South Nottingham College
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REPORT FROM THE INSPECTORATE South Nottingham College February 1994 THE FURTHER EDUCATION FUNDING COUNCIL THE FURTHER EDUCATION FUNDING COUNCIL The Further Education Funding Council (FEFC) has a statutory duty to ensure that there are satisfactory arrangements to assess the quality of provision in the further education sector. It discharges the duty in part through its inspectorate, which reports on each college in the sector every four years. The Council’s inspectorate also assesses and reports on a national basis on specific curriculum areas and advises the Council’s quality assessment committee. College inspections involve both full-time inspectors and registered part- time inspectors who have specialist knowledge and experience in the areas they inspect. Inspection teams normally include at least one member from outside the world of education and a nominated member of staff from the college being inspected. GRADE DESCRIPTORS The procedures for assessing quality are described in the Council Circular 93/28. In the course of inspecting colleges, inspectors assess the strengths and weaknesses of each aspect of provision they inspect. Assessments are set out in their reports. They also summarise their judgements on the balance between strengths and weaknesses using a five-point scale. Each grade on the scale has the following descriptor: • 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. Cheylesmore House Quinton Road Coventry CV1 2WT Telephone 0203 863000 Fax 0203 863100 © FEFC 1994 FEFC INSPECTION REPORT 09/94 SOUTH NOTTINGHAM COLLEGE EAST MIDLANDS REGION Inspected September-December 1993 Summary South Nottingham College provides a range of further education courses to serve the city of Nottingham and south Nottinghamshire. It successfully attracts many students from the Asian community which regards the college as strongly supportive. The college is responsive to the needs of students with learning difficulties and/or disabilities. There are effective links with the Greater Nottingham Training and Enterprise Council, the local education authority, higher education institutions, some employers and some local schools. Students benefit from the teaching of well-qualified and experienced lecturers and sound systems of support and guidance. They generally achieve satisfactory standards: in 1993, there were good success rates for students on their final year of study for national diplomas and at GCSE. The college has well-established procedures for course review and has successfully implemented a programme of staff- development entitlements. The college should clarify the roles of managers and co-ordinators, develop and extend the use of management information systems, define more closely the targets for its course teams and improve the internal review of its quality procedures. It should also integrate more effectively the various elements of learning support, develop a plan for upgrading equipment, improve accommodation where it adversely affects standards of work and extend its range of industrial and commercial links. 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 3 Curriculum area Grade Curriculum area Grade Art & design, media & print 3 Learning support 2 Business, management & Mathematics 3 professional studies 3 Care 3 Office & secretarial studies 3 Computing 2 Physics 3 English & communication Psychology & sociology 3 studies 3 History 2 CONTENTS Paragraph Introduction 1 The college and its aims 3 Responsiveness and range of provision 9 Governance and management 23 Students’ recruitment, guidance and support 29 Teaching and the promotion of learning 34 Students’ achievements 43 Quality assurance 51 Resources 58 Conclusions and issues 69 Figures 1 INTRODUCTION 1 South Nottingham College, Nottinghamshire, was inspected during the autumn term 1993. Nine inspectors visited the college for 50 inspector days between 14 September and 3 December. They observed 125 learning sessions, attended by approximately 1,500 students, and examined samples of students’ written work. Discussions took place with college governors, college managers, staff and students and with representatives of local industry, the local community and the Greater Nottingham Training and Enterprise Council (TEC). The inspection team also examined a wide range of documentation including committee minutes. 2 The inspection was carried out in accordance with the framework and guidelines described in Council Circular 93/28. The framework describes a four-year inspection cycle. When this cycle becomes fully established, colleges will have the opportunity to respond to the findings of earlier inspection visits before their quadrennial inspection and the subsequent published report. As this inspection occurred early in the cycle, the opportunity for such a response was not available. THE COLLEGE AND ITS AIMS 3 The college is situated in the Rushcliffe district of Nottinghamshire, in the south-west outskirts of Greater Nottingham, four miles from the city centre. The college has two main locations at West Bridgford and Clifton. The Charnwood Centre at Clifton, which houses printing, art and design and communication, is a fifteen minute drive from West Bridgford. At West Bridgford there are two sites, fifteen minutes walking distance apart: the Denton Centre houses the caring courses; the Greythorn Drive site is used for most of the remaining college provision and also houses the main library, student facilities and the college administration. Adult education and English as a second language (ESOL) are located in various buildings across the south of the city and the county. 4 There are approximately 1,400 students on full-time or sandwich courses and 3,200 on part-time courses. Enrolments for 1993-94 total over 2,000 full-time equivalents. Figure 1 shows actual and full-time equivalent enrolments by mode of study, together with the college’s recruitment targets. The college employs 115 full-time teachers and 78 full-time support staff. A staff profile is given in figure 2. 5 The college is organised into 10 schools: printing, media and communication studies, art and design, office and secretarial skills, business studies, mathematics and computing, sciences, learning support, adult vocational education, humanities and social science. The inspection focused on eleven subject areas within the provision offered by the schools. Enrolments by mode of attendance and curriculum area are shown in figure 3. 6 The college is one of eight further education colleges in the Nottingham conurbation. There are five general further education colleges, a tertiary college and two sixth form colleges. All local schools have sixth 2 forms and the college shares its campus with one of them. The college attracts post-16 students from over 80 secondary schools across the city and the southern part of the county. 7 Nottingham city and Rushcliffe have a combined population of approximately 390,000. Local employment opportunities include clerical, professional, financial, personal and technical services. There is little manufacturing industry in the areas adjacent to the college although agriculture is predominant in the rural parts of Rushcliffe. Unemployment in the city is 18.4 per cent and in Nottinghamshire as a whole it is 12.8 per cent. 8 The college’s mission is set out in its strategic plan. In summary, the college is dedicated to satisfying the present and future education and training needs of individuals as well as the whole community. RESPONSIVENESS AND RANGE OF PROVISION 9 The college is reviewing its provision to take account of the national targets for education and training. It recognises the need to develop more varied modes of attendance for students. It also plans to widen access by modularising the curriculum, extending facilities for open and independent learning and introducing opportunities for students to construct individual learning programmes. 10 Within Nottingham, each of the further education colleges has traditionally specialised in particular aspects of the vocational curriculum as well as providing broad programmes of general education. South Nottingham College is a specialist centre for art and design, printing, photography and media studies. It is also a designated regional centre for specialist support for students with learning difficulties. In addition to these areas, the college offers provision for business and professional studies, mathematics, computing, information technology, science, pre- nursing and care, secretarial studies, pre-vocational studies, General Certificate of Education advanced level (GCE A level) and General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE). The community education programme is one of the largest in the region. 11 There is an appropriate range of academic and vocational courses to meet the needs of potential clients and there are good routes for students to progress from one level of study to another in all curriculum areas. A National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) in care operates in a flexible and innovative manner.