JAMES Watt College has received one of the biggest funding increases of any college in Scotland.

It has been given an extra £1. 6 million from the Scottish Executive's Scottish Further Education Funding Council.

This represents an increase of 5.7 per cent, taking the council's budget to £29,306,000.

College principal, Bill Wardle said: `As the college continues to endeavour to provide the best facilities and resources for our learners, we welcome the increase in funding for the academic year 2005/06.

`This funding is dedicated to supporting our planned capital improvements and to assist our initiative to widen access and participation, supporting social inclusion.` He continued: `The targeting of these funds will heighten the college"s ability to continue contributing to the social and economic regeneration of Inverclyde and North Ayrshire, ensuring education plays a pivotal role as a catalyst of change.

`We will continue to encourage people from disadvantaged groups to participate in and gain benefits from education, ultimately empowering them to achieve their personal goals.` But he added: `While appreciating the increase in funding, there is no growth in activity - and the operational environment for institutions continues to be challenging.` Scotland's 45 further education colleges will receive a £29.4m increase in their annual funding.

Colleges will get £467.4m from the Scottish Further Education Funding Council for the 2005-06 academic year for learning and teaching and other associated activities.

The money includes £367.3m for the delivery of teaching to students; £64.3m in student support funding to be used for bursaries, and other grants; £9m for colleges to continue to consolidate areas of strategic importance;£4m for information and communications technology programmes to support e-learning; £5.1m for strategic development to help colleges make changes to their provision and methods of delivery to meet local and national educational needs; £3m for widening access and inclusiveness initiatives to ensure people from disadvantaged groups can take part in further education and £2.7m to support work on quality improvement.