Bermuda College may have to reduce its faculty staff by ten percent this year in order to meet the massive drop in new students expected in September.

President of the college, Dr. Michael Orenduff, said yesterday he has drawn up two plans to deal with the loss of freshmen this year brought about by changes to the public secondary school system. Those changes mean no pupils will graduate this year, but instead stay on for a fourth year.

He said as the majority of new students at the college were from the public school system, all teaching staff recognised the threat of lay-offs.

Dr. Orenduff said the college would still offer the same courses, but would merely cut down on the number of duplicate classes it ran.

For example, instead of having eight math teachers and ten English teachers, it would cut back, while keeping those lecturers that were in shorter supply, such as in accountancy.

If staff reductions are needed, it could mean anywhere between five and eight teachers, probably from overseas, not having their contracts renewed this year.

Dr. Orenduff said: "We are not certain what to do yet. We have a plan A and a plan B.

"Plan A is that we take some of the senior school students and we carry on part of their school education on this campus, but we are not sure if the senior schools will want to do that. They are still thinking about it.

"If they do that, we will be using our excess capacity to help the schools, who are going to be overcrowded.

"If we don't do that, then plan B will come in. If we don't do that we will need to reduce the size of our faculty by ten percent.We have around 60 faculty staff, so we are talking about six or seven people.

"We will need to reduce staff for two years because we will not have second year students next year.

"We have a preference for plan A, but I recognise that it has to be something that makes sense for the Ministry of Education, for schools and students."

Dr. Orenduff said teaching staff at the college had already been informed about the two plans, but said many lecturers had already presumed that reductions would have to be made.

He added: "We have spoken to them about it. They were very understanding because they knew this problem was coming.

"We would not be making people redundant - we would not renew contracts.

"A lot of faculty staff are from overseas and fortunately contracts that need renewing are spread out across the disciplines.

"These are very bright people and they had figured it out on their own that they possibly were at risk. We have tried to be honest and up front with them.

"But all of the classes that we now teach will still be taught. However, instead of offering eight sections of English, we will only offer five, for example."

Last night, The Royal Gazette was unable to contact Education Minister Paula Cox for comment. However, when asked previously about how the ministry proposed to deal with the issue of overcrowding in the Island's two public secondary schools this year, she said teachers, the ministry and parents would be consulting with each other to find the best solution.

However, she said where possible, she would prefer it if as many school students stayed on their own campus as possible.

No details have yet been made public about the plans.

Ed Ball, General Secretary of the Bermuda Public Services Association (BPSA), which represents staff at the college, said: "Certainly, I will expect that if there are any staff shortages or cuts they will be properly discussed with the BPSA in due course.

"We were aware that there would be a reduction of students attending Bermuda College for the next two years and that this would impact on staff."