ABSTRACT
The revolution that has been the incorporation of the further education sector cannot be seen from the perspective of college lecturers as the dawn of a bright new age. Rather, they see it as largely a retrograde and probably unnecessary upheaval. In creating a new national sector from the ‘Cinderella’ service that was local authority FE, everything was changed: the structures, the political control and accountability, the funding, the curriculum, governance, and (most of all) the industrial relations environment. Very little of this, from the viewpoint of college staff and NATFHE members, was change for the better. Jim Donaldson, the Chief Inspector and Director of Audit at the FEFC, publicly admitted to the House of Commons Education and Employment Committee (1998) that ‘inspection findings suggest that the morale of teachers is low’.
