A-level drive will send evening class charges soaring

Million of adults in colleges will face their fees almost doubling to pay for a government drive to boost A-level take-up and staying on rates in full-time education, it emerged yesterday.

A Government White Paper on the future of the country's further education colleges revealed that subsidies for most courses for adults over the age of 25 would be slashed from 72.5 per cent to 50 per cent by the end of the decade.

It will mean the fee for a course rising from £1.42p an hour on average to £1.94 within the next two years - and then further still in years to come. Adults would see the cost of learning for leisure or an A-level course for a mature student rise from around £225 to £400.

Part of the money raised will be used to fund Chancellor Gordon Brown's pledge in last week's budget to provide free A-level courses for all adults up to the age of 25.

Yesterday's White Paper estimated 45,000 would take advantage of the offer at a cost of £25million.

Some colleges are arguing that the new fees regime will be "counter-productive" as fewer adults over the age of 25 will sign up for courses.

Around 4.6 million adults a year currently attend further education courses - many of whom will face increased fees as a result of the decision.

However, Higher Education Minister Bill Rammell was adamant yesterday that priorities had to be established.

"We need a much more honest debate about this issue," he said. "As a government we've increased taxation as a proportion of the gross national product. We`re probably at the limit of what we can ask people to pay in increased costs.

"If you acknowledge that there are some areas where you have to improve provision, then you have to decide how you are going to pay for it.

It will still be a very good deal for anyone wanting to take up a course."

He described yesterday as "a really exciting day for the further education sector signifying a real transformation in the role of f.e".

Yesterday's White Paper claimed that the proportion of young people in the UK staying on in education or training after the age of 16 was "scandalously low" - placing the country 24th out 29 developed nations well behind France and Germany.

As a result, ministers were offering free tuition up to the age of 25 to sit A-levels, adult learning grants worth £11million to help with accommodation costs, £11million to improve the quality of the workforce by aiming to recruit high flyers from the world of industry to teach and £20million to promote courses to help at least 5,000 women return to learning.

Courses in basic skills such as literacy and numeracy will also be free - as will be any course leading to a qualification for those on welfare benefits.

The White Paper describes its aims as an attempt to ensure "further education gains the esteem it deserves as the engine room of a successful economy with the power to transform lives". However, critics claim its drive for skills will mean courses in the arts and humanities being neglected.

At present, it claims, half a million students in colleges are taught in underperforming colleges.

As a result, it proposes to a crackdown on poor standards - insisting that all inadequate or satisfactory college provision should improve during the next two years. If they fail, they will face closure or take-over by another provider - possibly a private company.

In addition, the Learning and Skills Council, the body with responsibility for financing post-16 education, will be given new powers to force governing bodies to sack weak college principals.

"Our goal is to eliminate inadequate or unsatisfactory provision ... by 2008 and have a major impact on those organisations where performance is just satisfactory or not showing any improvement," the White Paper argues.

Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, described the White Paper as a "missed opportunity" which meant further education was "still the disadvantaged child between compulsory schooling and higher education".