MidKent College
Encyclopedia
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...
college in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, England. It runs courses from three separate campuses across Maidstone
Maidstone
Maidstone is the county town of Kent, England, south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town linking Maidstone to Rochester and the Thames Estuary. Historically, the river was a source and route for much of the town's trade. Maidstone was the centre of the agricultural...
and Medway
Medway
Medway is a conurbation and unitary authority in South East England. The Unitary Authority was formed in 1998 when the City of Rochester-upon-Medway amalgamated with Gillingham Borough Council and part of Kent County Council to form Medway Council, a unitary authority independent of Kent County...
.
There are approximately 15,000 students aged 16 years and upwards enrolled at the college. Courses offered range from pre-entry level to degree level and cover a wide range of vocational and academic subject areas.
Campuses
The college has three main campuses: the Medway campus in Gillingham, the Maidstone campus (formerly the Oakwood Park Centre), and the Chatham Maritime Centre. The Chatham Maritime Centre is located at the Universities at MedwayUniversities at Medway
The Universities at Medway is a tri-partite collaboration of the University of Greenwich, the University of Kent and Canterbury Christ Church University on a single campus in Chatham, Medway, Kent, England.-Site:...
site - which unites the University of Kent with the University of Greenwich
University of Greenwich
The University of Greenwich is a British university located in the London Borough of Greenwich, London, England. The main campus is located on the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College, a central location within the Maritime Greenwich UNESCO World Heritage Site.-History:The history of the...
and Canterbury Christ Church University
Canterbury Christ Church University
Canterbury Christ Church University is a university in Canterbury, Kent, England. Founded as a Church of England college for teaching training it has grown to full university status and will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2012. The focus of its work is in the education of people going into...
.
In September 2009 all courses at the old sites of the Horsted Centre in Chatham and the City Way Centre in Rochester were moved to a new combined campus on Prince Arthur Road in Gillingham, Kent
Gillingham, Kent
Gillingham is a town in the unitary authority of Medway in South East England. It is part of the ceremonial county of Kent. The town includes the settlements of Brompton, Hempstead, Rainham, Rainham Mark and Twydall....
. The new campus, which received more than £40 million of Learning and Skills Council
Learning and Skills Council
The Learning and Skills Council was a non-departmental public body jointly sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department for Children, Schools and Families in England...
(LSC) funding, cost a total of £86million. It offers training facilities in a range of subject areas including construction
Construction
In the fields of architecture and civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of human multitasking...
, performing arts
Performing arts
The performing arts are those forms art which differ from the plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own body, face, and presence as a medium, and the latter uses materials such as clay, metal or paint which can be molded or transformed to create some physical art object...
, music and catering
Catering
Catering is the business of providing foodservice at a remote site or a site such as a hotel, public house , or other location.-Mobile catering:A mobile caterer serves food directly from a vehicle or cart that is designed for the purpose...
.
The Medway campus was officially opened by The Princess Royal on Thursday 25th March 2010.
History
The college first began delivering courses from the Horsted Centre in Chatham in 1954. The site was opened as Medway College of Technology by the Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is the husband of Elizabeth II. He is the United Kingdom's longest-serving consort and the oldest serving spouse of a reigning British monarch....
on 5 April the following year.
Medway College of Technology and Maidstone Technical College amalgamated in 1966 to become Medway and Maidstone College of Technology. The purpose-built City Way site in Rochester was subsequently opened as an additional college site in 1968.
The college changed its name to Mid-Kent College of Higher and Further Education in 1978 , before dropping the hyphen and space and the latter part of its title to become MidKent College in October 2008.
Throughout the 1950s, 60s and 70s, the college's students were famed for their Rag Day parade. This saw them conducting a carnival procession through the Medway Towns. The parade started at Gillingham train station and ended at the esplanade in Rochester. Each year the students elected their own "Rag Day Queen" to head the procession.
Principal and Chief Executive
The current principal and chief executive is Stephen Grix. He first joined the College in 1971, when, at age 15, he enrolled as a day-release bricklaying student at the Horsted site in Chatham. He had left school with no qualifications.He went on to complete a range of part-time courses at MidKent College and Bexley (then Erith) College before becoming a foreman. By the age of 21 he was lecturing in the brickwork department of Bexley College
Bexley College
Bexley College is a general further education college in the London Borough of Bexley, England. It has two campuses at Tower Road and Upper Holly Hill Road.-History:It opened in 1907 as Erith Technical Institute....
.
He eventually went on to become principal of Sir George Monoux College
Sir George Monoux College
Sir George Monoux College is a sixth form college located in Walthamstow, East London.-Brief history:Sir George Monoux, the founder of the College, was born in or before 1465. In 1506 he was a Warden of the Drapers Company, in 1509 he became the Sheriff of London and later in 1514 he became Lord...
in Walthamstow, head of 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 ....
’s post-compulsory education division, and director of education at Tower Hamlets, before returning to MidKent College as principal and chief executive in March 2005.
Media
The college has several magazines for its staff and students. These include the Medway Mag, the magazine for students at the Medway campus; the Maidstone Mag, the magazine for students at the Maidstone campus; and Insight, the staff newsletter. Apart from the latter, the magazines are produced by student editors and contributors and are released termly. Insight is produced by the marketing department weekly. The Medway Mag also has its own blog website for students to contribute further material between issues.Affiliations
MidKent College became an associate college of the University of Kent in 2001. The University of Kent validates the college’s higher educationHigher 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...
programmes.
Notable alumni
- Caroline FeradayCaroline FeradayRadio Broadcasting =She joined Capital FM at the age of 18, after studying journalism and earlier stints at BBC Radio Kent and Invicta FM, spent five years as the station's Flying Eye travel reporter on Foxy's Drivetime and Tarrant at Breakfast, and presented Capital's London Chart show. In 2001...
, television and radio broadcaster - Mo Abudu, African businesswoman and television personality
- Andy Walker, radio broadcaster