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Student ambassafor N’Diri N’Dili, 21, with principal Andy Wilson in the new WKC |
£50m further education college opens after rebuilding project
Campus with futuristic learning environment aims to offer platform for uni’
A STATE-of-the-art college for school leavers has opened in King’s Cross.
The £50million Westminster Kingsway College (WKC) campus in Gray’s Inn Road was demolished and rebuilt after securing government funding four years ago.
From next year, it will have more students studying A-levels than all the sixth forms in Camden schools put together – it is also one of the largest centres for adult learning in the country.
Principal Andy Wilson said: “We are really pleased with the new building. When the students came in they were all screaming with excitement. We are offering a range of courses. I’d like to think that whatever your situation, we have something for everyone.”
During construction, students were relocated to WKC’s Soho, Victoria and Kentish Town campuses.
WKC benefited from a massive national college rebuilding programme that is now in disarray. Around 150 projects across the country have been derailed after the Learning Skills Council (LSC), the government’s funding arm, pledged hundreds of millions of pounds in funding – only to run out of cash.
Mr Wilson said: “We were supposed to be rebuilding our other buildings in Soho and Victoria – but that has now been severely delayed.
“We are talking about another £50m of funding that was promised to us.
“I warned them they didn’t have the money to do what they were promising nationally. It felt like no one could do the numbers – I mean, these are basic calculations.”
He added: “But we have got this building out of the LSC and that is something to be proud of.”
Mr Wilson, who failed his A-levels three times, but went on to get a Masters degree and become a teacher after attending a further education college in Liverpool, said more and more further education students had aspirations of progressing to university.
The new campus is intended to have a university feel with students encouraged to learn across the building in “breakout zones” – study spaces on the landings and set in the walls. Hundreds of hand-held web books, giving access to library material and lesson plans, are available.
There is a subsidised gym, restaurant and an impressive 170-seater theatre.
Student ambassador N’Diri N’Dili, 21, said: “It’s a lot different here, you are treated more like an adult. I want to go and study criminology.”
Business student William De-Graft Johnson, 20, said: “The whole learning environment is what I like the most about this place – and the gym. I want to go to Bristol University or Middlesex.”
Places are available at the college for next year. For more details contact 0870 060 9800. |
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