Surbiton women's college told to improve or lose £1.5m funding

Hillcroft College

South Bank

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Surbiton.com: May 17, 2013 - 7:00am

A historic women’s college in Surbiton could have most of its funding cut unless it drastically improves its education standards.

Hillcroft College has been told by the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) – which contributes more than £1.5m a year to the South Bank institution – that progress on student achievements has been “insufficient”, and has now sent in consultants to turn the college around. But if the college continues to flounder, the agency has the option to withdraw its funding, suspend recruitment or terminate its contract.

The move comes more than a year on from the SFA issuing the college with a notice to improve, and five months after an Ofsted inspection deemed Hillcroft to be inadequate. Hillcroft was opened in the 1920s by the YWCA, as attitudes towards women changed following the First World War. It is the UK’s only residential college exclusively for women, offering a range of courses for students of all abilities, including those with dyslexia or dyspraxia.

But the college has been beset by problems in recent years, including in 2010 when it spent £443,000 to cover the cost of a fundraising concert that sold just 3,000 of its 14,000 tickets. Kingston and Surbiton MP Edward Davey, a patron of Hillcroft, said he would speak to principal Michael Wheeler to offer assistance.

http://www.surreycomet.co.uk/news/10425536.Surbiton_women_s_college_told_to_impr...

SurreyComet.co.uk

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