LMC and the Office for Students Register

It has been announced that Lancaster & Morecambe College has been unsuccessful in its application to be included in the new register for the Office for Students (OfS), which acts as the regulator for the higher education sector in England.

This decision is in relation to the College’s HE provision only and data as far back as 2010 was used to form the final outcome, which did not reflect the situation of the College at the time of the application being made. With fewer than 40 of its students enrolled onto HE courses (equating to less than 1% of the total number of learners) the College attempted to withdraw its application to OfS in June 2019, but this was refused by the regulator.

Principal, Wes Johnson said:

“Recognising that we operate in an area well-served by 2 high-performing universities, the corporation took the decision to withdraw our small, traditional HE offer in favour of advanced, technical training opportunities, introducing a number of Higher Apprenticeships. The majority of our HE students had traditionally progressed into work upon completion of their course and we worked closely with local employers who recognised and valued this route into employment.”

In 2018, the College was placed in the top 5% of colleges for HE student satisfaction, through the National Student Survey.  The College will always consider its students as the most important of stakeholders.