Bermuda College is studying ways to ensure it has an influx of freshmen when the new September term starts this year - despite a lack of senior school leavers from the public system.

Chairman Jan Spiering told The Royal Gazette that the college must face up to the fact that it may not have sufficient students later this year when the Island's two secondary schools take on an extra year, meaning there will be no graduates.

And he said it may mean the college has to promote itself better to attract more mature students into its classrooms. He said the college continued to be in discussions with the Education Ministry and both CedarBridge Academy and Berkeley Institute, but, as yet, no firm decisions had been made.

Both schools will face an overcrowding issue for two years, while the new, bigger Berkeley Institute is built. Education Minister Paula Cox is trying to find ways to accommodate all students without them having to leave their school grounds. But the college had originally hoped that it would be able to help with the overcrowding situation by taking some of the students for a selection of their classes.

However, after Ms Cox's comments, that now looks unlikely. Some 70 percent of the college's freshmen come from the public school system. Mr. Spiering said: "We have been working very closely with the senior schools and the department of education to determine what role, if any, we will play with regards the senior four pupils.

"But let us assume that there will be no students coming our way. If they don't come, we are going to have to concentrate on looking at more mature students who may wish to come to the college to obtain additional qualifications to assist them in their careers.

"We are also going to be spending time on professional development courses for members of the workforce and businesses, as well as re-structuring the college to make it more responsive to Bermuda's needs and to ensure that students succeed. We will also look to use the staff in the best ways possible."

Mr. Spiering said there would be some contracts that will not be renewed this year. He said short-term contracts were put in place with the knowledge that the senior four issue was going to arise.

He added: "We are not sure exactly what our staffing is going to be. Until we know exactly what the position is, we can't then he definitive with regard to how many people we are going to need.

"What I would like to see is if we have certain courses where the student intake needs a jump start of some sort, then we are going to turn around to the people on those courses and say `what can we do to attract more students or provide more training opportunities'.

"We have to make sure that we continue to provide value for money. We can't keep people on if there is only one person for a course."