Croydon College

Croydon College

Established	1895
Type	Further Education and Higher Education
Principal	Frances Wadsworth
Location	College Road Croydon, London CR9 1DX England
Local authority	London Borough of Croydon
DfE URN	130432
Ofsted	Reports
Students	8,000 students
Gender	Mixed
Ages	Ranging from 14-16 (Young Apprenticeship courses with schools) up until any age++
Website	croydon.ac.uk

Coordinates: 51°28′05″N 0°01′34″W / 51.4681°N 0.0260°W / 51.4681; -0.0260

Croydon College, established in 1895, is a Further Education and Higher Education institution in the London Borough of Croydon.

Located in East Croydon, it is made up of a Further Education College and a Higher Education College.

Further Education

Croydon College offers academic qualifications such at AS and A Levels, BTEC Diplomas, NVQs and Entry Level courses. It also offers complementary enrichment activities, many of which lead to an extra qualification or award including Citizenship, Youth Work Awards or The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.

Business Solutions

As an education provider within the business community, Business Solutions have a raft of learning products and services that are designed specifically for businesses and their workforce, such as Work Based Qualifications and Apprenticeships.

Higher Education College

Croydon Higher Education College offers university level courses in Art, Design and Media; Building Services Engineering; Business; Education; Health, Community and Care; Human Resources Management and Law.

The College has a strategic partnership with the University of Sussex.

History

The history of the College is directly linked to that of two institutions, the Croydon College of Art and Croydon Polytechnic. The current building was built in the 1950s. Croydon founded the Pitlake Technical Institute in 1888, which would later become Croydon Polytechnic, which had an initial intake of 162 students. Twenty years earlier in 1868, the School of Art had been founded above the Public Halls in George Street. It was in 1929 that the Board of Education first highlighted the need for a new technical college to replace Croydon Polytechnic. In 1932, the School of Art was taken over by the Council to become Croydon College of Art. In 1941, the Polytechnic school was gutted by fire. It was not until 1948 before the plans for a new college could be revived when the Council drew up a Development Plan for Further Education. By then student enrolment had risen to over 4,000. The plan was to create a technical college, which would merge the Polytechnic and College of Art. Three years later, the Council formally approved plans for a new college and in 1953 building work started at the Fairfield site on the first of four stages.

In June 1968, there was six-day student protest that included Robin Scott, Malcolm McLaren, and Jamie Reid (all students at the time).^[1]

Recent Principals have included Peter Phillips (until 1994), Vic Seddon (1995–2001) and Mariane Cavalli (2001 to 2010).

Future

College Green

Further information: Croydon Vision 2020

There have been plans to redevelop the area around Croydon College. These have been part of Croydon Vision 2020 and have also featured in the Croydon Plan and Croydon Expo. It includes plans to provide an easily accessible pedestrian link between East Croydon station and the Fairfield College site. The north east corner of the area around the college site is an integral part of this pedestrian movement route and should form a major piece of public realm. The creation of a public route across the site linking College Road and Fairfield Gardens is of particular importance for the occupiers of the proposed residential development, many of which are to be using East Croydon on a frequent basis. Future access arrangements should also minimise the impact on the new pedestrian link. The educational needs of Croydon College and the provision of a new vocational facility for 14 - 19 year olds are the priorities for the site.

Notable alumni

• Ray Davies, rock musician who is known as the lead singer for The Kinks
• Malcolm McLaren, impresario who was the manager of the Sex Pistols
• Mervyn Peake, writer and poet who wrote the Gormenghast books
• Jamie Reid, anarchist with connections to Situationist International
• John Rocha, fashion designer
• Lucienne Day, textile designer
• Trevor Mills, folk singer-songwriter
• Gareth Southgate, football player and manager of Middlesbrough
• Noel Fielding, co-writer and star of The Mighty Boosh

See also

• Education in England

References

1. ^ Bromberg, Craig. The Wicked Ways of Malcolm McLaren'. London: Harper & Row, 1989.'

External links

• Homepage
• Guide to famous people of Croydon