Croydon College
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REPORT FROM THE INSPECTORATE Croydon College March 1996 THE FURTHER EDUCATION FUNDING COUNCIL THE FURTHER EDUCATION FUNDING COUNCIL The Further Education Funding Council has a legal duty to make sure further education in England is properly assessed. The FEFC’s inspectorate inspects and reports on each college of further education every four years. The inspectorate also assesses and reports nationally on the curriculum and gives advice to FEFC’s quality assessment committee. College inspections are carried out in accordance with the framework and guidelines described in Council Circular 93/28. They involve full-time inspectors and registered part-time inspectors who have knowledge and experience in the work they inspect. Inspection teams normally include at least one member who does not work in education and a member of staff from the college being inspected. Cheylesmore House Quinton Road Coventry CV1 2WT Telephone 01203 863000 Fax 01203 863100 © FEFC 1996 You may photocopy this report. CONTENTS Paragraph Summary Introduction 1 The college and its aims 2 Responsiveness and range of provision 7 Governance and management 17 Students’ recruitment, guidance and support 28 Teaching and the promotion of learning 38 Students’ achievements 49 Quality assurance 65 Resources 74 Conclusions and issues 84 Figures GRADE DESCRIPTORS The procedures for assessing quality are set out in the Council Circular 93/28. During their inspection, inspectors assess the strengths and weaknesses of each aspect of provision they inspect. Their assessments are set out in the reports. They also use a five-point grading scale to summarise the balance between strengths and weaknesses. The descriptors for the grades are: • grade 1 – provision which has many strengths and very few weaknesses • grade 2 – provision in which the strengths clearly outweigh the weaknesses • grade 3 – provision with a balance of strengths and weaknesses • grade 4 – provision in which the weaknesses clearly outweigh the strengths • grade 5 – provision which has many weaknesses and very few strengths. By June 1995, some 208 college inspections had been completed. The grade profiles for aspects of cross-college provision and programme areas for the 208 colleges are shown in the following table. College grade profiles 1993-95 Inspection grades Activity 123 45 Programme area 9% 60% 28% 3% <1% Cross-college provision 13% 51% 31% 5% <1% Overall 11% 56% 29% 4% <1% FEFC INSPECTION REPORT 26/96 CROYDON COLLEGE GREATER LONDON REGION Inspected May-November 1995 Summary Croydon College is responsive and provides a wide range of courses which offers students good opportunities for progression. It is improving its links with local schools and developing good relationships with external agencies. There is a well-considered strategic planning process. The college is effectively governed. Courses and services are generally well managed. There are suitable arrangements for the recruitment and induction of students. On most courses the quality of teaching is good. There is an effective tutorial system on many courses and comprehensive arrangements for learning support and counselling. The monitoring of students’ attendance and retention is variable. The flexible learning workshops, the libraries and information technology workshops, offer good support for students. The standard of specialist equipment is generally good. Students’ attendance, retention and achievements are poor in some courses, particularly in hairdressing where remedial action is required. Quality assurance procedures are well established but their implementation is variable. The use of performance indicators in management and quality assurance is underdeveloped. Statistical information to support management decisions is inadequate and unreliable. The computerised management information system is not serving the college’s needs for data on students’ enrolments and achievements. The grades awarded as a result of the inspection are given below. Aspects of cross-college provision Grade Responsiveness and range of provision 2 Governance and management 3 Students’ recruitment, guidance and support 2 Quality assurance 3 Resources: staffing 2 equipment/learning resources 2 accommodation 2 Curriculum area Grade Curriculum area Grade Science and mathematics 2 Health and community care 2 Computing and information Hairdressing and beauty technology 2 therapy 4 Construction 3 Art and design 3 Engineering 2 English, languages/English as a foreign language 3 Business studies 2 Other humanities 2 Hotel and catering, English for speakers of other leisure and tourism 2 languages, SLDD and basic education 2 1 INTRODUCTION 1 Croydon College was inspected between May and November 1995 by 22 full-time and part-time inspectors who spent a total of 86 days in the college. They inspected teaching and learning across the college as well as recruitment and induction procedures. Inspectors visited 293 classes involving about 3,000 students and inspected a broad range of students’ written work. Meetings were held with governors, students, teachers, senior managers, support staff, parents, employers and a representative of the South London Training and Enterprise Council (TEC). The inspectors also had access to extensive documentation about the college and its courses. THE COLLEGE AND ITS AIMS 2 Croydon College is a large further and higher education college which celebrated its centenary in 1988. It occupies four buildings on three sites in the London Borough of Croydon. The Fairfield and Barclay Road buildings are situated in the town centre and the Heath Clark and Selhurst centres are in the south west and the north of the borough, respectively. The college lies in the area covered by the South London TEC. Competition for students is intense. There are two sixth form colleges in the borough and eight colleges within easy travelling distance of up to 10 miles, as well as schools which have sixth forms. One of the two local city technology colleges shares a site with the college at the Selhurst centre. Adult education in the borough is provided by the Continuing Education and Training Service which is partly funded by the Further Education Funding Council (FEFC). 3 At the time of the inspection, there were 12,069 students enrolled at the college. Of these, 70 per cent were over 19 years of age. Enrolments by age and by level of study are shown in figures 1 and 2. The college attracts students from a wide catchment area. About 50 per cent of the full-time further education students come from the London Borough of Croydon and the remainder from the nearby boroughs of Lambeth, Sutton, Merton, Bromley, Lewisham, Southwark and Wandsworth, and adjacent parts of Kent and Surrey. Last year, about 40 per cent of the students came from minority ethnic backgrounds. Students attending higher education courses are drawn from all parts of the United Kingdom and some from the European Community. Part-time students are drawn from all parts of London and South East England. The college is well served by public transport. 4 In 1991, the London Borough of Croydon had a population of 313,510 and is the largest of the London boroughs in terms of numbers of residents. About 9,000 businesses are based in Croydon, including a range of multinational and national companies. There are also large government offices and major department stores. There has recently been a growth in the number of small companies in the service sector and in manufacturing 2 services. Employment is still mostly in the distributive trades, banking, insurance and other service industries, although these sectors have reduced in size in recent years. Many residents travel daily to work in central London. The unemployment rate in Croydon is 9.2 per cent compared with 6.4 and 6.0 per cent in the neighbouring outer London boroughs of Bromley and Sutton. The proportion of residents from minority ethnic backgrounds is 16.5 per cent in Croydon, 2.8 per cent in Bromley and 3.6 per cent in Sutton. The figures for Croydon’s unemployment rate and the proportion of residents from minority ethnic backgrounds are similar to those for Greater London as a whole. 5 The college’s work is organised into eight schools which offer a range of further education courses in nine of the FEFC’s 10 programme areas. Courses are offered in art and design, construction, engineering, English, a range of humanities subjects, modern and community languages, business studies, computing, science, mathematics, health and community care, hairdressing and beauty therapy, hospitality and catering, and leisure and tourism. In addition the college has contracted with the Higher Education Funding Council for England to provide courses for which funding of nearly £3 million has been allocated in 1995-96. It has become a college of the University of Sussex. The college also provides courses for employers and other clients on a full-cost basis through the Croydon Education Business Enterprise. Enrolments by mode of attendance and curriculum area are shown in figure 3. The college employs 759 full-time equivalent staff of which 386 are full-time equivalent teaching posts. A staff profile, with staff expressed as full-time equivalents, is shown in figure 4. 6 The college’s mission statement states that: ‘the college seeks to provide high-quality learning opportunities that are flexible and accessible and designed to enable individuals to realise their personal and professional potential’. The mission statement and the college’s values are displayed in 50