Looking Forward to the New Academic Year - 2 October 2006

Dr Peter Funnell, Assistant Principal (Learning Development) looks forward to the start of the new academic year.

With September came the start of a new academic year. But preparation for each September is itself a year long process. New courses are developed and existing ones refreshed. Courses are promoted and recruited to. Employers and other key stakeholders are actively engaged to ensure that what the College offers is relevant and of high quality. Capital planning supports investment in infrastructure, critically these days in information and learning technologies, and enhancing the student experience in a variety of ways. This work culminates in a range of activity over the summer designed to ensure individuals find the course that best meets their needs. During this period thousands of people are supported and individual learning aspirations addressed whether for post-graduate higher education, post-GCSE vocational training or non-qualificatory adult education. Business as usual for Suffolk College.

But 2006 is not a usual year. Alongside the excitement traditionally associated with a new year is the first visible evidence of the development of the ambitious Ipswich Education Quarter. Initial demolition of buildings to the north of the current College site demonstrate the considerable progress that has been made in progressing the design and proposed use of the new £59m College planned for the site. This new College is scheduled to open in September 2008 and will form a key element of the Education Quarter alongside the development of University Campus Suffolk (UCS), the first phase of which is planned for the Waterfront to open in September 2008.

Planning for the launch of UCS in 2007 is well underway, and higher education students joining Suffolk College in 2006 will transfer to UCS from August following the launch. Post 2007 Suffolk College will continue to grow and develop its current high quality further, vocational and adult education provision, addressing skills needs and national and local priorities. So alongside ‘business as usual’ the College, and its partners and stakeholders, will be working to realise perhaps the single most ambitious and entrepreneurial educational development in the UK. So not a usual year!

ENDS

Notes for Editors

For further information please contact:

Tracey Bailey, Promotions Manager

Tel: 01473 296520

Email: traceybailey@suffolk.ac.uk

Issued by Promotions

2 October 2006