Nottingham College is one of the largest
further education
Further education (often abbreviated FE) in the United Kingdom and Ireland is education in addition to that received at secondary school, that is distinct from the higher education (HE) offered in universities and other academic institutions. I ...
and
higher education colleges in the United Kingdom. Based in the city of
Nottingham in England, it provides education and training from pre-entry through to university-degree level at its 10 centres in the city and around
Nottinghamshire.
History
Nottingham College is an amalgamation of two former further education colleges — New College Nottingham and Central College Nottingham.
New College Nottingham
New College Nottingham (often stylised as ncn or NCN) was formed from Arnold and Carlton College, which opened in 1960; Basford Hall College of Further Education, which opened 1969; Clarendon College of Further Education, which was founded in 1919 and became a further-education college in 1948 whose current campus opened in 1960; and the High Pavement Sixth Form College, which was founded as a school in 1788 and has offered sixth form education since 1975; the current campus opened in 2001.
In December 2015 New College Nottingham underwent its new inspection framework
Ofsted
The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a Non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial department of Government of the United Kingdom, His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament of the U ...
inspection and received a Grade 2 (Good) overall, having been rated Good in all individual categories.
Central College Nottingham
Central College Nottingham was a
further education
Further education (often abbreviated FE) in the United Kingdom and Ireland is education in addition to that received at secondary school, that is distinct from the higher education (HE) offered in universities and other academic institutions. I ...
college based over ten sites in
Nottinghamshire. The college was formed from the merger of Castle College Nottingham and South Nottingham College. South Nottingham College was founded in 1970 in West Bridgford, while Castle College Nottingham was founded on 1 June 2006 from the merger of Broxtowe College and The People's College in Nottingham. The People's College was the oldest further education college in England, having been founded in 1847. Following a public consultation, which ran from December 2010 to January 2011, it was decided that Castle College Nottingham and South Nottingham College should merge. The colleges officially merged on 1 July 2011. The merged college was renamed 'Central College Nottingham' in November 2012.
2017 merger
On 8 June 2017, New College Nottingham merged with Central College Nottingham to form Nottingham College, one of the largest colleges in the UK, with around 40,000 full-time and part-time students.
The college today
The college is a general further and higher education college and offers a range of courses corresponding to the ISCED band 4 and 5.
*Vocational Courses
*Apprenticeships
*A-Levels
*Access Courses
*Higher Apprenticeships
*Foundation Degrees (Higher Education) (level 5)
[Full-Time Courses 2019/20] and top-up degrees. (level 6)
2019 Industrial Action
In 2019, after a ballot where 96% of lecturers agreed to uphold strike action, the college experienced a strike by members of the
University and College Union (UCU) which lasted for 15 days during September and October.
[Nottingham College strike suspended at the eleventh hour](_blank)
''Nottinghamshire Live
The ''Nottingham Post'' (formerly the ''Nottingham Evening Post'') is an English tabloid newspaper which serves Nottingham, Nottinghamshire and parts of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Lincolnshire.
The ''Post'' is published Monday to Satu ...
'', 4 November 2019. Retrieved 19 July 2022
The strike began with a boycott of the college’s development day - Festival of Learning - on 1 July 2019. In protest, the UCU branch organised its own ''Festival of Yearning'' gathering outside of the Clarendon campus.
The strike was a response to the college's intention to impose new staff contracts involving a potential reduction in pay, sick leave and holidays, with the threat of dismissal for those who refused to sign. Prior to the dispute-end in November 2019, a further 14 day period of action was planned and the college had asked
Acas (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) to mediate.
An online pamphlet was later created by retired union members which examines the dispute in context of the recent history of further education in the city, and gives an account of the dispute background before and during the strike action. The pamphlet title – containing the word "revolution" – is a reference to the then-CEO, John van de Laarschot's claim in a 2017 speech at the Local Enterprise Partnership D2N2 annual conference, partially published in local press, that under his leadership, "Nottingham College will lead a revolution" in the further education sector that would include "tough love" for youngsters without the skills employers wanted. In November 2021, John van de Laarschot announced his intention to leave the college "at the end of the year".
Courses
GCSEs
Students can take or retake a GCSE subject with the college. A pass at Grade C is usually needed to progress to A-level and University level courses.
A-level courses
A-level
The A-Level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational aut ...
s are the traditional entry route to universities, and a
sixth-form college has been the option chosen by students that want, at 16, to leave the security and restrictions of a
secondary school
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...
