College, in third month of strike action, provokes further controversy by moving to scrap popular vocational courses from September

A protest outside NewVIc last week

One of England’s largest sixth-form colleges has been urged by a union to pull back from the “disaster” of scrapping popular vocational courses from its curriculum.

Newham Sixth Form College (also known as NewVIc), in East London, is proposing to cut its engineering and construction courses from September. This will affect around 150 students who had been offered places and with five staff positions to go as a result.

The move, which the National Education Union (NEU) says will save no money, comes with some students already having voiced their disappointment last week over the cutting of other courses run by the college, which has around 2,500 students.

The development comes towards the end of 30 days of strike action by NEU members over management practices at the college. The union said it would suspend its action if the curriculum cuts were reversed.