In a series of resignations that could be described as football-manager-esque, eight principals have called time, voluntarily or otherwise, on college leadership so far this academic year.
Gary Phillips became the latest to step down this week, as he handed in his notice at City College Plymouth, just months after joining this summer.
The move followed both a vote of no confidence by UCU members in Plymouth and the publication of an FE commissioner report, in which he was criticised, into his previous place of work, Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College.
Other casualties include Dame Asha Khemka, principal and chief executive of Vision West Nottinghamshire College, who stepped down after the college was forced to seek exceptional financial support from the Education and Skills Funding Agency, and John Connolly, who left the RNN group of colleges in South Yorkshire, with a spokesperson citing the “very difficult and challenging political and funding landscape”.
But striking out in their defence this week was Association of Colleges CEO David Hughes who uses a column to call for an end to the media celebration that goes on when one of these principals is cut loose.
Too often, Hughes argues, they step up to the plate, but then, like a league football manager who’s lost one game too many, they’re thrown on the scrap heap. And of course, it’s all played out on the toughest ground of all: social media.
While we shouldn’t reward failure, we need to have an education system where everyone recognises that, in all walks of life, failures do, and will, happen. Instead of kicking these FE leaders in the teeth, we need to identify problems early, provide support where we can, and if necessary, allow for a more dignified exit, he reckons.
“I know all of these leaders personally,” Hughes writes. “All are genuinely committed to education, to helping people transform their lives, to the role of colleges in making the world a better place. They are not evil, nor are they perfect, but who is?
“All of them wanted to do well and for their college to flourish. Like all of us, they are flawed and fallible. They were handsomely paid and they knew the risks; every CEO knows that their head is on the line if performance is poor. That has always and should always be the way, and the best leaders know when it is time to hand over to someone else.”
Talents, of course, can be often be utilised elsewhere. Look at Claudio Ranieri: the Italian manager was sacked as manager of Greece after a loss to the Faroe Islands, and two years later led an unlikely Leicester City to glory in the Premier League.
As Hughes argues, a leader’s livelihood and potential to contribute shouldn’t always be snatched away because of one disappointing set of results.