. There are entry requirements to each course, students must have evidence of success at GCSEs, and normally have a pass of Grade C or above in a related subject. They will study 3 or 4 subjects. Nottingham College offers over 20 popular subjects, including a limited range of languages and more specialised subjects. All the academic subjects are studied at
High Pavement Sixth Form, though Art and Textiles at Stoney Street and Photography at the
Adams Building.
University-level courses
Nottingham College offers a range of university-level courses at undergraduate level recognised by the
Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) in partnership with higher education institutions including
Nottingham Trent University
Nottingham Trent University (NTU) is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as a new university in 1992, although its roots go back to 1843 with the establishment of the Nottingham Government School of Design, w ...
and
Edexcel
Edexcel (also known since 2013 as Pearson Edexcel) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational education and examination body formed in 1996 and wholly owned by Pearson plc since 2005. It is the only privately owned examination board ...
.
Locations
Nottingham College currently has ten centres around the city.
Former key centres include Beeston, Clarendon, Clifton and Maid Marian Way. These were removed from the college's estate to help fund and build the "City Hub" on disused brownfield land next to the
Broadmarsh Centre
Broadmarsh is a historic area of Nottingham, England. The area was subjected to large scale slum clearance, creating large spaces used for regeneration. A shopping centre, car park, bus station and road complex created in the early 1970s cut-t ...
and tram overpass at the foot of
Lace Market Cliff.
Adams Building
The
Adams Building opened in 1998 with a focus for the College's Higher Education provision as well as art and design, fashion and textiles, business, digital media and GCSEs courses.
Much of the provision is delivered in the
Grade II listed
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
seven-storey Adams Building, a converted lace factory on Stoney Street in the historic
Lace Market, and at the nearby School of Art and Design. Specialised facilities include a
three-camera TV studio, a radio broadcasting station, and fashion design/manufacturing studios.
Basford
The Basford centre off Stockhill Lane, on the north-western edge of the city, focusses on construction technologies with an emphasis on vocational courses. The centre has specialist facilities for bricklaying, plumbing, gas, painting and decorating, carpentry and joinery, plastering, refrigeration, tiling, welding, heating and ventilation and electrical services.
In September 2015 the centre was refurbished. The £27m rebuilding project followed a £9m investment by the Skills Funding Agency.
City Hub
The College's estate includes a purpose-built
state-of-the-art
The state of the art (sometimes cutting edge or leading edge) refers to the highest level of general development, as of a device, technique, or scientific field achieved at a particular time. However, in some contexts it can also refer to a level ...
'City Hub' in
Nottingham city centre.
The City Hub offers new facilities and resources for students, plus community facilities such as a new training restaurant (Fletchers Restaurant), café and performing arts centre.
Building work started on the £58 million project in May 2018 and was originally set to be completed by September 2020, but due to the
COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions, construction work was delayed. The new opening date was January 2021 to coincide with the start of the Spring Term.
It is a six-storey building designed by the Sheffield architectural practice of
Bond Bryan. Constructed by
Wates, it provided training and employment opportunities including 24 work placements, 16 new jobs, 13 apprentice placements and training for 11 NVQs.
The City Hub is part of the wider
Broadmarsh regeneration plans, led by
Nottingham City Council.
Highfields
Highfields is located on University Boulevard. Created in association with
Toyota, the centre has ten workshops, a car showroom and a learning resource centre.
High Pavement Sixth Form
High Pavement is a dedicated A-Level centre on Chaucer Street in the heart of the City's academic district. The £6.3 million building was designed by
Ellis Williams Architects
Ellis is a surname of Welsh and English origin. Retrieved 21 January 2014 An independent French origin of the surname is said to derive from the phrase fleur-de-lis.
Surname
A
*Abe Ellis (Stargate), a fictional character in the TV series ''St ...
;
it has six floors with classrooms and computer suites, a Learning Resource Centre and a café.
High Pavement history
The Sixth Form College was previously the 11–18 'High Pavement Grammar School', first established in 1788 as the '
Unitarian Day Charity School' behind the
High Pavement Chapel on
High Pavement
High Pavement is a street in Nottingham in Nottinghamshire, England. It is one of the earliest streets in the city, and most of its buildings are listed.
History
It runs from the east end of St Mary's Churchyard to Weekday Cross. Around 1681 a ...
, in the
Lace Market area. From 1895 until 1955, the school was in Stanley Road in
Forest Fields, then moving to the
Bestwood Estate
Bestwood Estate is a large council estate located to the north of the city of Nottingham, England. Based on the 2011 census, its population is 4,719. There is also a ward of the City of Nottingham called Bestwood, which at the time of the 2011 ...
.
