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St Patrick's College (also known as St Patrick's International College) is a for-profit private
higher education Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after compl ...
college based in the United Kingdom with its main campus located at
Tower Hill Tower Hill is the area surrounding the Tower of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is infamous for the public execution of high status prisoners from the late 14th to the mid 18th century. The execution site on the higher gro ...
in
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. The college offers
Higher National Diploma Higher National Diploma (HND), part of the Higher Nationals suite of qualifications, is an academic higher education qualification in the United Kingdom and various other countries. They were first introduced in England and Wales in 1920 alongs ...
programmes in business and health care. Although its roots trace back to a Catholic primary school founded in
Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was deve ...
in 1803, the college was established in its present form in 1999. Since 2013 it has been a wholly owned subsidiary of the corporate group
Global University Systems Global University Systems B.V. (GUS) is a private limited company registered in the Netherlands. As a corporate group, it owns and operates several private for-profit colleges and universities in the UK, Canada, Israel and Europe, as well as oth ...
.


History


Establishment

St Patrick's College traces its roots to St. Patrick's School, part of a group of schools established in 1803 by St Patrick's Church for the education of poor children in the
Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was deve ...
area of London. The school operated at 24 Great Chapel St until 1967. After its closure, the Catholic Church ran St Patrick's as a language school teaching English. In 1998, the language school was bought by Girish Chandra and incorporated as St. Patrick's International College Limited in 1999. Under Chandra's ownership, the college began adding externally awarded diplomas at both
undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-le ...
and
postgraduate Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate ( bachelor's) degree. The organization and ...
level in law, business, tourism and hospitality, computing and health and social care. In 2012 Chandra sold the college to the entrepreneur Aaron Etingen (also known as Arkady Etingen) through Etingen's company Interactive World Wide Limited.Morgan, John (2 July 2014)
"Director of education wins claim against former owner of St Patrick's College for unfair dismissal"
''
Times Higher Education ''Times Higher Education'' (''THE''), formerly ''The Times Higher Education Supplement'' (''The Thes''), is a British magazine reporting specifically on news and issues related to higher education. Ownership TPG Capital acquired TSL Education ...
''. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
Morgan, John (17 April 2014
"Private college goes Dutch but says profits are taxed in UK"
''
Times Higher Education ''Times Higher Education'' (''THE''), formerly ''The Times Higher Education Supplement'' (''The Thes''), is a British magazine reporting specifically on news and issues related to higher education. Ownership TPG Capital acquired TSL Education ...
''. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
Etingen is the founder of the London School of Business and Finance and several associated for-profit colleges known collectively as the
LSBF Group The LSBF Group is a UK-based group of private for-profit educational institutions whose "hub" institution is the London School of Business and Finance (LSBF). The group also includes the London College of Contemporary Arts (LCCA) and the LSBF Sch ...
. After the purchase, St Patrick's College was describing itself as "a member of the LSBF Group". In a subsequent reorganisation of his companies begun in late 2012, Etingen established
Global University Systems Global University Systems B.V. (GUS) is a private limited company registered in the Netherlands. As a corporate group, it owns and operates several private for-profit colleges and universities in the UK, Canada, Israel and Europe, as well as oth ...
which is registered in The Netherlands as a
besloten vennootschap A (, lit. " closed company"; formally a , , ) or (SRL) is the Dutch and Belgian version of a private limited liability company. The company is owned by shareholders; the company's shares are privately registered and not freely transferable. ...
(BV), a type of
private limited liability company A private limited company is any type of business entity in "private" ownership used in many jurisdictions, in contrast to a publicly listed company, with some differences from country to country. Examples include the '' LLC'' in the United Sta ...
. Global University Systems BV then became the owner of St Patrick's College and the institutions of the LSBF Group through Dutch BV holding companies.


