Tuesday, 02 February 2010 20:32 Martin Doel, chief executive of the Association of Colleges (AoC), rushed to give evidence to the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee today in an attempt to scale back "devastating" adult learning cuts.

Colleges face a new £200 million cut to adult courses as its allocated budget shrinks between ten per cent and 25 per cent

."At a time when Colleges are helping Britain beat the recession they are facing the prospect of having to cut courses for adults," said Mr Doel.

"They understand how tough public finances are, but they don’t want to lose high quality courses that are essential to our economic recovery and make a great deal of difference to people and businesses across Britain."

AoC is calling on the government to increase funding flexibility so that colleges can support these courses where necessary by transferring money between budgets.

He added: "Government and its agencies also need to be transparent about the consequences of this decision; if you cut budgets then you must accept that, even with the best will in the world, colleges won’t be able to enrol and teach the same number of students. "Unlike the current debate about university funding cuts - which will take place in the future - these changes are real and are happening now. They will affect students trying to enrol this September."

According to AoC research, colleges face an average cut of 16 per cent, and over two fifths of the 144 surveyed are subject to a cut of more than 20 per cent.

Pat Bacon, AoC's president, said: "These cuts will have an impact, not only on the students and the communities Colleges serve so well, but also on Government’s own ambitions for further and higher education. "Any suggestion that Colleges can keep the same number of adult students by simply expanding the number of fee-paying places ignores the current economic climate and people’s ability to pay."

Jason Rainbow

(Pictured: AoC chief executive Martin Doel)