Ashford College to expand with £9 million government grant
New capital funding from the Labour Government will create more teaching space and specialist facilities at Ashford College for hundreds of 16 to 19-year-olds in Ashford and surrounding areas.
Teenagers in Ashford and the villages around it will have more options for post-16 study on their doorstep after the government confirmed around £9 million for a major expansion of the college’s campus. The money comes from national further education capital funding and will pay for extra classrooms, specialist IT and engineering facilities, and social learning space — giving the college room to take on hundreds more students aged 16 to 19.
Ashford College is run by EKC Group, which operates further education colleges across Kent. Around 1,200 post-16 students are enrolled there now. A previous round of government capacity funding had already added roughly 250 extra places, focused on engineering, IT and business courses. This new grant goes further, though the exact number of additional places hasn’t been pinned down yet — both the college and officials have talked of “hundreds more learners.”
Sojan Joseph, the MP for Ashford, backed the bid by writing to the Department for Education. He’s publicly welcomed the award, describing it as “great news for young people in Ashford and the surrounding areas.”
Not nothing, that.
For local families, the practical effect is fairly simple: more places means the college is less likely to be oversubscribed, and young people from towns and villages around Ashford are less likely to find themselves facing a long trek to study elsewhere in Kent. Some short-term disruption during building work is possible.
The £9 million is part of a wider national push. The Department for Education has put £302 million into further education college buildings across England in 2025–26, within a total education capital budget of £6.7 billion — a 19% real-terms increase on last year. But the welcome comes with a caveat. The Association of School and College Leaders has argued that while bricks and mortar are all well and good, core per-student revenue funding hasn’t kept pace with inflation, which amounts to a real-terms cut for many colleges. Capital spending builds the rooms. It doesn’t pay the teachers inside them.
The expansion also ties into Kent County Council’s broader effort to ensure enough school and college places exist across the county without young people having to travel unreasonable distances.
Construction timelines and the precise number of additional places are expected to be confirmed by the Department for Education and EKC Group once planning and project details are finalised.Source: @sojanuk
Published: 15 August 2026