HS2 college faces insolvency after commissioner steps in

The so-called ‘HS2 College’, which has campuses in Birmingham and Doncaster, has been placed in supervised status after the Further Education Commissioner found that it could be be facing insolvency.

A report into the National College for Advanced Transport and Infrastructure (NCATI) says that the college’s board has been given on advice on how to operate while facing insolvency and that “radical change” is “urgently required”.

The college has been surviving on government handouts of £4.55m which came forward so that it could sign off its 2017/18 accounts. The Commissioner found that 72% of the college’s turnover was spent on 12 senior roles.

Enrolment has been a huge problem for the college; as of December 2019 it had just 216 and 94 full-time students – way below the 761 apprentices and 263 full-time students its 2019/20 budget was based upon. The college blamed the shortage on “uncertainty” around the future of HS2.

NCATI’s chief executive is currently on sick leave, with finance boss Martin Owen taking over on an interim basis.

A spokesperson for NCATI said: “We are committed to working in partnership with the FE Commissioner on sustainable future options through a Structure, Prospects and Appraisal (SPA) process to secure the best outcomes for learners and apprentices studying at the NCATI.”

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