Hull College principal resigns after five months in job

The principal at troubled Hull College has resigned after only five months in the job.

Chris Malish, who was appointed in April, has left the post for "personal reasons".

He was the fifth person to hold the post since the resignation of Michelle Swithenbank in December 2019.

Hull College said since then it had "relied upon interim leadership" as its recruitment search had been stopped by the pandemic and national lockdown.

The college added: "The time each interim leader was able to give was outside of the control of the college."

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Hull's chair of governors Lesley Davies told further education news service FE Week that Mr Malish had been faced with "no small task" embarking on the college's "ambitious plans for the future".

She added that he had found it difficult "working away from home with a young family".

Nick Linford, of FE Week, said: "This is a very difficult time and one where the college had hoped to be really coming out of it under new leadership."

Job cuts prompted strikes at the college in 2018

The college said interviews would be held this week for another interim principal and it was "confident of securing a principal as soon as possible".

It said it was "in a financially sound position and continues to deliver high quality education and training to all its students".

It was looking forward to welcoming students back at the end of this month, it added.

In recent years the college has been criticised over its financial management after racking up a £10m budget deficit.

It has seen five leaders since 2019, received a government bailout and had an internal investigation into a £240,000 rugby club sponsorship deal.

There have also been staff redundancies, the closure of its Goole campus and the transfer of its Harrogate campus to another college.