College funding petition students visit Parliament

Students who started a petition calling for better funding for FE have met their local MP in the House of Commons.The politics A level class at Brockenhurst College in Hampshire launched the petition ahead of Colleges Week last month. To date, the petition in support of the #LoveOurColleges campaign has been signed by more than 64,000 people.Once the petition reaches 10,000 signatures, the government is required to respond to it, which it did on 1 November. It has until 10 April 2019 to reach the 100,000 threshold to be considered for a debate in Parliament.One of the students in the class, Charlotte Jones, said she was excited to visit New Forest East MP Julian Lewis in Parliament.She added: “We started this petition because we want everyone in further education to have the same opportunities which we aren’t currently getting because of cuts to college funding.