Setting colleges free: the full coalition agreement

The full coalition agreement published yesterday does mention colleges.

The Government believes that our universities are essential for building a strong and innovative economy. We will take action to create more college and university places, as well as help to foster stronger links between universities, colleges and industries.

We will seek ways to support the creation of apprenticeships, internships, work pairings, and college and workplace training places as part of our wider programme to get Britain working.

We will set colleges free from direct state control and abolish many of the further education quangos. Public funding should be fair and follow the choices of students.

On quangos it sounds like the Conservative manifesto:

We will set colleges free from direct state control and abolish many of the further education quangos Labour have put in place. Public funding will follow the choices of students and be delivered by a single agency, the Further Education Funding Council.

While there is no explicit reference in the coalition agreement to reviving the FEFC, a re-arrangement of the funding bodies for post-16 education (excluding universities) may only be a matter of (legislative) time.