£2m boost for Shropshire college in merger plan
Plans for a merger which will see £2 million pumped into a college in Shropshire are moving forward, it was revealed today.
Officials at Ludlow College and Herefordshire College of Technology have launched public consultation over plans which will see the two institutions run by a single governing body from July 31.
The two colleges will be renamed Herefordshire and Ludlow College in a move which education officials have claimed will secure post-16 education in the south of the county.
All 1,683 full and part-time students from Ludlow who have not yet completed their courses will be able to do so under the new merged college, staff have pledged.
More teachers could be taken on with full-time contracts and the number of students is expected to rise. But the merger could lead to possible job losses in backroom staff as cuts are made to administration costs. People have until February 11 to have their say over the proposals.
Jonathan Davis, principal at Ludlow College, said the merger, thought to be the first of its kind, has put to bed any speculation about his college's future which struggles to pull in Government funding because it only has 450 full-time 16 to 19 year old students, making it the smallest sixth-form college in Britain.
Ian Peake, principal at HCT, said he expected it to invest about £2 million into Ludlow College over the next few years.
HCT currently only offers vocational courses and Mr Peake added the merger, due to come into force in August, would allow it to send
Herefordshire students to Ludlow for A-levels. He said: "In the next two to three years we will be spend about £2 million on infrastructure."
To comment e-mail ludlowconsultation@hct.ac.uk