High Pavement Grammar School competed in ''
Top of the Form'' on the
BBC Light Programme against
Wyggeston Girls' School (it became
Regent College, Leicester) on Monday 14 November 1950; the programme had been recorded on 18 October 1950. The school team made it to the semi-final of the England section (with four sections for each nation) on Monday 11 December 1950, where the team was beaten 35-28 by Woking County Grammar School for Boys, who next competed against
Manchester High School for Girls in the England final.
Later a boys team took on a team from
Northampton High School for Girls, in heat 5, on Sunday 17 October 1965 at 6pm on the Light Programme.
The headmaster Harry Davies appeared on a discussion programme on the
BBC Home Service
The BBC Home Service was a national and regional radio station that broadcast from 1939 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 4.
History
1922–1939: Interwar period
Between the early 1920s and the outbreak of World War II, the BBC ...
on Thursday 29 August 1957 at 9.15pm entitled ''The Leicestershire Experiment'', about a scheme in parts of Leicestershire for early comprehensive schools starting September 1957. The Director of Education for Leicestershire, who featured in the discussion, described the 11 plus as 'an offence against reason and public conscience' - he most disliked the 'segregation' of children. The host of the discussion was
Stuart Maclure
Stuart may refer to:
Names
*Stuart (name), a given name and surname (and list of people with the name) Automobile
* Stuart (automobile)
Places
Australia Generally
* Stuart Highway, connecting South Australia and the Northern Territory
North ...
, later the editor of the
Times Educational Supplement.
.On Wednesday 16 July 1958 on the Home Service, Harry Davies appeared in a discussion programme entitled ''Should the grammar school go?'', with Ronald Bielby, the headmaster of
Huddersfield New College, and Dame
Margaret Miles, the headmistress from 1952-73 of Mayfield School, a girls' grammar school on
West Hill, Wandsworth in Putney, (and a well-known strong advocate for comprehensive schools; but Mayfield School as a comprehensive never lasted, and had to close in 1986) The headteacher appeared on a radio programme on Wednesday 30 January 1963 at 8pm called ''The Universities and Higher Education: Signposts for Expansion'' on the Third Programme (since 1967 Radio 3) and on Monday 15 May 1961 at 7.30pm, he appeared on a Network Three on the radio programme ''Starting a Career'', a radio series of twelve programmes, in an episode called ''What does it lead to?'', with the host Brian Groombridge, part of a collection of radio series called ''Listen and Learn''. The programme was repeated on the Home Service on Wednesday 27 December 1961.
With the introduction of comprehensive education in Nottingham, the grammar school became High Pavement Sixth Form College in 1975, and in 1999 merged into New College Nottingham. It moved to its current site on Chaucer Street in 2001.
[
]
London Road
The centre, which is five minutes from Nottingham station and tram terminus, is the college's technology centre. It has three automotive workshops with 32 ramps as well as general engineering facilities.
Ruddington
This centre is home to Emtec Colleges Limited as well some of the industry's training providers. Training takes place in facilities in Ruddington where automotive training in conjunction with motor manufacturers has been taking place for over 15 years.
Stapleford
The centre provides specialist facilities for students with a range of physical and learning difficulties and disabilities as well as for other Foundation Learning courses.
Wheeler Gate
Your Look Hair and Beauty Salon, located on Wheeler Gate (just off Old Market Square) is a modern industry-standard commercial salon dedicated to hair and beauty courses and open to the public. The salon was originally completed in September 2014 and was officially opened in November 2014 under the name Salon Central by British hairdresser Beverly C .
NILA
The New College Nottingham International Lifestyles Academy (NILA) opened its campus in Gurgaon
Gurgaon (pronunciation: ʊɽɡãːw, officially named Gurugram (pronunciation: ʊɾʊɡɾaːm, is a city located in the northern Indian state of Haryana. It is situated near the Delhi–Haryana border, about southwest of the nationa ...
, India on 22 January 2013 in partnership with the Batra Group
Batra is a clan of Arora community of Punjab, India. They are mainly followers of Hinduism and Sikhism.
Notable people
Armed Forces
*Vikram Batra, PVC (1974–1999), officer of the Indian Army, posthumously awarded India's highest award for ...
.
NILA was NCN's first overseas campus and offered British higher-education qualifications (BTEC Higher National Diplomas) in Hospitality Management, Interactive Media, Retail Management and Fashion Management. Programmes were designed by the college in consultation with employers, in line with Indian National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) priorities. The college in 2014 decided to withdraw from the project.
