Bradford College is a

further Further or furthur, alternatively farther, may refer to: * ''Furthur'' (bus), the Merry Pranksters' psychedelic bus *Further (band), a 1990s American indie rock band *Furthur (band) Furthur was an American rock band founded in 2009 by former G ...

and

higher education Tertiary education (higher education, or post-secondary education) is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank defines tertiary education as including universities, colleges, and vocational schools ...

college in

Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...

, England, with approximately 25,000 students. The college offers a range of full and part-time courses from introductory level through to postgraduate level and caters for a variety of students, including school leavers, adults wanting to return to education, degree-level students and those seeking professional qualifications.

HE provision

Bradford College is one of the FE Colleges with the largest HE provision in England, with approximately 170 full and part-time HE courses. The College's HE provision is currently validated by

University of Bolton The University of Greater Manchester (legally: The University of Bolton Higher Education Corporation) is a public university in Bolton, Greater Manchester in England. The university is commonly referred to as a 'post-92' institution, which is a ...

, having previously been validated by

Teesside University Teesside University is a public university with its main campus in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire in North East England. It was officially opened as ''Constantine Technical College'' in 1930, before becoming a polytechnic in 1969, and finally g ...

. The move to Teesside University was a result of Leeds Metropolitan University's withdrawal from its partnerships with colleges except for foundation degrees.

History

In 1832, the Bradford Mechanics Institute was founded. In 1863, the institute had grown to accommodate full-time staff and had its own School of Industrial Design and Art. In 1872 the Bradford MP

William Edward Forster William Edward Forster, Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, PC, Royal Society, FRS (11 July 18185 April 1886) was an English industrialist, philanthropist and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party statesman. As a minister in Gladstone's g ...

opened new buildings in Bridge Street. On 23 June 1882, the then Prince and Princess of Wales (later

King Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and ...

and

Queen Alexandra Alexandra of Denmark (Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia; 1 December 1844 – 20 November 1925) was List of British royal consorts, queen-consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, from 22 Januar ...

) came to open the new School. They were given a very warm welcome: "From

Saltaire Saltaire is a Victorian model village near Shipley, West Yorkshire, England, situated between the River Aire, the railway, and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Salts Mill and the houses were built by Titus Salt between 1851 and 1871 to allo ...

Station to the Technical School, a distance of four miles, was one continuous avenue of Venetian masts, streamers, and many coloured banners, while at appropriate points triumphal arches of great magnificence were erected." In 1982, the institution was named Bradford and Ilkley Community College, after a merger with Ilkley College, giving the combined college a small satellite campus in the nearby town of

Ilkley Ilkley is a spa town and civil parish in the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, in Northern England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Ilkley civil parish includes the adjacent village of Ben Rhydding and is a ward within ...

, north-east of Bradford. This was closed in 1999 and soon after the institution became Bradford College. In 2002, a merger between the college and the

University of Bradford The University of Bradford is a public research university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. A plate glass university, it received its royal charter in 1966, making it the 40th university to be created in Britain, but ...

was proposed; this was pursued until the summer of 2003, when the two institutions issued a joint statement calling off the merger. Beginning in 2006 the college underwent a re-brand and unveiled its current logo. A community learning centre, named The Three Valleys Centre, was opened in nearby

Keighley Keighley ( ) is a market town and a civil parishes in England, civil parish in the City of Bradford Borough of West Yorkshire, England. It is the second-largest settlement in the borough, after Bradford. Keighley is north-west of Bradford, n ...

in 2007 which hosts a hairdressing and beauty salon (also operating on a commercial basis), as well as I.T and a range of language courses. As part of the college's 175-year celebration, it published a list of 175 famous alumni of the college. This list includes ex-students such as Edward Appleton,

Tasmin Archer Tasmin Archer (born 3 August 1963) is a British pop singer from Bradford, England. Her first album, ''Great Expectations'', spawned the hit " Sleeping Satellite", which reached number one in the United Kingdom and Ireland. She won the Brit A ...

, David Berglas, Alex Corina, Bob Hardy,

David Hockney David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English Painting, painter, Drawing, draughtsman, Printmaking, printmaker, Scenic design, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considere ...

and Joyce Gould. Trinity Green, which houses a new sports centre and teaching facilities for construction and engineering students, opened in September 2008, housed in a new purpose-built building on the site of MacMillan Halls of Residence which were demolished in 2007. A second phase of building replaced the Westbrook and Randall Well buildings with a more modern structure. Government funding was put on hold for this project in March 2009 and was not expected to be available again until 2011. The new building, named the David Hockney Building after one its most famous alumni, opened in September 2014 after two years of construction. A new Advanced Technology Centre was scheduled to open in September 2015 on a nearby former car park. The College received the go-ahead by 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 Educ ...

for a £50 million building. The project is the second phase of the College's Accommodation Strategy started with the opening of the Trinity Green Campus: Bradford College's Appleton Building was named after the Bradford scientist

Edward Victor Appleton Sir Edward Victor Appleton (6 September 1892 – 21 April 1965) was an English atmospheric physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1947 "for his investigations of the physics of the upper atmosphere especially for the discovery ...

, and the College's Lister Building was named after Samuel Lister.

Quality assurance

As an institution in receipt of government funding Bradford College is regularly inspected by

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament. Ofsted's role is to make sure that organisations providing education, training ...

and the QAA. The last reports from 2008 (Ofsted) and 2010 (QAA) confirmed the high quality of the provision and identified a number of good practices across the institution. Ofsted inspection in 2017 gave the college a 'Requires Improvement' grading in most areas. The Initial Teacher Education inspected by Ofsted in 2010 also resulted in good and outstanding grades. The latest

inspection was done on 9 November 2021 and found that the College was Good.

