Whether
this is the fault of devolution or, as the Welsh Assembly spokesman alleges, the individual head-teachers, it is clearly a situation that needs to be sorted out for the sake of Welsh students:
Some Welsh students are missing out on taking the right courses because of a “line on a map”, the head of a large college in England suggested yesterday.
Sara Mogel, principal of West Cheshire College, which has a campus a mile from the Welsh border, said she was prevented from recruiting students from Welsh schools because it could affect the college’s funding settlements.
She added: “English border colleges can’t go into Welsh schools, even if ... the English college is the closest to that school. If we, ‘actively recruit’ is the phrase, we could be prevented from drawing down funding. I think it limits people’s choice.
“I understand why it happens but it does seem a shame that a line on a map that makes little difference to people’s travel has that implication for some students.”
In a separate memo to MPs from the Association of Colleges, it was suggested that:
“Welsh students are pushed to study at Welsh colleges even if less convenient or less suitable”.
4 comments:
Much the same way that the Welsh are pushed to use Welsh Hospitals even if an English Hospital is closer or has more expertise in the health problem in question.
Not that I should complain seeing as the Welsh Assembly won't pay the bills of Welsh people attending English Hospitals (and of course increasing English times), hence Bristol's decision to stop treating Welsh people...
I don't quite understand this story. Te College says it will lose funding if it actively recruits Welsh students. I take it the college is funded by the English Education Dept (being in England) so is this something to do with the rules of that dept and not the Assembly?
It's the WAG which seems to have the confusion:
But the Assembly Government said it was a matter for individual headteachers whether they allowed English FE colleges to recruit Welsh pupils
From as far as can be gathered from the article, this is not the crux of the matter, it's the fact that, in a nutshell, there is now too much educational bureaucracy which doesn't know its arse from its elbow
Or, knowing the Western Mail, the Western Mail isn't sure who is responsible for funding the college so in true Mule fashion they don't bother checking and just print the "he said, they said"
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