by Peter Bearne, Education Correspondent
The principal of Leicester College says it feels like she is being punished, after the Government announced it would be clawing back millions of pounds of its adult education funding.
Verity Hancock says the college is being unfairly forced to pay back money for classes it was unable to put on during the pandemic.
Leicester College says it has found it particularly hard to provide courses because of how badly the city has been hit by coronavirus.
The college is having to hand back a significant amount of money (nearly £4m) at the end of this college year, which it says will have a negative impact on students.
The college says it had already recruited lecturers and bought resources with the allocated funding, but due to Covid-19 it was unable to run as many classes for adult students as was hoped.
This academic year, the college received £11 million of Government funding for adult education.
Because of the pandemic, it expects only to be able to put on around half of those classes, at a cost of just under £6 million.
But last month, the Government announced it expects colleges to deliver 90 per cent of their teaching.
Any shortfall, the Government says, must be paid back - in Leicester's case, that comes to around £4 million.
The college says Leicester's year-long lockdown has hit particularly hard.
Some courses could not be done online, and many black and Asian students felt uneasy coming in because they were at higher risk from the virus.
Students themselves have drawn up a petition in protest.
Students, staff and local MPs have denounced the move and say it flies in the face of Government pledges to "reskill" adults as a way of recovering from the pandemic.
The college says its SLT team is looking at how this can impact students in the future, but it could mean building of new facilities and other provisions may have to be stalled.
In response, the Department for Education said:
"We acknowledge the situation is still difficult, but many providers have been able to deliver, very successfully, remotely during lockdown.
"We are announcing this change now to help providers plan better, for the remainder of the academic year."
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