COLLEGE STAYS OPEN (From Warrington Guardian)

COLLEGE STAYS OPEN

HALTON College is not closing, parents and students have been assured.

David Taylorson, chairman of the governors has written to parents, inviting them to meet senior managers and board members.

It follows various rumours circulating in the local community after national newspaper and TV reports of the college fraud scandal.

Following investigations by the Further Education Funding Council and the National Audit Office, the college has been ordered to repay £10 million, cash overclaimed from the Government.

Mr Taylorson said this week: "We have had some anxious inquiries asking if it is true that the college will close or that the second year of courses will not run.

"I can assure you that the college is not going to close and has no plans to stop courses midway.

"The quality of teaching and the student experience has not been questioned by the Further Education Funding Council. It is, in fact, recognised as being of high quality.

"The staff redundancies should have little impact on the range of programmes offered."

However, he said, the college cannot operate any new courses with very small group sizes and students may see an increase in class sizes.

Mr Taylorson confessed to parents that "the college has made some mistakes."

He said the college is currently negotiating the lease of the Vestric building, beside Asda in Runcorn.

If all goes well, they hope to start courses there in September.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.