Investment in new buildings helps below-average colleges perform better
New evidence suggests college results will be improved by the multi-billion pound building programme for England's colleges.
By 2010, the Learning and Skills Councils' annual investment in new and improved buildings will run to £750 million, the equivalent in cash terms of a new Wembley Stadium every year. All colleges will have been updated by 2014.
Research commissioned by the Department for Education and Skills shows new buildings help below-average colleges get better results, as well as encouraging more people to enrol at all colleges. Bill Rammell, the Further Education minister, said: "I think Further Education capital funding has been a huge success story across the country. In 1997, there was nothing in the mainstream Further Education capital budget, and now we're looking at £750m a year being invested."
The study, by consultants at Frontier (London), examined 133 colleges over five years, about three-quarters of which had received capital funding.
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