ITT up for grabs as Liverpool pulls out

Teacher training providers on Merseyside are vying for extra student places after the Teacher Training Agency indicated that it will reallocate 150 places from the University of Liverpool to other local providers.

Liverpool University announced two weeks ago that it will cease to offer primary and secondary initial teacher training from September 2000, saying that it is uneconomical to continue to provide high quality courses. Last week, the TTA said the university's student numbers would be "reallocated to high quality providers for the benefit of Merseyside".

Liverpool Hope University College appears to be in pole position to capture up to 112 places using this criterion. Ofsted inspections have placed its primary initial teacher training provision ahead of the University of Liverpool's and other local providers'. In secondary ITT, the Ofsted inspectors rated Liverpool Hope's provision more highly than the university's in English and mathematics and equally highly in modern languages - the three subjects that it offers in common with the university.

"Liverpool Hope University will be arguing strongly that we could take up these extra numbers," said Simon Lee, rector and chief executive of Liverpool Hope.