Association of Colleges

28 March 2011

Association of Colleges Chief Executive Martin Doel said: “We welcome today’s announcement of £180 million to help students from the poorest families to continue with their education. Clearly this falls far short of the £575 million in the EMA, but we recognise that this support is being targeted at those students most in need, including those who are in care and those with disabilities. We are pleased that Ministers have listened to our concerns about students starting their second year in September. They signed up to their courses with the expectation that this funding would continue and AoC felt there was a moral obligation to do so.

“We appreciate the intention that our member Colleges be entrusted with maximum discretion as to how this money is to be spent and that there will be freedom to use it to fund transport, food and learning materials. Our members had expressed great concern about transport costs, in particular, which an AoC survey had identified as a key barrier to students continuing with their College courses.

“There will be an extremely tight eight-week consultation period where the finer details of the funding and administration will need to be determined and we look forward to working closely with Government to ensure the best outcome for our Colleges and their students. In this we will be doing our utmost to ensure that administrative costs are kept to a minimum and that we build on the experience of Colleges in handling the existing Learner Support Fund to ensure that the maximum benefit from the available funds are delivered to students on the basis of need and disadvantage.”