West Herts College is a

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...

for

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 ...

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, United Kingdom. The college has campuses in

Hemel Hempstead Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of London, which is part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500. Developed after the Second World War as a new ...

and

Kings Langley Kings Langley is a village, former Manorialism, manor and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, north-west of Westminster in the historic centre of London and to the south of the Chiltern Hills. It now forms part o ...

. As of 2017 the college has 5,900 students on study programmes or

apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a Tradesman, trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners ...

s.https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/2696825

Range of courses

Courses offered are vocational and apprenticeships. The College works with local secondary schools to offer entry to applicants of 16 years of age and older. Some school pupils may transfer their full-time education to the College in order to restart their education or to take some vocational subjects at Level 1, either as full subjects or as "tasters" (to judge suitability). A few GCSE subjects are offered to gifted pupils. Tertiary qualifications (foundation and extended degrees and

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 alongsi ...

s) are offered, overseen by the

University of Hertfordshire The University of Hertfordshire (UH) is a public university in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. The university is based largely in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Its antecedent institution, Hatfield Technical College, was founded in 1948 and was ident ...

(UH). The foundation degrees may lead on to full BA or

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

awards elsewhere, while extended degrees provide the entry requirements for a degree course at UH. In addition a number of stand-alone courses are offered to part-time students for personal development or leisure.

History

Watford, West Herts College, Hempstead Road campus - geograph

The Watford Library and School of Science and Art began in 1874 on Queens Road, Watford. A new building on Hempstead Road for the college was designed by the architects

Henry Vaughan Lanchester Henry Vaughan Lanchester (9 August 1863 – 16 January 1953) was a British architect working in London. He served as editor of '' The Builder'', was a co-founder of the Town Planning Institute and a recipient of the Royal Gold Medal. Biography ...

and

Thomas Arthur Lodge Thomas Arthur Lodge (1888–1967) was a British architect. He studied at the Architectural Association in London until 1909, and was then articled to Thomas Geoffry Lucas. After a time spent with a number of different firms, Lucas and Henry Vaugh ...

and construction of the large,

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

-style college, known as the ''Lanchester Building'', began in 1938. The new college was located on former lands of the Cassiobury Estate, sold by the

Earl of Essex Earl of Essex is a title in the Peerage of England which was first created in the 12th century by King Stephen of England. The title has been recreated eight times from its original inception, beginning with a new first Earl upon each new cre ...

. Although the stately home was demolished in 1927, the 17th-century

dower house A dower house is usually a moderately large house available for use by the widow of the previous owner of an English, Scottish or Welsh estate. The widow, often known as the "dowager", usually moves into the dower house from the larger family ...

, Little Cassiobury, remained. Progress on the new building was interrupted by the advent of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and the building remained unfinished throughout the 1940s. Watford Technical College was founded in 1947 but it was not until 1953 that Watford Technical College was officially opened in its new premises. In the 1980s Watford College of Technology merged with the George Stephenson College (built 1965/66) to form Watford College. West Herts College was established in 1991 as part of the reorganisation of Further Education in Hertfordshire. It was created from the two local colleges Watford College and Cassio College, and Dacorum College in Hemel Hempstead. A new Watford Campus building was constructed in the early 21st century and West Herts College vacated the Lanchester Building; now a locally

listed building 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 ...

due to its architectural merit; the Lanchester Building is due to be converted into a

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

. In 2017 the College was awarded a Gold rating in the

Teaching Excellence Framework The Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF) is a controversial government assessment of the quality of undergraduate teaching in universities and other higher education providers in England, which may be used from 2020 to determine ...

administered by the Higher Education Funding Council for England. That same year a merger with Stanmore College was announced, but the plans were cancelled after three months. Former principals include Elizabeth Rushton (2004-2011), Tony Pitcher (2003-2004), and Andrew Bragg (1997 to 2003). Former Watford College principals include Terry Howard (? - 1986), Frank Baker (1986 - 1996), John Loveridge (1996 - 1997).

Controversy

During February 2018, George Duke-Cohan, a student of the college sent a threatening email stating that a bomb had been planted in the C-block of the college. The building was quickly evacuated and students were sent to the leisure centre located next to the college. Law enforcement were notified of the threat and an investigation then followed. Duke-Cohan later admitted to being the perpetrator – this resulted in his suspension from the college. On March of the same year, Duke-Cohan sent numerous emails to over 400 schools across the UK, using hijacked email addresses from the gaming community VeltPvP. The attacks affected schools in London, Manchester, and North Yorkshire. North Yorkshire Police state the following, regarding the incident "Our cybercrime unit detectives, supported by local officers, have looked at these incidents and it is not believed there is any genuine threat". The investigation put forward resulted in the arrest of Duke-Cohan on 19 March, he was later released under investigation. In September 2018, Duke-Cohan was rearrested after carrying out another hoax, this time targeting a United Airlines flight from the UK to San Francisco. Over the phone, he claimed to be a concerned father whose daughter was on the flight which was supposedly hijacked. Duke-Cohan then later pleaded guilty to this hoax and all of the previous charges put forward against him, and was jailed for three years after a trial at Luton Crown Court in December 2018.Teenager jailed for school and airport bomb hoaxes
''

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 Gu ...

'', December 7 2018. Retrieved April 23 2022.

Locations

Pedestrian crossing by West Herts College (geograph 3948700)

The College has inherited campuses from its predecessors and now occupies sites at Watford (Hempstead Road) and Hemel Hempstead (Marlowes).

External links

West Herts College website

References

{{authority control Watford Dacorum Further education colleges in Hertfordshire Art Deco architecture in England Educational institutions established in 1991 1991 establishments in England