Officers from the National Union of Teachers and the lecturers’ union, NATFHE, argued the case for increased funding for FE in the Government’s forthcoming spending review at a meeting with 13 of the county’s 17 MPs.

With 10 sixth-form colleges and 12 further education colleges, Hampshire has one of the highest concentrations of post-16 institutions in the country, and has been feeling the post-incorporation funding squeeze particularly keenly. Nigel Fox, secretary of the Hampshire NUT sixth-form college committee, said that unless more money was forthcoming, the possibility of merger and consequent job losses among the county’s sixth-form and FE institutions could not be ruled out.

He said: “We are suffering the same sort of funding cuts as most other colleges but because of our high concentration of colleges we are particularly aware of the problems.”