Dunstable blogger Georgie Coan writes letter to PM over Central Bedfordshire College

STUDENTS face having their courses cut after only one year due to a reduction in government funding.

A student at Central Bedfordshire College has said he and others have been told to contact their career advisers to discuss their options and the possibility of attending other colleges.

Rowan Tyler, 17, a performing arts student, said students were ‘angry’ over the cuts to staff and courses.

He said: “I’ve just finished my first year.

“I believe it’s getting cut now and I would say there are about 30 people on the course.

“They told us to contact the careers people about it to see what we can do about going on other courses.

“There was no warning about this when we started at the college.”

The news follows an open letter written to the Prime Minister David Cameron by a former Central Bedfordshire student Georgie Coan, 21, who left the college in 2013 and now works as a digital marketing apprentice.

The letter, which has been featured on the Huffington Post UK website, said governments cuts to the further education budget would ‘take away the options for young people’ and make the arts a ‘more elite’ sector.

Ms Coan said: “I’ve spoken to people who are on the courses or signed up to one of the courses and they have been told that they might not be able to finish.

“I just think it’s really unfair. As I said in my article, not everyone is academic.

“At school I wasn’t academic and that course gave me something to believe in and made me believe in myself.

“Because they are cutting these courses, these young people are not going to be able to experience that and I think it’s unfair to put people in a box and say that you have to do this or do that.

“I believe in the future it will affect the industry because you are not going to get young blood and what young people want is an answer as to why it’s happening and what’s going to be done about it.”

A Central Bedfordshire College spokesman said the consultation process on ‘potential redundancies’ would end on July 17.

However Andrew Selous, MP for South West Beds, said part of the college’s funding reduction was due to a dip in student attendance which has now increased.

He has asked the Minister for Skills, Nick Boles, to reconsider the level of funding allocated to Central Bedfordshire.