Notable alumni
Former students of the college include:
* Finn Atkins, actress
* Richard Beckinsale, actor
* Samantha Beckinsale, actress
* Sarah Connolly, mezzo-soprano
* Carl Froch, boxer
* Robert Lindsay, actor
* James Morrison, singer and songwriter
* Su Pollard, comedy performer, singer and actress
* Mark Pollicott, mathematician
* Steven Price, Oscar-winning composer
High Pavement Grammar School
* John Bird, satirist (1948–55)
* Peter Bowles, actor (1948–55)
*Michael Breheny
Michael Breheny (30 October 1948 – 11 February 2003) was professor of planning at Reading University. He specialised in the planning and management of new economic growth sectors during the post-industrial growth phase in Europe in the 1980s an ...
, Professor of Planning 1991–2003 at the University of Reading
* John Burnett, social historian
*Prof Kenneth Burton
Kenneth Burton FRS (26 June 1926 – 22 November 2010) was a British biochemist, and Professor at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. He was educated at High Pavement Grammar School (Nottingham), Wath Grammar School and King's College, Cambri ...
, Professor of Biochemistry 1966–88 at Newcastle University
Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a UK public university, public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is ...
, 1954–66 at the MRC Unit for Research in Cell Metabolism, Oxford
* Louis Essen , physicist who invented the caesium atomic clock and determined the speed of light (1920–27)
*Prof Anthony Cross , Professor of Slavonic Studies 1985–2004 at the University of Cambridge ( Fitzwilliam College), Roberts Professor of Russian 1981–85 at the University of Leeds, Chairman 2001-05 of Academia Rossica
Academia Rossica (London/Moscow) is a cultural organisation set up in 2000 to promote and strengthen cultural and intellectual ties between Russia and the West, pioneering intercultural projects and bringing the best of contemporary Russian culture ...
, Reviews Editor since 1971 of the Journal of European Studies, and winner of the 1997 Alec Nove Prize
Alec or Aleck is a Scottish form of the given name Alex. It may be a diminutive of the name Alexander or a given name in its own right. Notable people with the name include:
People
*Alec Aalto (1942–2018), Finnish diplomat
* Alec Acton (1938 ...
* Simon House, violin player
* Freda Jackson, actress
*Stanley Middleton
Stanley Middleton FRSL (1 August 1919 – 25 July 2009) was a British novelist.
Life
He was born in Bulwell, Nottinghamshire, in 1919 and educated at High Pavement School, Stanley Road, Nottingham, and later at University College Nottingha ...
, author and 1974 Booker Prize
The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...
winner (1930–37)
* Trevor Morley, footballer
* Ken Olisa , businessman and former Reuters board member, the first British-born black man to serve on the board of a FTSE 100 company and the first black Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London
The Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London is the personal representative of the monarch, currently King Charles III, in Greater London.
Each Lord-Lieutenant is assisted in, largely ceremonial, duties by Deputy Lieutenants whom he appoints; the L ...
(1963–70)
* Tim Robinson, cricket umpire and former Nottinghamshire cricket captain
* Harold Shipman, serial killer (1957–64)
*Sir Arthur Elijah Trueman
Sir Arthur Elijah Trueman (26 April 1894 – 5 January 1956) was a British geologist.
Life
Trueman was born in Nottingham, the son of Elijah Trueman, a lacemaker, and his wife Thirza Newton Cottee.
He was educated at High Pavement School in No ...
, Professor of Geology 1937–45 at the University of Glasgow, and President 1945–47 of the Geological Society (1905–12)
* John Turner (actor) (1943–50)
* Philip Voss, actor
*Sir Rowland Wright
Sir Rowland Sydney Wright CBE (4 October 1915 – 14 June 1991) was a British industrialist who served as Chancellor of the Queen's University, Belfast between 1984–91.
He was born in Northampton. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of ...
, Chairman 1975–78 of ICI, Chairman 1978–83 of Blue Circle Industries, Chancellor 1984–91 of Queen's University, Belfast (1927–34)
Forest Fields Grammar School
*Graham Allen Graham Allen may refer to:
*Graham Allen (politician) (born 1953), British Labour politician
*Graham Allen (footballer) (born 1977), English footballer
* Graham Allen (writer) (born 1963), British-born Irish writer and academic
See also
*Graham All ...
, Labour MP 1987–2017 for Nottingham North
Nottingham North is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Alex Norris of the Labour and Co-operative party.
Boundaries
1955–1974: The County Borough of Nottingham wards of Byron, Mapperley, ...
*Sir David Nicholson, Chief Executive 2011–14 of the National Health Service
References
Notes
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
{{Coord, 52.9529, -1.1435, type:edu_region:GB-NGM, display=title
Education in Nottingham
Educational institutions established in 1999
Further education colleges in Nottinghamshire
1999 establishments in England
Higher education colleges in England