Wolverhampton College judged as 'inadequate'

Wolverhampton College was today judged as "inadequate" in a damning inspection.

The college, which has around 15,000 students, was told too many were dropping out and others "fail to achieve their full potential".

The report by education watchdog Ofsted found success rates "below or well below national averages".

Meanwhile, another report revealed today the college is losing money on under-subscribed courses and that it needs to cut the number of vice-principals from four to two.

The document by auditors KPMG, obtained by the Express & Star, said the college is losing money by running classes with too few students. Out of 920 courses, 433 had fewer than 10 students.

"This is the largest proportion of small class sizes that we have seen in the sector," KPMG said. "There are 189,027 learner hours in classes of less than 10. This equates to 12,609 lecturer hours at a cost of £567,081."

The college has campuses in Paget Road, Compton, and Wellington Road in Bilston as well as Metro One in the city centre, Newhampton Arts Centre in Whitmore Reans, a campus in Telford and a hair training academy in Worcester.

Ofsted inspector Paul Joyce said today: "Too many students leave their course early without achieving and of those that remain too few achieve the intended qualification aim.

"Attendance rates are low on many courses and students do not make the progress expected or achieve to their full potential. Governors, leaders and managers have not taken sufficiently robust action to address a significant decline in performance.The college is in a weak financial position and does not have the capacity required to make the necessary improvements."

Awarding the college a grade four, the lowest possible grade, he added: "Since the last inspection the performance of the college has declined significantly."

College Principal Ian Millard said he appreciated students and parents will be concerned by the report.

"However, I would like to reassure them that we are already taking decisive action to address many of the issues raised and are confident we can overcome them," he said.

"The success rates referred to in the report look at how many students successfully complete their course compared to how many were enrolled at the beginning.

"In these tough economic times, we are finding that some of our learners are having to drop out due to financial reasons, which has an impact on our success rates.

"We are introducing a number of measures to encourage more students to stay on and complete their course – these include additional learning support and grants for those with financial pressures – and current indications are that this year's success rates are significantly improved.

"There were a number of positives in the Ofsted report, inspectors praised the positive contribution we make to the community while our links with partner organisation were deemed to be good.

"We acknowledge we have much work to do but the impact of changes made over the last 12 months are already seeing benefits with more students staying on courses than at this time last year and expect to see real improvement by the end of this academic year. Governors, managers and all staff are focused and committed to raising standards and provide the best opportunities for our students and communities."