Universities are close to being told to stop recruiting trainee history teachers as they near the newly-imposed cap set by the government.
Schools Week understands the National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) has this afternoon emailed initial teacher training (ITT) providers to tell them places are currently at 75 per cent capacity.
It comes less than a week after higher education institutions (HEIs) were ordered to stop recruiting PE teachers.
PE providers were only given a warning at 75 per cent capacity and within 24 hours were told the cap had been reached. The NCTL had promised to send out emails at 90 and 95 per cent capacity before closing HEI recruitment.
The government has imposed the cap to allow “moderate growth” of school-led provision, such as School Direct and SCITT. School-led routes have national minimum levels of recruitment, and HEIs can be capped and prevented from recruiting.
Any HEIs failing to stop recruitment can face sanctions. Once the cap is imposed, offers already made by HEIs can be honoured, but no further offers can be made.
The government wants 816 history places to be filled next year, with only 238 allocated to HEIs. As of this morning, HEIs had offered twice as many places as school-led providers.
Recruitment for ITT courses starting next year began last month.
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