Higher education on your doorstep

A higher education suite dedicated to bringing the University of Teesside to the doorstep of people in Darlington and the surrounding district is being built into the town's shiny new further education campus taking shape on Haughton Road.

"It's an ambitious project," admits Professor Graham Henderson, the University's Vice-Chancellor, who sees Darlington as being the first of a network of higher education centres across the Tees Valley.

The college’s Principal and Chief Executive, Sarah Robinson, is equally excited by the move to bring further and higher education closer together.

Speaking, as she puts the finishing touches to Darlington College’s move from its current Cleveland Avenue campus, she said: "We have a very close relationship with both Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College and the University of Teesside and having a University Centre on the doorstep will encourage more students to stay on in education.”

Darlington College’s £34.5m showpiece new development opens this September and the Higher Education Funding Council for England is backing the new University Centre to the tune of £2m.

Lynn Parker, Director of Educational Partnerships at the University of Teesside, says: “We are expanding our higher education provision to meet the specific needs of Darlington and the surrounding area which should be better served in higher education terms.

“We currently have 400 students at Darlington’s old college building and hope to expand this to 1,000 within two or three years of the new building opening. Most will probably be studying part-time and many will be mature students and have jobs or families to look after. It makes a lot of sense for them to be able to do their day release or evening courses on their doorstep rather than make a 50 mile round trip to a university campus.”

Ms Robinson explained the plan is to focus on some of the real strengths at Darlington College, such as journalism and digital media. New courses planned include a Foundation Degree in Radio Production to build on the college’s expertise in this area.

“Other courses planned include a Foundation Degrees in Outdoor Education and Leisure and Tourism and a BA (Hons) in Hospitality Management.

“Much of the expansion will come by way of the new foundation degrees, which are two year courses that have progression routes on to honours degrees at the University and are becoming widely recognised as a very good qualification in their own right, matching academic study with a strong vocational focus.”

Ms Robinson said the higher education suite will be spread over the top floor of two wings of the new college.

“The higher education centre will create the sort of environment you would expect to find in a university. Adults and post-18 students need a different environment from our younger students and all our professional management courses will be taught in this area. The library stock is also been increased and the new learning resource centre will be nearly twice as big as our current library.

“I know an awful lot of people who do not aspire to go to University. So why not try to break down their resistance by bringing the University to them.”

Lynn Parker agrees and says: “What Darlington gives us is a very sympathetic environment to encourage people with busy lives to gain a valuable qualification on their doorstep.”

As for Professor Henderson, he is a great believer in making higher education more accessible and believes the new higher education centre will open up the opportunity to study both full and part-time to people from the west end of the Tees Valley.

“We’re looking at maybe having 1,000 students at Darlington within three years. But who knows! If the demand is there, we'll do our best to meet it.

“We hope the Darlington higher education centre will just be the first in a series of partnerships across the Tees Valley between the University and colleges of further education. Next in line is a similar development at Hartlepool and another when Middlesbrough College moves to Middlehaven.”

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