The board of the institution, formerly known as Greenwich School of Management, appointed two insolvency practitioners from the accountancy firm BDO on Wednesday, and said teaching would cease on its two campuses in Greenwich and Greenford, in north-west London, at the end of September.
The decision is the latest sign of restructuring in the higher education sector at a time of growing financial pressure. Competition for students has intensified as costs rise. “The college has not been able to recruit and retain sufficient numbers of students to generate enough revenue to be sustainable,” GSM said.

GSM is owned by Sovereign Capital, a private equity group co-founded by John Nash, a former Conservative schools minister who is also joint chair of Pimlico Academy. The group holds other education investments including the British & Irish Modern Music institute, and sold Alpha Plus, an independent school chain, in 2007.

GSM has received £22m in capital injections since 2016 but said that was not enough to overcome “highly challenging market conditions”. It unsuccessfully sought a new owner but was forced to trigger the insolvency given “concerns over the future viability of the college”. All staff were at risk of redundancy and 274 are said to be affected.

The college said it was creating a support office and was in discussions with the Student Loans Company, the Office for Students, the Department for Education and other institutions in London from which it said it had “enthusiastic responses” to allow students to complete their studies elsewhere.

It urged students to complete their current semester in order to receive credits to ease their transfer and said it was in discussions with the University of Plymouth, which validates its degrees.

The influx of GSM’s students will help boost numbers at other institutions also struggling to recruit. There will also be fresh demand elsewhere from students who had accepted offers to begin their studies at GSM this autumn and will now need to apply through clearing to alternative providers.

GSM London was established in 1973 and provided training for many disadvantaged students in east London. Some observers said it had struggled to compete with better-located rival institutions.