Doncaster College
Encyclopedia
Doncaster College is a further
Further education
Further education is a term mainly used in connection with education in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is post-compulsory education , that is distinct from the education offered in universities...

 and higher education
Higher education
Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...

 college in Doncaster
Doncaster
Doncaster is a town in South Yorkshire, England, and the principal settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster. The town is about from Sheffield and is popularly referred to as "Donny"...

, South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It has a population of 1.29 million. It consists of four metropolitan boroughs: Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, and City of Sheffield...

. It comprises two campuses
Campus
A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls and park-like settings...

, which are known as "The Hub" and the "University Centre".

Staff and students

The College employs around 1,072 staff and accommodates around 20,000 part and full time student
Student
A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...

s aged 16+.

Academics

In the latest Ofsted
Ofsted
The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills is the non-ministerial government department of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools In England ....

 report, published in December 2008, the college was judged to be making Satisfactory Progress in addressing the areas for improvement identified in the previous inspection in August 2007.

In August 2007, the College was subject to the first full inspection by the standards body OFSTED
Ofsted
The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills is the non-ministerial government department of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools In England ....

 within a year of moving to their new building, The Hub. It concluded that the College was Inadequate in all five key summary areas that it assesses and reports on (including Achievements and Standards, Effective Management and Quality).

The report stated that the Senior Management and Governors were not focussed enough on raising standards, due to becoming preoccupied with issues relating to the Hub. It also stated that it had little confidence in the College's Governors to improve the College.

The number of part-time courses were reduced from September 2007, due to a £500,000 reduction in funding .

Campuses

The Hub

Opened in September 2006, the main campus is a £65m Waterfront development on the outskirts of Doncaster town centre. The main IT facilities, that include an infrastructure to deliver remote and online learning, a drama studio and a Learning Resource Centre are located here.

University Centre, Doncaster

The University Centre is the College’s second campus located at High Melton
High Melton
High Melton is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England. It has a population of 339.-External links:*...

, six miles west of Doncaster. Most of the higher education courses are based here, as is the Doncaster Business School
Doncaster Business School
Doncaster Business School is the international business school of Doncaster College, England. Established in 1992, as Dearne Valley Business School, the School offers postgraduate business degrees in management, including MBAs and professional qualifications as well as undergraduate teaching.-...

. The High Melton campus is also home to Britain's first centre of excellence for relationship studies - The Relate Institute.

Principals

In April 2009, the Principal, Rowland Foote, and the Finance Director, Tony Myers, were suspended by the Governing Body, pending the outcome of an investigation into the financial management of the College.

Rowland Foote had planned redundancies of up to 160 staff, as part of a long-term plan to bring the College back onto a sound financial footing, after several years of substantial losses following the construction of the building known as "The Hub". These were opposed by staff and plans were subsequently revised.

Following Mr Foote's removal from office a new Interim Principal, John Taylor, was appointed in June 2009. Mr Taylor joined the College had previously held posts as Principal of The Sheffield College and Park Lane College, Leeds, and was a member of the Learning and Skills Council’s National Council and chair of Becta (British Educational Communications and Technology Agency).

He was replaced by George Trow in May 2010., who had formerly been Principal of Rotherham College of Arts and Technology
Rotherham College of Arts and Technology
Rotherham College of Arts and Technology is a further education college with two campus locations in South Yorkshire, England, one in Rotherham, and one in Dinnington...

.

External links

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