Responding to change: the management of further education colleges in England

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine changes in the management of further education (FE) colleges in England following the Further and Higher Education Act (1992) and the removal of colleges from Local Education Authority control. These changes are mapped against developments in the management of public service organisations, more generally, labelled new public management (NPM), and the adoption of “business‐like” tools to support management responses to a new environment for colleges. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws upon a national survey of general FE colleges and four case studies, researched in depth through semi‐structured interviews and analysis of relevant documents. The research was carried out between 1997 and 2000. The case studies were revisited through recent Inspection reports. Findings The paper finds that colleges reacted differently to the imperatives of change and that the extent to which the prescriptions of NPM were acted out depended upon a range of factors that were not included in many configurations of NPM. Research limitations/implications The research was carried out in the 1990s and the original cases were revisited through Inspection reports post 2002. The inspectors had a different agenda than the original researchers and care needs to be taken in utilising the Inspectors' reports. Practical implications The implementation of a uniform public policy across a diverse and complex sector is not guaranteed to succeed. Policy‐makers need to be aware of the “one‐size‐fits‐all” tendency of public policy making. Originality/value The management of the FE sector is under researched. This paper researches key issues for practitioners following on from education reform and provides empirical evidence for academics of the extent to which NPM reforms take hold on the ground.

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