The vision of incorporating a new £39million college in Eastside bringing e-learning systems and a new generation of state-of-the-art vocational education facilities to central Birmingham, has been spelled out by Christine Braddock, principal of Matthew Boulton College.
She told the college's annual general meeting recently that the relocation of the college would bring an improved educational focus for the city and help with economic regeneration in the city centre. Mrs Braddock said that the building was one of the largest to be approved since further education colleges in the UK were made independent of local authority control ten years ago.
The scheme, which was given the go-ahead by city planners last month, is a remarkable turn-round for a college that was £3.8 million in debt in 1998.
Funds for the new college will come from the sale of the present main campus supported by Birmingham City Council, Advantage West Midlands and the Learning and Skills Council.
"The new campus will have over 193,750 sq ft of flexible space, enabling us to make more use of our premises," she said.
"We will be tighter and sharper in our use of space, but we will also have the capacity to grow and develop, supporting the educational needs of the city, and we will certainly retain links with our local community through our existing base at Magnolia House."
Matthew Boulton is one of the first confirmed developments in the Eastside Learning Quarter, where it will adjoin the Aston University campus and face the new city centre library.
The college is already committed to developing more partnership progression programmes with the university, including a range of foundation degree programmes in conjunction with businesses.
With work on site scheduled to begin in the autumn, the vision is expected to become a reality when the new building opens to students in September 2005.
