Signs taken down and staff 'mostly gone' at college amid claims of student loan abuse

GOVERNMENT SAYS IT HAD FALLEN 'WELL SHORT'

- By JOSHUA HARTLEY

A SPRAWLING city college, complete with water fountains, is quickly disappearing amid allegations of abusing the student loan system.

The huge Oxford Business College, which dominates a stretch of Carlton Road on the way out of Nottingham, had welcomed thousands of students to its hastily renovated campus.

It also claimed to have reduced crime in St Ann’s by taking over the building in late 2021.

But a bombshell announcement by the Education Secretary in April painted it in a new light entirely.

Labour cabinet minister Bridget Phillipson said investigators had found that the college, which had franchising agreements that allowed pupils to get a university degree and funding, had “fallen well short” when it came to recruiting students and making sure they turned up for lectures.

She said: “In particular, the investigation has not been able to provide me with assurance that students’ prior attainment, including their competence in the English language, has been adequately assessed, or that their attendance on their courses has been adequately monitored.”

The Education Secretary banned students at the college from receiving student loans, from the end of the academic year on August 31, and said the decision reflected her “determination to stamp out any abuse of the student support system”.