A DAY AT RUNSHAW COLLEGE

Ahead of launching the search for Runshaw College’s next Principal and Chief Executive, FEA Managing Director Matt Atkinson and Director of Recruitment Jo Johnston spent a day on campus. This is what they found — and why they think it’s one of the best opportunities in the sector right now.

The first ten minutes tell you a lot
We signed in at reception and, before we’d found a seat, a text landed with our Wi-Fi login details. It’s a small thing. But it’s the kind of small thing that only happens at a college where the operational detail is genuinely sorted and it set the tone for the whole day. Well organised, well run, well thought through. That was our first impression, and it held up everywhere we looked, from the sign-in process to the way staff spoke about their roles.

5,000 students, one site, real precision
Runshaw is one of the busiest colleges we’ve visited. Close to 5,000 young people study on a single campus, drawn from a travel-to-learn area that stretches from Garstang to Bolton and Skelmersdale, and from Southport to Blackburn and Accrington. Around 60 buses arrive each morning, bringing students in from across the Northwest.
Managing that scale of logistics every single day, without fuss, is no small achievement. Staff talked us through the operation with the calm of people who have done it well for a long time. Evidence, again, that the fundamentals at Runshaw are firmly in hand.

Purposeful, not just busy
A site this size could easily feel chaotic. It doesn’t. The students we saw moving between lessons were focused, well-behaved and clearly there to achieve something – a reflection of a college culture built on high expectations for every learner, whatever their starting point or chosen route.
That combination – inclusive by design, excellent by ambition – shows up in the outcomes too. Runshaw’s 2026 Advanced Level results saw 1,154 A*–A grades, with four out of five students achieving A*-B or equivalent. The college is England’s number one GFE college for progression to the top third of UK universities, and almost nine in ten Runshaw students at Russell Group universities graduate with a First or a 2:1.

Enrichment and employability, done properly
Every college talks about enrichment. Few do it at the level we saw at Runshaw. The breadth of opportunity on offer is matched by a genuinely wide employability and enrichment offer for every learner, not just the ones already heading somewhere obvious. Teaching and learning comes first. That phrase came up again and again, from governors and from staff at every level, and it clearly isn’t just a slogan on a slide.

A strong foundation, not a fix-up job
Runshaw is celebrating over 50 years of building something distinctive, and it shows: a comprehensive, campus-based tertiary college with a clear and enduring educational purpose, now in year three of a three-year strategic plan built on evolution rather than reinvention.
Whoever becomes the next Principal and Chief Executive will be walking into one of the sector’s genuinely top-performing colleges, with the platform, the people and the ambition already in place and the chance to shape what the next chapter looks like.

An opportunity worth talking about
Jo and I left Runshaw with a clear sense of a college that knows exactly what it is and does it exceptionally well and with real enthusiasm for finding the right person to lead it into its next phase.
If you’d like to talk further about the role contact jo.johnston@fea.co.uk