The English education sector is undergoing major restructuring with the coalition government placing great emphasis on two key principles of policy: deregulation and marketisation. This development follows on two decades in which the British state has sought to raise performance levels and reduce costs through a variety of policies that are drawn…

In order to understand the changing nature of professionalism we must consider how the work of teachers has changed in recent years and place this into its wider political and social context as the British State moved from a social democratic model of the State to one based on neo-liberal ideology. Although much of the literature of teacher…

In the "age of austerity", educational institutions in many countries are under pressure from a variety of sources to work more closely, reduce costs and raise educational performance. There are a number of possible outcomes that follow on from developing closer institutional ties: sharing of professional expertise through best practice networks,…

Together with the former Polytechnic sector and General Further Education Colleges, Sixth Form Colleges have witnessed major change since the enactment of the Further and Higher Education Act (1992). Change within the post-compulsory education system has taken place on different levels in the UK: at the macro level with change manifest in the…

The Spending Review announced by the Coalition Government in 2010 represents a challenge to those who lead a variety of state-sponsored institutions, not least in post-compulsory education. For General Further Education Colleges (GFECs) who are confronted with a reduction in funding for a wide variety of programmes, and Sixth Form Colleges (SFCs)…