Colleges should embrace partnerships with private investors to meet 20 per cent expansion targets, the Further Education Funding Council said this week. FEFC chairman, Lord Davies of Oldham (pictured), said that expansion and widening participation will require major investments in new facilities and modernising campuses. "The private sector can play a major part in providing these facilities and the investment that is required," he said at a conference to promote private finance opportunities. Treasury chief secretary Alan Milburn mounted a defence of the government's criticised Private Finance Initiative.