Croydon College has announced 99 redundancies after changes to Government funding left a deficit of £3million.

Further education colleges across the country have been forced to make savings as they lobby the Government in protest.

College principal Mariane Cavalli said: "I appreciate this is a very difficult time for some staff at the college, especially given the positive outcome of our recent Ofsted inspection."

The redundancies, saving £2million, and the cuts of £1million will come as a blow to staff morale after a period when college finances had stablised and the college was given a positive Ofsted report.

Ms Cavalli has urged prospective students to enrol on their chosen course and said there will be no changes to the prospectus.

She said: "I strongly advise people to enrol early for courses to ensure that they can secure a place for September 2005."

News of the redundancies was emailed to the 1,000-plus staff last Wednesday with unions holding meetings the following day.

The estimated 99 redundancies will affect non-teaching positions but the loss of the supportive administrative staff and technicianswill put pressure on teachers.

Malcolm Campbell, Croydon Unison branch secretary, which represents support staff at the college, said: "Clearly part of this the college couldn't do anything about which is the clawback of funds from the Learning and Skills Council."

But he said part of the problem was that the college had no reserves to cope with a situation like this leaving it to look at job losses.

The branch is to seek legal advice about the situation and Mr Campbell said he did not accept there had to be 99 redundancies.

He also stressed that the loss of support staff, particularly technicians, would impact on teaching.