Stonington campus will mark a major change in the direction of Bermuda's only major institution of higher learning.

It will almost certainly push the College towards becoming a degree-granting, four-year college and it should also encourage more non-Bermudian student to matriculate.

But it will take time to see if the moves will benefit Bermuda's own students.

For the last 25 years, the Bermuda College has provided a first class two-year college education which has enabled its students to excel at the best colleges and universities in Britain and North America.

This has been done at a remarkably low cost to students and their parents.

Offering accommodation to students will inevitably result in higher costs, even if room and board are subsidised in the same way that tuition now is for local students.

There will also be some question over whether it is necessary given Bermuda's size. Students do not have very far to travel in order to get to their classes.

But there will be some students who wish to get the full college experience by living in dormitories and making the college campus their home for two or more years. But the College in this sense will only be a halfway house -- when times get tough, home will not be that far away -- and part of the experience of living on a college campus is learning how to deal with problems on your own.

At the same time, if the College does develop degree programmes and becomes a four-year institution, the students who choose to remain will be deprived of the extraordinary and enriching experience of living in another country and experiencing another culture.

Bermuda is small and insular and living overseas benefits not only the student, but Bermuda when the student returns with a wider world view and new ideas. It also has to be acknowledged that there are students who are unable to afford to go to college overseas and could therefore be deprived of a degree.

There is little question that the College can accommodate students and that it can offer courses and curricula which will give students a good four-year degree. What the College now has to decide is whether this is in the students' best interests.

BRAVE DECISION EDT Brave decision The Bermuda Football Association's cancellation of this weekend's round of league matches may seem harsh and will make the innocent suffer because of the actions of a few guilty players, but it was the right call.

The BFA has tried everything short of cancellation to restore some sanity to football. It has imposed severe bans on undisciplined players, it has appealed to the clubs, coaches and players to use good sense and it has worked hard to give the game the financial backing it needs to prosper.

But the message has not sunk in, and after referee and Police Inspector Anthony Mouchette was hit with a bottle -- apparently thrown by a player he had sent off -- last weekend, it was time to act.

This weekend should provide a breathing space for players, coaches and spectators to decide what they want -- an orderly football programme which all can enjoy or anarchy in which good administrators and officials wash their hands of the whole affair. BFA president Neville Tyrrell has made the right decision -- now it is up to the footballers and the public to decide what they want.