K College, 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 additional education to that received at secondary school that is distinct from the higher education (HE) offered in universities and other academic institutions. It ...

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 ...

with facilities across

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, formed in April 2010, by the merger of South Kent College 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. The curriculum primarily covers land-based subjects including Agriculture, Horticulture, Habitat conservation, Conservation and Wildlife mana ...

and

East Kent College EKC Broadstairs 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 Sept ...

, with West Kent College being reestablished and the campus in Ashford becoming

Ashford College EKC Ashford College is a further education college located in Ashford, Kent, England, founded in August 2014. Since 2020 it has been a member of the East Kent Colleges (EKC) Group, which was established in 2018 to unite several colleges in East ...

. The Interim Principal was Phil Frier and the Patron was Lord Mayhew of Twysden.

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, southeast 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 southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...

Folkestone Folkestone ( ) is a coastal 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, shipping port, and fashionable coastal res ...

Tonbridge Tonbridge ( ) (historic spelling ''Tunbridge'') 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 Mall ...

and

Royal Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells (formerly, until 1909, and still commonly 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 Weald, High Weald, whose sand ...

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 Educ ...

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 department of His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament. Ofsted's role is to make sure that organisations providing education, training ...

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 West Kent College 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 Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) is a Public university, public research university located in Canterbury, Kent, England. Founded as a Church of England college for teacher training in 1962, it was granted university status in 2005. ...

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 wi ...

and

University of Kent The University of Kent (formerly the University of Kent at Canterbury, abbreviated as UKC) is a Collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom. The university was granted its roya ...

. 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 ...

and vocational courses including

apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in a regulat ...

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

dyslexia Dyslexia (), previously known as word blindness, is a learning disability that affects either reading or writing. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, reading quickly, wri ...

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

construction Construction are processes involved in delivering buildings, infrastructure, industrial facilities, and associated activities through to the end of their life. It typically starts with planning, financing, and design that continues until the a ...

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

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 ...

— chef *

Hazel Crowney Hazel Crowney, also spelt as Hazel Croney, is an English actress and model 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 has ...

— actress, model * The Duchess of Edinburgh (née Sophie Rhys-Jones) * Jilly Goolden — 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 Internet Archive, an American nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California. Launched for public access in 2001, the service allows users to go "back in ...

on 16 May 2014) {{Universities and colleges in South East England Higher education colleges in England Further education colleges in Kent University of Greenwich Borough of Ashford Dover, Kent Folkestone and Hythe District Tonbridge and Malling Borough of Tunbridge Wells Educational institutions established in 2010 Educational institutions disestablished in 2014 2010 establishments in England 2014 disestablishments in England

History

Courses

Alumni of West Kent College

See also

References

External links