The new multi-million pound town centre site offers an impressive range of facilities and resources to give students a stylish, contemporary and stimulating learning environment.  The building is light, spacious, and designed with today’s student in mind.  There is space for students to relax and meet friends between lessons.  Students have access to a wide range of facilities, most of which are open to the general public, including a fitness suite, a range of dining areas and the Luminary Centre incorporating a spa as well as hair and beauty salons.

Sport

The Luminary houses a state-of-the-art fitness suite which includes a range of cardio-vascular workstations, free weights and a warm up/cool down area.  A wide variety of fitness classes are on offer and there’s also the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of team and individual sports.

 Dining

A range of stylish food areas are available to ensure that a wide range of needs are met.  The Food Court provides an extensive range of good quality food at competitive prices.  Coffee Rapport @ The FE offers a continental feel via its range of speciality teas and coffees as well as selection of paninis, baguettes, cakes and pastries.  The Flagship Restaurant offers a more formal and exquisite dining experience.  Here, the College’s students take the finest and freshest ingredients to provide cuisine to savour at affordable prices.

Indulge yourself

The Luminary also houses facilities where relaxation and pampering are the order of the day.  Students can take the opportunity to relax in the spa, take a sauna or even top up a tan.   Additionally, the College’s excellent reputation for providing hair and beauty treatments is enhanced by the new and contemporary salons, which would put most high street outlets to shame.

 Learner Core

The Learner Core is central to the College’s education offer and the building itself.  It is a focal point of the building and each level houses a range of resources suited to different curriculum areas.  The traditional offer of books, journals, newspapers and magazines is available.  However, increasingly, the range of electronic resources the Learning Core has on offer ensures learning can take place wherever and whenever learners dictate.

Customer Services and Student Support

The College is rightly proud of the wide range of services it offers to its students and the award of the Matrix Standard underlines the quality in this area.  A wide range of information, advice and guidance is available to students from enquires about qualifications to the myriad of financial support – see below.  In addition, the College employs professionally qualified career specialists and counsellors who are on hand to provide bespoke and quality support and guidance when it’s needed. The staff are all friendly, experienced and there to help you.

Financial

There has never been a better time to study for a further or higher education qualification – many courses are free of charge and for those that do attract a fee, a range of products and services are available to ensure the financial burden on students is manageable.

For higher education students, fees are collected by the College’s HE partner, Teesside University.  Teesside University offers the opportunity to spread payments over a twelve-month period of time and its essential fees are paid up front, or a payment plan is established, to ensure the university’s full range of facilities can be accessed.

The Student Loans Company (SLC) is a UK public sector organisation established to provide financial services, in terms of means-tested loans and grants, to over one million students annually, in colleges and universities.

 The College operates its own HE bursary scheme which funds up to 50% of course fees.
Click here for more details (pdf leaflet) 

Access to staff

The College is in the enviable position of having excellent teaching and support staff.  All lecturers are professionally qualified and the vast majority possess substantial industry experience as well as post-graduate qualifications.  As mentioned above, the staff in support posts are professionally qualified to ensure the service they provide meets the high standards the College’s students expect.  Classes are often small which enable students to establish a good relationship with lecturers and other students on the course.  Via the College’s Unified Tutorial System (UTS), students also have the opportunity to meet with the personal tutor at three intervals throughout the year to obtain feedback on coursework and to raise any issues or problems that may arise.  Finally, Blackboard, the College’s virtual learning environment (VLE) is utilised to ensure students are fully supported outside of class contact time.

Career Prospects

 The College’s qualifications are career-focused with all of our higher education programmes created and approved in consultation with local and regional employers.  This ensures that the courses on offer prepare students for employment, skills development or career advancement.  The College’s experienced teaching team explore the key issues and practice in the relevant subject area, ensuring that students achieve a qualification with the knowledge and skills that employers seek. 

	Courses delivered in partnership with Teesside University