| K College | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
 | |
| , England | |
| Coordinates | 51°11′13″N0°15′53″E / 51.186944°N 0.264722°E /51.186944; 0.264722 |
| Information | |
| Type | Further Education,Higher Education |
| Established | April 2010 |
| Closed | 31 July 2014 |
| Local authority | Kent County Council |
| Department for Education URN | 130727Tables |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| Gender | Mixed |
| Age | 16 to 99 |
| Patron | Lord Mayhew of Twysden |
| Website | www (archived) |
K College, also known asSouth & West Kent College, was an English college ofFurther Education andHigher Education with facilities acrossKent, formed in April 2010, by the merger ofSouth Kent College withWest Kent College. In 2014 it was split again, betweenHadlow College andEast Kent College, withWest Kent College being reestablished and the campus inAshford becomingAshford College.
The Interim Principal was Phil Frier and the Patron wasLord Mayhew of Twysden.
K College was formed in April 2010 by the merger of South Kent College with West Kent College.[1] The college had campuses in Ashford,Dover,Folkestone,Tonbridge andRoyal Tunbridge Wells and at one point had more than 25,000 students.[1] As of March 2013[update], when the decision was taken to split it, the college had approximately 15,000 students and more than 1,100 staff.[2]
The college sustained a large amount of debt,[2][3] after which the principal, Bill Fearon,[4] and some members of the Board of Governors resigned, and theSkills Funding Agency recommended it be sold.[5] The college received an "inadequate" grading byOfsted in December 2013,[6][7] and from 1 August 2014 it was again split into two units:
In July 2014 prior to Hadlow College managing the Ashford, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells campuses, K College announced that there would be up to 127 redundancies of those nottransferred under TUPE to East Kent College.[9] Therefore other, more creative means were found by EKC in order to shed staff and axe courses. Months of chaos at Dover and Folkestone ensued. However, East Kent College expanded offerings and recruited additional staff for the Folkestone and Dover campuses after the takeover.[5]
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K College offered Higher Education courses in conjunction with the College’s partner universities:Canterbury Christ Church University,University of Greenwich andUniversity of Kent.
The main campus in Tonbridge taught a large number ofA-level and vocational courses includingapprenticeships. It also ran teacher training courses, including additional teaching courses on deaf issues anddyslexia, and TUC courses and had a Professional Development Centre. The college also ran aconstruction-orientated teaching centre based at theConstruction Crafts & Engineering Centre on North Farm Industrial Estate in Tunbridge Wells.