Expansion

St Patrick's College and the LSBF Group expanded rapidly after the 2011 market reforms of post-secondary education introduced by UK higher education minister
David Willetts David Linsay Willetts, Baron Willetts, (born 9 March 1956) is a British politician and life peer. From 1992 to 2015, he was the Member of Parliament (MP) representing the constituency of Havant in Hampshire. He served as Minister of State for ...
. The reforms opened up access to government-funded maintenance grants and loans for students in private colleges. Together, the London School of Business and Finance and St Patrick's grew from 50 government-funded students in 2011 to approximately 6,000 over the next two years. LSBF and St Patrick's collectively netted £13.5m in tuition fee payments, with their students receiving a total of £49m in government grants and loans.Malik, Shiv; McGettigan, Andrew; Domokos, John (30 May 2014)
"Lecturers claim private college puts profits first"
''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
''. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
An £80 million overspend on student loans at private providers led the government temporarily to suspend St Patrick's designation for receiving student loan funding, along with that of LSBF and 21 other private colleges. The designation was restored for the 2014–2015-year, and by the end of that year, St Patrick's had 6,668 students claiming £25.3 million in tuition loans from the
Student Loans Company The Student Loans Company (SLC) is an executive non-departmental public body company in the United Kingdom that provides student loans. It is owned by the UK Government's Department for Education (85%), the Scottish Government (5%), the Welsh ...
. It had become the biggest private higher education provider in England in terms of the number of students claiming SLC loans. To accommodate the increased student numbers, the college moved its main teaching site from Soho, first to Carey Street near
Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...
and then to Billiter Street in the
City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...
which it shared with other colleges in the LSBF Group, and finally to High Street in the Stratford area in 2015.
Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) is the independent body that checks on standards and quality in UK higher education. It conducts quality assessment reviews, develops reference points and guidance for providers, and condu ...
(November 2015)
"Higher Education Review (Alternative Providers): St Patrick's International College Ltd."
Retrieved 11 May 2016.
The college's rapid expansion also generated a number of student and staff complaints, described in ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
'' in 2014 and in the BBC Radio programme '' Face the Facts'' broadcast on 26 February 2015. The BBC programme aired allegations that between 2012 and 2014 the college offered a poor learning environment with large classes and over-crowding and some student work rejected as sub-standard by its external examining body after having been initially passed with high marks by the college. The students' complaints also led to an investigation by the UK's
Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) is the independent body that checks on standards and quality in UK higher education. It conducts quality assessment reviews, develops reference points and guidance for providers, and condu ...
(QAA) in March 2015. According to the QAA, the concerns related primarily to admissions procedures, programme approval, the learning environment, student retention and attendance, teaching quality, and record keeping.
Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) is the independent body that checks on standards and quality in UK higher education. It conducts quality assessment reviews, develops reference points and guidance for providers, and condu ...
(March 2015)
"Concerns about standards and quality in higher education: St Patrick's International College"
Retrieved 11 May 2016.
The QAA report found that practice was "broadly acceptable in four out of six areas examined. The "significant exceptions" were admissions procedures and student retention and attendance, where the QAA said the "concerns raised are justified." The QAA found dropout rates of more than 30 per cent and evidence "indicative of recruitment errors and a failure to ensure that academic staff are equipped to cope with periodic disciplinary problems". According to an article in ''
Times Higher Education ''Times Higher Education'' (''THE''), formerly ''The Times Higher Education Supplement'' (''The Thes''), is a British magazine reporting specifically on news and issues related to higher education. Ownership TPG Capital acquired TSL Education ...
'' published on 7 May 2015, the UK government nevertheless allowed the college to resume access to public money after it had been suspended earlier in the year. Daniel Khan, the college's principal at the time, was quoted in the article as saying that the college "takes particular satisfaction from QAA's finding that the majority of the concerns raised cannot be upheld and its recognition that students speak positively about the helpfulness of teaching staff, person ltutors, and unit leaders".Morgan, John (7 May 2015)
"QAA upholds two out of six concerns about St Patrick's"
''
Times Higher Education ''Times Higher Education'' (''THE''), formerly ''The Times Higher Education Supplement'' (''The Thes''), is a British magazine reporting specifically on news and issues related to higher education. Ownership TPG Capital acquired TSL Education ...
''. Retrieved 11 May 2016.


