ONE of Oxfordshire’s largest further education colleges will cease to exist from September.

Instead, the Banbury, Bicester, and Oxford campuses of Oxford and Cherwell Valley College will become separate colleges with new names and principals under a new overarching group.

The group also includes Reading College, which was taken over by Oxford and Cherwell Valley College in 2010, and two planned University Technical Colleges, UTCs, for 14 to 19-year-olds due to open in Reading in September 2013 and Didcot in September 2015.

Current principal and group chief executive Sally Dicketts said the new structure had been under discussion since May.

Ms Dicketts said: “When we took over responsibility for Reading College, it was a step too far, so we put a principal in over there and set up shared services with me as manager.

“As it is working so well at Reading, we thought this is a much better way of serving our students.”

The Oxpens and Blackbird Leys campuses will comprise one college, Banbury and Bicester will each become separate colleges.

Two new principals will be appointed, one for the Oxford college and one with shared responsibilities for the two north Oxfordshire colleges.

The existing vice principal posts will be made redundant and the individuals currently in place will be invited to apply for the new positions.

Staff and pupils will apply to individual colleges, and will be based at a single college.

Employment contracts will be held with the yet to be named group.

Ms Dicketts said there were no direct funding or staffing implications of the new structure, although government cuts which all colleges are facing would mean some “restructuring” would be necessary.

Exact details of how that would happen would not be clear until pupil numbers in each subject at each college for September are finalised, she added.

The group will determine the overall funding available, and allocate a budget to each college from the central funding pot. It will then be up to the college to plan its own budget, based on what it and its students need, and report back on how it is spending and meeting its targets.

Ms Dicketts said: “This seemed a way of having a small college serving its community but in the protection of a much larger organisation.

“We hope to be big and powerful on one hand but small and fleet of foot on the other.”

Consultation has already been held with staff and pupils and further discussion is being held about possible names for the colleges and the group. The college names are likely to be geographical.

The organisation is reviewing whether to continue A-Levels at the Banbury college due to small numbers, or expand vocational courses.

Ms Dicketts said: “In many ways, the students won’t see a difference.

“What we hope is staff will feel more supported because managers will be based on their campus, and therefore the service we give our students will be better.”