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CIFE is a professional association of English independent sixth-form colleges. It provides support to its 17 member colleges and advice about GCE Advanced Level and university entrance to anyone who asks for it. CIFE’s President is Baroness Perry of Southwark

Some history
CIFE began in 1973, as the Conference for Independent Further Education. Independent Further Education was a catch-all term which described fee-paying institutions which, though they taught the final stages of a pre-university curriculum, did not include enough pupils younger than 16 to be classified as a school. In 1973 the Department for Education decided that it was no longer willing to inspect such ‘educational establishments’, leaving that sector of education provision unchecked.

CIFE was founded by a group of colleges who felt that some form of inspection was essential to provide help to the public in choosing safely and avoiding rogues. In the absence of ‘official’ inspection CIFE set up its own independent inspectorate to visit member colleges, promote best practice and pick up on any failings.

CIFE retained its own inspectorate until the British Accreditation Council was founded in 1984, with assistance from the Nuffield Foundation and an initial composed largely of CIFE member colleges. The BAC provided a truly independent inspection scheme for all types of independent college, whether, like CIFE colleges they prepared students for university entrance, or for more vocational courses.

Since 1984 CIFE’s role has emphasised the provision of professional support to its member colleges, particularly in collective marketing, and in providing an advice service to the public to help with questions about courses, university entrance etc.

Founder colleges
The founding members of CIFE were a diverse lot. Some, like Davies’ were London-based ‘crammers’, direct descendents of old-fashioned colleges which emphasised no-frills exam preparation, while others, like Stake Farm and Kirby Lodge were small boarding schools which placed more emphasis on ‘finishing’ that on exam results. What they all had in common was an emphasis on small-group teaching of students aged 16 or more. Those first CIFE members were :


 * Pax Hill Education Centre
 * Stafford House Tutorial College
 * Birmingham Tutorial College
 * Kirby Lodge
 * Greylands
 * St Clare’s Hall
 * Basil Paterson College
 * Concord College
 * Modern Tutorial College (now Bales College)
 * Davies’s Hove
 * Davies’s London
 * Cambridge Tutors (now Cambridge Tutors College)
 * Davies Laing and Dick (now DLD College)
 * Queen’s Gate Palace Tutors
 * Padworth
 * Wood Tutorial College

Since that time the face of Further education has changed considerably. Exams are different, and university entrance is an almost universal aim rather than the reserve of the very academic. Regulation, though providing a safeguard against incompetent practice, has made it less easy for small innovative colleges to survive, and a number of those early members have disappeared (Kirby Lodge, Greylands College for instance). Over the past 25 years new colleges have started and old ones have diversified. Concord and Padworth have become mainstream schools or have specialised (St Clare’s now teaches IB courses, Basil Paterson is now an EFL college). Bales, Cambridge Tutors and DLD are still CIFE members. The ‘finishing school’ has gone, but ‘cramming’ evolved into a ‘liberal’ small group teaching format with an emphasis on individual attention and exam technique which has proved both attractive and successful not just within CIFE colleges but in a much wider range of schools: sixth-form teaching in most independent schools is far closer to the CIFE-college model now than was the case in the 1970s and 80’s. Crammers became tutorial colleges and now ‘independent sixth-form colleges’. CIFE colleges have also been pathfinders in opening up overseas markets with courses tailored towards university entrance. The recruitment of pre-university students from Malaysia, Vietnam and China was pioneered by CIFE colleges..

Current nature of CIFE colleges
Some colleges now cater primarily for students from abroad while others deal mainly with British citizens. Some have several hundred students, some fewer than 50. Some are primarily residential while others deal mostly with ‘day’ students. Some remain colleges which primarily prepare for exams while others provide a more complete environment for development. All teach in small groups with an emphasis on adapting to the individual rather than an expectation of conformity to an ethos.

Distinctive nature of independent sixth-form colleges
Although mainstream independent schools have become more flexible and student-centred over the years, independent sixth-form colleges retain a range of distinctive qualities.
 * Because most of their students are 16+, their staff have special expertise in sixth-form teaching and exam preparation
 * They generally offer a wide range of subjects – over 30 A levels is very common, and they offer timetables with few (if any) restrictions on subject combinations
 * Most offer specialist courses in addition to A-levels over two years :
 * one-year A-level and GCSE,
 * exam retake,
 * final-year A-level,
 * university foundation
 * Easter revision
 * English as second language
 * Students tend to be treated as young adults rather than children.

Inspection and recognition
Although the Department of Education eventually resumed inspection of independent sixth-form colleges in 2004, it is a requirement of membership that CIFE colleges also undergo regular inspection by the BAC or by the Independent Schools Inspectorate. Several are inspected by both.

Current CIFE members
In summer 2011 the following were CIFE members
 * Ashbourne College
 * Bath Academy
 * Bales College
 * Bosworth Independent College
 * Brooke House College
 * Cambridge Centre for Sixth-form Studies
 * Cambridge Tutors College
 * Chelsea Independent College
 * Collingham College
 * DLD College
 * Duff Miller Sixth-form College
 * Exeter Tutorial College
 * Harrogate Tutorial College
 * Lansdowne College
 * MPW Birmingham
 * MPW London
 * Oxford Tutorial College