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Colleges of Further Education in the UK fall into the following major categories:

General FE Colleges
Sixthform colleges
Specialist Colleges
Land Based Colleges
FE in HE Colleges / provision
Adult Colleges
Arts Colleges

Total Colleges 2009-10

The current  total of all FE colleges is  443

The breakdown is as follows:

General Further Education 232
Sixthform colleges 92
Specialist colleges 35
Land Based colleges 17
FE in HE college 18
Adult colleges 19
Arts colleges 30

The total number of colleges drops every year due to frequent mergers. Please assist Collegenet to keep its listing accurate by e-mailing any changes.

The regional breakdown of the 390 general and sixthform colleges is:

Scotland 40
Northern Ireland 6
Wales 20
England 324

The breakdown of the 322 general and sixthform colleges in England by major region is:

North East 20
North West 53
Yorkshire and Humberside 31
East Midlands 22
West Midlands 43
East of England 29

South east  57
South West 25

London 44

It should be noted that whereas the figures for general and FE colleges are accurate it is more difficult to verify the total number of specialist, adult and arts colleges because of differences in designation. If any FE colleges are missing from our lists please email and they will be entered. With your help we will strive to maintain an up-to-date and accurate database.

The 92 sixthform colleges are all located in England bar one. There are none in Scotland or Northern Ireland and only one in Wales. Sixthform colleges were originally designed to serve the 40% of high schools without their own sixthforms. Consequently their focus is primarily 16-19 and academic courses. In 2008 the designation 'Sixth Form College' was given legal protection to stop a trend of schools branding sixth form centres as sixthform colleges.

The current trends are for an expansion of FE in HE provision, increasing number of mergers i.e. between General FE and sixthform colleges or land based colleges.