Central College, formerly Central College of Commerce, was a college situated in the centre of

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

. It merged with

Glasgow Metropolitan College :''Merged into the City of Glasgow College in 2010'' Glasgow Metropolitan College was a further education college located in Glasgow, Scotland. The College was created on 7 February 2005 by the merger of the Glasgow College of Building & Printin ...

and Glasgow College of Nautical Studies in 2010 to form

City of Glasgow College The City of Glasgow College is a further and higher education college in the city of Glasgow. It was founded in 2010 when the Central College, Glasgow Metropolitan College, and the Glasgow College of Nautical Studies merged. It is the largest ...

. The college had links to universities such as

Glasgow Caledonian University Glasgow Caledonian University, informally GCU, Caledonian or Caley (), is a public university in Glasgow, Scotland. It was formed in 1993 by the merger of The Queen's College, Glasgow (founded in 1875) and Glasgow Polytechnic (originally Glasg ...

and the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

and provided courses such as Business Studies, Information Technology and Health, Hair and Beauty, Legal Studies (which can provide a direct access to the LLB law degree) and accountancy. The college was one of Scotland's few specialist colleges and provided courses from Certificate through to Postgraduate level. In addition to the first two years of full-time degree programmes, the college offered training courses and business services to companies in the private and public sectors – locally, nationally and internationally. The college offered a large number of full time vocational 12-month courses targeted at young people who had successfully completed secondary school education. The college achieved the quality standard "Scottish Quality Management System" (SQMS) and had numerous other training and quality awards. Most of the students at the college progressed to the local Universities of Glasgow,

Strathclyde Strathclyde ( in Welsh language, Welsh; in Scottish Gaelic, Gaelic, meaning 'strath

alley An alley or alleyway is a narrow lane, footpath, path, or passageway, often reserved for pedestrians, which usually runs between, behind, or within buildings in towns and cities. It is also a rear access or service road (back lane), or a path, w ...

of the River Clyde') was one of nine former Local government in Scotland, local government Regions and districts of Scotland, regions of Scotland cre ...

, Glasgow Caledonian and West of Scotland. Distributive Studies Students in the 1970s and 1980s completed a one-year vocational course and were awarded the Scottish National Certificates in Distribution Studies (Group Certificate) – this group certificate was issued by SCOTBEC (the Scottish Business Education Council) listing all individual subject (each of which had an SNC certificate separately) in the form of a single qualification – The SNC in Distributive Studies covering Distributive Law, Distributive Accountancy, Behavioural Science for Distribution, Distributive Studies and Communication Studies. The College also issued its own Certificate in Marketing aimed to be equivalent to that issued by the Institute of Marketing. The college had over 500 staff. The principal since October 2007 was Paul Little.

History

The college was founded in 1963 and its first chairman was Charles Oakley, who was heavily involved in the regeneration of

after World War II. The college had about 2300 full-time students and 6000 part-time students at the time of its closure. Central College merged with two other city centre colleges – Metropolitan, and Nautical – to form a "super college" that is the biggest in Scotland and one of the largest in the UK. The Central College Board and staff had originally opposed the plan, but after much negotiation among the three Colleges, the merger was agreed. A proposed £300M "super campus" will be built on Cathedral Street and Thistle Street following the establishment of a new company, New Campus Glasgow, to procure it. The former Allan Glen's School buildings were demolished in mid-2013 and the new campus was completed in 2016.

Campus

The college was situated at 300 Cathedral Street,

, near to

George Square George Square () is the principal Town square, civic square in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It is one of six squares in the city centre, the others being Cathedral Square, Glasgow, Cathedral Square, St Andrew's Square, Glasgow, St Andrew's ...

and stands diagonally opposite its 'sister' building – the former College of Building and Printing (Met Tower). This original 7-storey building housed health and beauty classes and was renamed as the Charles Oakley Building after the college's founder in later years. Designed by Peter Williams of Wyllie Shanks and Underwood, and completed in 1963. It was selected for Grade B listing along with the Met Tower in 2012 as "An important example of post-war tertiary educational architecture". Like its sister building (also designed by Williams) its aesthetic was strongly influenced by

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , ; ), was a Swiss-French architectural designer, painter, urban planner and writer, who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture ...

's famous '' La Cité Radieuse'' block in

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

with the distinctive "upturned boat" roof penthouse which housed a gymnasium. The

Allan Glen Allan Glen's School was, for most of its existence, a local authority, selective secondary school for boys in Glasgow, Scotland, charging nominal fees for tuition. It was founded by the Allan Glen's Endowment Scholarship Trust on the death, i ...

building hosted business, legal, accounting and ICT subjects. The newest building, the Central Business Learning Zone (CBLZ), housed the college's information services along with examination and training facilities.

Courses

The college ran courses leading to qualifications including The Certificate in Marketing, National Certificates (SNC), Scottish Vocational Qualifications (SVQ), Higher National Certificates (HNC), Higher National Diplomas (HND) and Diplomas in HE through three departments *Accounting, Law and Information Technology (Allan Glen's Building) *Health, Hair and Beauty (Charles Oakley Campus) *Marketing, Business Management and Design (Charles Oakley Campus) The college also ran special courses for asylum-seekers, including English for Speakers of other Languages (ESOL 1–4).

References

{{coord, 55.86366, N, 4.24368, W, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Further education colleges in Glasgow Defunct universities and colleges in Scotland 1963 establishments in Scotland Educational institutions established in 1963 2010 disestablishments in Scotland Educational institutions disestablished in 2010