Birmingham college reverses veil ban

Birmingham Metropolitan College has altered its policy on students wearing head coverings after it was criticised for including the Muslim veil in its ban. The college originally said it was banning people from wearing anything which covers their face because of security reasons.

In a statement it said:

"Birmingham Metropolitan College is committed to high quality education for all of our learners. We are concerned that recent media attention is detracting from our core mission of providing high quality learning.

As a consequence, we will modify our policies to allow individuals to wear specific items of personal clothing to reflect their cultural values.

The College will still need to be able to confirm an individual’s identity in order to maintain safeguarding and security.

We have listened to the views of our students and we are confident that this modification to our policies will meet the needs of all of our learners and stakeholders."