Campuses

The main campus is situated on Great Horton Road close to Bradford city centre. However, some courses are delivered elsewhere. The Academy is located in the Three Valleys Centre in

. There are several other campuses in Bradford, such as Bolton Royd on Manningham Lane or Appleton Academy in Wyke. Part-time leisure, community and some of the ESOL courses are offered in over 20 different locations across Bradford.

Bradford College Education Trust

Bradford College is the sponsor of three

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

s as part of the Bradford College Education Trust. the three schools are Appleton Academy, Bradford Studio School and Samuel Lister Academy.

Erasmus participation

Bradford College participates in the Erasmus Programme. The College is in agreement with 26 institutions across 14 European countries: * Başkent University, Turkey * European University Cyprus, Cyprus *

Hacettepe University Hacettepe University () is a public research university in Ankara, Turkey. It was established on 8 July 1967. It is ranked first among the Turkish universities by University Ranking by Academic Performance in 2021. The university has two main c ...

, Turkey *

Miguel de Cervantes European University Miguel de Cervantes European University (, UEMC) is a private university located in Valladolid, Castilla y León (Spain). UEMC has 4,500 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in three Faculties and offers 17 Bachelor's degrees, 6 double de ...

, Spain *

University of Rennes 1 The University of Rennes 1 was a public university located in Rennes, France. It was founded in 1970, after splitting of the historic University of Rennes into two universities. On January 1, 2023, the University of Rennes 1 merged with five gra ...

, France * Zagreb School of Economics and Management, Croatia * Humak University of Applied Sciences, Finland * Fırat University, Turkey * Ecole Supérieure des Arts Appliqués et du Textile, France *

Novia University of Applied Sciences The Novia University of Applied Sciences () is an institution of higher professional education (vocational university) in Finland. It offers Bachelor's and Master's degree programmes in Swedish in Vaasa, Turku, Raseborg and Jakobstad Jakobsta ...

, Finland * Jan Dlugosz University in Czestochowa, Poland * Károli Gáspár Református Egyetem, Hungary *Katholieke Hogeschool Limburg, Belgium *Kirchliche Pädagogische Hochschule in Vienna, Austria *Haute Ecole Namuroise Catholique, Belgium *Marnix Academie, The Netherlands * Universidad de Córdoba, Spain *

Universidad de Granada The University of Granada (, UGR) is a public university located in the city of Granada, Spain, and founded in 1531 by Emperor Charles V. With more than 60,000 students, it is the fourth largest university in Spain. Apart from the city of Granada ...

, Spain * University College Lillebaelt, Denmark *

University of Crete The University of Crete (UoC; Greek: Πανεπιστήμιο Κρήτης) is a multi-disciplinary, research-oriented institution in Crete, Greece, located in the cities of Rethymno (official seat) and Heraklion. There are 16 main undergraduate ...

, Greece * University of Gdansk, Poland *University of Lower Silesia, Poland * UPV/EHU Bilbao, Spain *Bozok University, Turkey * Laurea University of Applied Sciences, Finland

Trivia

Bradford College's Trinity Green Campus is also home to the "Dragons Den" where EBL division 2 basketball Team Bradford Dragons play their home matches on Saturday evenings. Bradford College students broke the record for the biggest onion bhaji in 2011 and the biggest

samosa A samosa () () (Hindi: समोसा) ( Persian: سمبوسه) is a fried South Asian and West Asian snack. It is a pastry with a savory filling that mostly consists of vegetables like spiced potatoes, onions, and peas, but can also include ...

in 2012. The management of the College caused a stir when a journalist found out it had ordered a mace worth £22,000 to enhance the students' experience during the graduation ceremony in December 2011. Bradford College Students' Union was awarded the Further Education Students' Union of the Year title at the NUS 2013 Awards Ceremony.

Notable people

Alumni

* Alex Corina, artist and community activist * Gloria de Piero, Labour MP for Ashfield * Sir Edmund Elton, 8th Baronet, ceramics artist and inventor * Richard Eurich, artist and landscape painter * Graham Fransella, painter *

Andy Goldsworthy Andy Goldsworthy (born 25 July 1956) is an English sculptor, photographer, and environmentalist who produces site-specific sculptures and land art situated in natural or urban settings. Early life Goldsworthy was born in Cheshire on 25 July ...

, artist *

, artist * Yvonne McGregor, racing cyclist *

Mick Manning Mick Manning (born 1959) is a British artist and creator of children's books. Biography Manning was raised in Haworth, near Keighley, Yorkshire, England. He first attended Bradford College, then studied graphic design at the University of ...

, illustrator and children's author * Donald Rooum, cartoonist * Paul Sample, cartoonist * Robert E. Swindells, author

Lecturers

* Kim Leadbeater,

Labour Co-op Labour and Co-operative Party (often abbreviated to Labour Co-op; ) is a description used by candidates in United Kingdom elections who stand on behalf of both the Labour Party and the Co-operative Party. Candidates contest elections under an el ...

politician * Alice Mahon, trade unionist and Labour Party politician

Unclear

* Trevor Bell, artist * Major General Dudley Graham Johnson (13 February 1884 – 21 December 1975),

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

officer and recipient of the

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious decoration of the Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, British decorations system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British ...

Roderick Bailey, ''Forgotten Voices of the Victoria Cross'', Imperial War Museum (Great Britain), The Imperial War Museum, Richard Dannatt, Random House, 2010,

References

External links

* {{Authority control Education in Bradford Further education colleges in West Yorkshire Higher education colleges in England Educational institutions established in 1832 1832 establishments in England