K College, was also known as South & West Kent College, was an English college of

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 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 completi ...

with facilities across

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, formed in April 2010, by the merger of

South Kent College South Kent College (SKC) was a college of further and higher education in southeast England. The main campus was in Folkestone, with satellites in Dover and at several sites in Ashford. Following a KPMG report in 2008 that recommended a merger, in ...

with West Kent College. In 2014 it was split again, between

Hadlow College Hadlow College is a further education, further and higher education college in Hadlow, Kent, England, with a satellite site in Greenwich. The curriculum primarily covers land-based subjects including Agriculture, Horticulture, Habitat conserv ...

and

East Kent College East Kent College is a further education college (although also provides higher education courses) located in Broadstairs, Kent on the southeast coast of the United Kingdom. The main campus is located on Ramsgate Road, Broadstairs. In September ...

, with

West Kent College K College, was also known as South & West Kent College, was an English college of Further education, Further Education and Higher Education with facilities across Kent, formed in April 2010, by the merger of South Kent College with West Kent C ...

being reestablished and the campus in

Ashford Ashford may refer to: Places Australia *Ashford, New South Wales *Ashford, South Australia *Electoral district of Ashford, South Australia Ireland *Ashford, County Wicklow *Ashford Castle, County Galway United Kingdom * Ashford, Kent, a town ** ...

becoming

Ashford College Ashford College is a further education college in Ashford, Kent founded in August 2014. It has been run by EKC Group since April 2020, when it was acquired from the West Kent and Ashford College corporation. Susan Bonett became Principal of the ...

. The Interim Principal was Phil Frier and the Patron was

Lord Mayhew of Twysden Patrick Barnabas Burke Mayhew, Baron Mayhew of Twysden, (11 September 1929 – 25 June 2016) was a British barrister and politician. Early life atrick’s father, George Mayhew, was a decorated army officer turned oil executive; his mother, ...

History

K College was formed in April 2010 by the merger of South Kent College with West Kent College. The college had campuses in Ashford,

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...

Folkestone Folkestone ( ) is a port town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour and shipping port for most of the 19th and 20t ...

Tonbridge Tonbridge ( ) is a market town in Kent, England, on the River Medway, north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, south west of Maidstone and south east of London. In the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Malling, it had an estimated population ...

and

Royal Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Rocks. ...

and at one point had more than 25,000 students. , when the decision was taken to split it, the college had approximately 15,000 students and more than 1,100 staff. The college sustained a large amount of debt, after which the principal, Bill Fearon, and some members of the Board of Governors resigned, and the

Skills Funding Agency The Skills Funding Agency was one of two successor organisations that emerged from the closure in 2010 of the Learning and Skills Council (England's largest non-departmental public body or quango). The agency was in turn replaced by the Educa ...

recommended it be sold. The college received an "inadequate" grading by

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 ...

in December 2013, and from 1 August 2014 it was again split into two units: *

Group formally acquired K College Group; it took over the Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells campuses as

and Ashford campus as

. *

took over Folkestone and Dover. In July 2014 prior to Hadlow College managing the Ashford, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells campuses, K College announced that there would be up to 127 redundancies of those not transferred under TUPE to East Kent College. Therefore other, more creative means were found by EKC in order to shed staff and axe courses. Months of chaos at Dover and Folkestone ensued. However, East Kent College expanded offerings and recruited additional staff for the Folkestone and Dover campuses after the takeover.

Courses

K College offered Higher Education courses in conjunction with the College’s partner universities:

Canterbury Christ Church University , mottoeng = The truth shall set you free , established = 2005 – gained University status 1962 – teacher training college , type = Public , religious_affiliation = Church of England , city ...

University of Greenwich The University of Greenwich is a public university located in London and Kent, United Kingdom. Previous names include Woolwich Polytechnic and Thames Polytechnic. The university's main campus is at the Old Royal Naval College, which along with it ...

and

University of Kent , motto_lang = , mottoeng = Literal translation: 'Whom to serve is to reign'(Book of Common Prayer translation: 'whose service is perfect freedom')Graham Martin, ''From Vision to Reality: the Making of the University of Kent at Canterbury'' ...

. The main campus in Tonbridge taught a large number of

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 ...

and vocational courses including

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. It also ran teacher training courses, including additional teaching courses on deaf issues and

dyslexia Dyslexia, also known until the 1960s as word blindness, is a disorder characterized by reading below the expected level for one's age. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, r ...

, and TUC courses and had a Professional Development Centre. The college also ran a

construction Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and com ...

-orientated teaching centre based at the ''Construction Crafts & Engineering Centre'' on North Farm Industrial Estate in Tunbridge Wells.

Student Union

The West Kent College Student Association was rebranded as K College Student Union. The main rebrand involved developing a new logo, changing its name and initiating a consultation on its constitution. It consisted of a President, Vice-President, Communications Officer and six Union Officers. These have since split apart to cover each separate 'chain', but retain a similar democratic structure.

Alumni of West Kent College

Mark Sargeant Mark Sargeant (born August 1973) is an English chef and restaurateur from Larkfield, Kent. Early life Born in Kent, Sargeant grew up in Larkfield, Kent and attended Oakwood Park Grammar School in Maidstone. From an early age, Sargeant's i ...

— chef *

Hazel Crowney Hazel Crowney, also spelt as Hazel Croney, is a British model and film actress who has appeared in many ad campaigns and some Bollywood films. Early life Crowney was born in London, United Kingdom, to English parents Karin and Phil Crowney. she ...

— actress, model *

The Countess of Wessex Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, (born Sophie Helen Rhys-Jones, 20 January 1965) is a member of the British royal family. She is married to Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh, the youngest sibling of King Charles III. Sophie grew up in Brenchle ...

(née Sophie Rhys-Jones) *

Jilly Goolden Jill Priscilla Goolden (born 28 September 1949) is an English wine critic, journalist and television personality. Career For 18 years Goolden co-presented the popular BBC2 ''Food and Drink'' television series in Britain, with Chris Kelly, Mich ...

— TV presenter & wine connoisseur

References

External links

College homepagearchived
at the

Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see ...