Post-2015

According to a UK Home Office spokesman quoted in ''Times Higher Education'', St Patrick's College had its Tier 2 and Tier 4 visa sponsor licenses suspended on 19 February 2015 "due to concerns about a number of compliance issues." The college was given 20 working days to submit representations to a review. As of January 2019 the college is not on the Home Office registers of Tier 2 and Tier 4 sponsors and thus cannot recruit non-
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...
students or offer them work placements. In September 2015 St Patrick's parent company Global University Systems (GUS) announced plans for a two-year restructuring process of the corporation's UK holdings set to begin in mid-2016. According to John Cox, at the time director of organisational development at GUS, the plan would involve the London School of Business and Finance coming under a new vocational entity offering only diploma courses, short courses and corporate training products. The vocational courses delivered by St Patrick's College would also come under this division.Custer, Sara (25 September 2015)
"Global University Systems to restructure"
''The Pie'' (Professionals in International Education). Retrieved 5 May 2016.
By the April 2016 Academic Management Review by
Pearson Education Pearson Education is a British-owned education publishing and assessment service to schools and corporations, as well for students directly. Pearson owns educational media brands including Addison–Wesley, Peachpit, Prentice Hall, eCollege ...
(who validate the college's
Higher National Diploma Higher National Diploma (HND), part of the Higher Nationals suite of qualifications, is an academic higher education qualification in the United Kingdom and various other countries. They were first introduced in England and Wales in 1920 alongs ...
and other professional and postgraduate diplomas), the student enrollment on the HND courses was down to about 2000 from a previous high of 4000. The HND recruitment was predominantly domestic. The review singled out two areas of "exemplary practice":Heagney, James (reviewer)
"Academic Management Review Report 2015-16"
for
Pearson Education Pearson Education is a British-owned education publishing and assessment service to schools and corporations, as well for students directly. Pearson owns educational media brands including Addison–Wesley, Peachpit, Prentice Hall, eCollege ...
. Retrieved 11 May 2016 via the official website of St Patrick's College.
#"A robust system for obtaining student feedback on teaching and learning" was in place. #"Plagiarism panels which highlight the importance of proper referencing by students" were "utilised to maximum effect."


Courses

As of 2019, the college has two schools: Business Plus and Health Plus. Within these schools, various programmes are offered for
Higher National Diploma Higher National Diploma (HND), part of the Higher Nationals suite of qualifications, is an academic higher education qualification in the United Kingdom and various other countries. They were first introduced in England and Wales in 1920 alongs ...
s accredited by
Pearson Edexcel Edexcel (also known since 2013 as Pearson Edexcel) is a British multinational education and examination body formed in 1996 and wholly owned by Pearson plc since 2005. It is the only privately owned examination board in the United Kingdom. It ...
. In the past, the college also had schools of Technology, Tourism and Hospitality, Art and Design, and Law and offered several post-graduate diplomas and degrees awarded by a variety of external providers.


Campus

The campus of St Patrick's is located at Sceptre Court in London's
Tower Hill Tower Hill is the area surrounding the Tower of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is infamous for the public execution of high status prisoners from the late 14th to the mid 18th century. The execution site on the higher gro ...
which it shares with the London School of Business and Finance. Previous campuses were at Duncan House in the Stratford area of London with a further site in the
Holborn Holborn ( or ) is a district in central London, which covers the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Camden and a part ( St Andrew Holborn Below the Bars) of the Ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London. The area has its ro ...
area.St Patrick's College
Our Campuses
Retrieved 1 May 2018.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:St Patrick's College Professional education in London Test preparation companies Higher education colleges in London For-profit universities and colleges in Europe