[2] Direct Grant Grammar School status ended and Xaverian became a Sixth Form College for young men and women aged sixteen to nineteen within the Manchester Local Education Authority.

In 1993, the College Principal Mrs Quinn led an expansion in student numbers, refurbished and modernised many of the buildings and updated the curriculum with vocationally based courses and the introduction of information technology across many subjects.

By 2005, the FEFC had become the Learning and Skills Council and recognised the college's progress by part funding a state-of-the-art new building, which was named Mayfield.

Hunter, whose previous experience was in the general FE sector, brought both an objective eye and a heart-felt empathy to a college truly committed to a special Mission.

The college consists of nine buildings on two sides of Lower Park Road: Ward Hall, Birtles, Marylands, Firwood, Xavier, Sunbury, Ryken, Mayfield, and Teresa Quinn built from 1840 onwards.

The Ryken and Mayfield buildings, added at the start of the 21st century, along with Teresa Quinn, opened in 2020, house information technology equipment.