RUSKIN College is determined to go ahead with the redevelopment of its Old Headington site, despite missing out on more than £20m from the Learning & Skills Council.

Ruskin had been relying on the LSC to provide two-thirds of the money to transform its 20-acre site in Headington.

The college wants to create its new HQ there, with its city centre site to be sold to Exeter College.

But the funding fiasco at the LSC will force Ruskin to cut back on a scheme that had been costed at £38m.

With no LSC money available, a number of buildings, including plans for a college dining room, look set to be dropped. But Ruskin principal Audrey Mullender said the college was determined to save “the heart” of its scheme to modernise its outdated site.

Last week, The Oxford Times revealed Oxford & Cherwell Valley College was shelving plans to create a £70m college at Oxpens and for a £16m overhaul of its Blackbird Leys campus as a result of the LSC running out of money for capital projects. The OCVC is now having to draw up scaled-down schemes.

Abingdon & Witney College was among those hardest hit by the LSC’s financial problems, having already begun demolishing college buildings at its Witney site.

The college remains hopeful that money for its £30m redevelopment will be found to allow work to eventually go ahead in phases.

Ruskin, however, says it will still be able to build a new academic building, including the James Callaghan Library in Old Headington.

Prof Mullender said: “Our project is going ahead, although it will be a streamlined version.

“What I am clear about is that we have managed to retain the heart and soul of our project, with all its main elements intact, to meet our needs in the future. This has made us think seriously about ensuring that every penny has been spent wisely and some benefits have flown from that.

“For example, the dining area will now be inside the main academic building and we will be preserving buildings that still have some life left in them.”

The college is expected to receive about £11.5m from Exeter College for the sale of its Walton Street site.

Its plans for its site in Dunstan Road will also have to be funded by borrowing, with an appeal already launched to fund the new library, named after the former Labour Prime Minister who delivered a keynote speech on education at the college.

It is understood savings will be made by building one new residential building, instead of two, with three existing buildings having to be refurbished. Plans for the ground floor of the centrepiece academic building are likely to be modified to reduce construction costs of digging into a slope.

Final decisions on the redevelopment plans are expected to be agreed on October 2, when the college’s governing executive meets.

The college says despite the financial blow from the LSC it still hopes to move its headquarters to Old Headington by 2012, when Exeter should take ownership of its Walton Street site.