Government stops private colleges taking new students

Private colleges in England have been thrown into chaos after the government acted to stop half from recruiting any more students from Britain and the European Union to study for higher national diplomas and certificates, write Shiv Malik and Andrew McGettigan for the Guardian.

A sudden intervention from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has meant that in the past 10 days colleges educating thousands of students on courses such as business finance, hospitality management and IT management are no longer able to recruit any more this academic year.

In the past two weeks it has emerged that the department's budget for providing student loans and grants was overspent by £80 million (US$131 million) in 2012-13 – and that ministers were considering cuts to ensure that the budget balanced in future years. The department has now suspended recruitment to higher national diploma and higher national certificate courses at 22 private higher education colleges and chains.
Full report on the Guardian site