Formal plans to merge the Greater Brighton Metropolitan College and the Chichester College Group have been announced as a five-week public consultation starts today (Friday 25 March).
The GB Met – with campuses in Brighton, Shoreham and Worthing – is proposing the merger with the aim of to creating one of the strongest further education (FE) college groups in the country.
The proposed merger date is Monday 1 August.
GB Met chief executive Andy Cole said: “Combining our expertise, knowledge and resources with CCG’s will create a strong, dynamic and financially resilient FE group which is able to meet the skills needs of the West Sussex and Brighton and Hove regions, both today and in the future.”
CCG chief executive Andrew Green said: “We are excited by the prospect of welcoming GB Met into our group of colleges.
“Collectively, we are committed to delivering educational excellence for the benefit of our staff, students and the businesses we support.”
The Met said: “Members of the public are invited to share their views to help shape the merged college group.
“More information about the proposal and the feedback form can be found at www.gbmc.ac.uk/merger.
The public consultation starts today and runs until Wednesday 27 April 2022.
The outcome of the public consultation will be published at www.gbmc.ac.uk/merger by Friday 24 June 2022.
The Greater Brighton Metropolitan College – also known as GB Met or the Met – was created from the merger of Northbrook College and City College Brighton and Hove in 2017.
It drew together 150 years of educational heritage, history and experience.
The college – known for many years as Brighton Technical College and then Brighton College of Technology – has five campuses in Brighton, Shoreham and Worthing.
It offers a comprehensive range of courses, including qualifications for school-leavers, apprenticeships, university degrees, professional qualifications and leisure and hobby courses as well as a small international provision.
The Chichester College Group is the largest FE provider in Sussex, with colleges in Chichester, Brinsbury, Crawley, Haywards Heath and Worthing.
The group also runs commercial businesses. First Steps Childcare Group is one of the largest childcare providers in West Sussex is part of a portfolio that includes Anglia Examinations and an international English language school.
In May 2020, the group was rated “outstanding” in every area of Ofsted’s updated Education Inspection Framework.
Ofsted said that CCG’s courses “meet fully the demands of their local and regional communities” and inspectors highlighted the “outstanding culture of inclusivity and respect”.
Across its five colleges, CCG offers a wide variety of courses, including A levels, Level 3 vocational diplomas, university-level HE (higher education) courses, apprenticeships, professional qualifications and leisure courses.
CCG was also among the first providers in the country to deliver the new T-level qualifications which started in 2020.
northbrook used to be worthing tec and chelsea college of Aeronauticals joined up with worthing art college… big business all round, deserves a new name: answers on a post card
Big business indeed. Northbrook have a fee policy that is totally out of line with universities – if a student is on a course for more than two weeks (I think they may have changed this to four weeks now) the student is personally liable for the full fees for the entire year – not just the term attended. This means that if the student has to leave part way through the course and is in receipt of student finance, Student Loans/SFE will not cover the remaining terms not attended – and the student will be personally liable for the whole years fee according to Northbrook. In the fee policy ‘the full fee’ is not clarified as the ENTIRE YEARS fee. Northbrook employ debt collectors and have taken students to court and amassed large settlements from students for years. Now, bear in mind these are students that Northbrook knows are on low enough incomes to qualify for student finance. They are often students who have suffered difficulties. A freedom of information needs to be done to give the figures for how many students this happens to every year to date and how much money has been made in this way by the college to date. According to the Good University Guide and Student Finance England, this is not normal practice or policy.