ALL is obviously not well at one of East Lancashire's leading centres of further education.

For Accrington and Rossendale College is having a somewhat unhappy 21st anniversary year as a provider of tertiary education.

It is sacking lecturers to save money, causing courses to be shaken-up as a result and running into a wall of protest.

So strong is the discontent that, on top of student and trade union outcry, the college's lecturers have voted by 104 to three that they have no confidence in their bosses.

Plainly, then, the situation contrasts sharply with the upbeat message by principal Mike Austin that the college, though having to go through a "painful process of adjustment," is well and thriving.

However, even if one is persuaded to accept this view and takes note of the growth and future developments to which Mr Austin points, it is surely an undeniable fact that contraction is afoot when upwards of 30 jobs are being axed and courses are upset in mid-year as a consequence.

Yet, such misfortunes might be ruefully accepted as inevitable and the blame laid elsewhere - on the government-ordered spending cuts - if the college was not, as we discover today, considering shelling out considerable sums of money to pretend that all is well.

For under consideration is the hiring of outside public relations consultants to do a make-over job on the worry-lines that now cloud the college's image.

The college is, of course, in an increasingly-competitive field, though the need for a market in local education services may escape many people.

That is the situation, however, and the college needs to make itself attractive to prospective students who bring in revenue.

But if improved public relations are what its bosses are apparently seeking, then, as ones with some experience in that field, we can assure them that reaching for expensive spin-doctors just now is not the way to go about it.

They cannot plead poverty as an excuse for sacking lecturers and provoking understandable discontent among the staff and the community if, in the next breath, they talk of bringing in expensive corporate cosmetic surgeons and image moulders.

Rather than pouring oil on troubled waters, such insensitive profligacy will only set fire to it.

And rightly so.

If these unfortunate cutbacks the college is making cannot be justified with good reasons alone, it is a poor departure when word slickers have to be brought in to make excuses for the management's conduct and to mend its impact on the college's image.

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