WITH the completion on Wednesday of the merger of Farnham College and Guildford College, Sally Francis, principal of Farnham College, has announced that she is leaving to follow a new direction. Clive Cooke, principal of Guildford College, now leads the merged colleges. Mrs Francis has been principal since 1997 and throughout the 10 years of her appointment, Farnham College has been rated as one of the best sixth form colleges in the country. Ian Sargeant, chairman of Farnham College Corporation, said "Sally Francis has been an extremely effective and successful principal of our college. Under her leadership, the educational provision at Farnham College has been outstanding and hundreds of local students have achieved excellent results here. "Over the last 12 months, Sally has worked particularly hard and selflessly to help us achieve a merger that creates excellent opportunities for expansion of the curriculum and facilities on the Farnham campus. "Greater strength will be achieved by joining the two colleges together. Farnham College will remain a sixth form college on its present campus, but will be able to expand its curriculum and continue to offer high quality educational provision to local students. "Substantial investment [understood to total £1.5m] that is already under way will bring considerable improvements to the facilities and an attractive social space for students, and it will all be ready for the start of term in September."