BOSSES at the Heart of Worcestershire College are hailing their massive county merger - insisting it has gone better than anyone could have expected.

Stuart Laverick, the principal of the newly-created larger college, took part in a Q&A at Worcester City Council last night to be grilled by councillors on the deal.

Mr Laverick, who has overseen the merger between the old Worcester College of Technology and North East Worcestershire College, revealed:

- The new-look college now has a turnover of £40 million a year and 20,000 students, making it one of the largest in the UK

- One of the biggest drivers for the merger was money, with the Government slashing college funding 25 per cent

- Students now get unprecedented access to facilities, with Worcester performing arts students able to visit Bromsgrove's Artrix Theatre, and engineering pupils using the country's only Harley-Davidson student workshop, also in Bromsgrove

- The 'Learning Box', a retail unit by the Elgar Statue in the High Street, which has been converted into a careers advice hub, will open later this month to give people from "16 to 64" help on training, jobs and courses

Mr Laverick was invited to attend a scrutiny committee meeting to answer questions on the tie-up, which went live in September.

He said: "The merger was something we'd been looking at for some time, there was an awareness of the public sector cuts so for us, we had to look at how we could maintain our quality with that agenda in the background.

"Strategically, you can't put your heads in the sand and keep doing the same thing, so for the last four years since I was appointed I've been working towards a solution.

"Looking back, this has been the right thing to do, we're delighted with how it's gone so far, the feedback from our learners is now better than it has ever been.

"We're bigger than ever before, our relevance in the city and county is huge."

During the debate Councillor Stephen Hodgson asked him if due to the expansion, competition from areas like Birmingham is now a factor.

Cllr Hodgson said: "You must have an enormous amount of competition to the north, in Birmingham there's a campus in Longbridge."

The Tory also wanted assurances Worcester students will not be forced to travel out of the city for their courses.

"We get students more in than we lose (to the competition) and I don't see that changing," said Mr Laverick.

"It's all about the quality of our courses and the social and cultural appeal of Worcestershire that gives us an edge, people want to come here."

He also said no Worcester-based courses would move to the Bromsgrove campus, as they realise it would not be popular with students.

Councillor Adrian Gregson, scrutiny committee chairman, said: "The importance of having a growing technical college, popular university and thriving sixth form is very exciting, you are a key element of that."