With more than 26,000 students and 1,600 staff, Leicester College is one of the largest further education colleges in the United Kingdom. It operates three main campuses across Leicester city centre – Abbey Park Campus, St Margaret’s Campus, and Freemen’s Park Campus – along with a City Skills Centre and more than 200 community venues spread across the city. Its annual budget exceeds £50 million. The college is an Associate College of De Montfort University and part of the University of Leicester‘s network, giving students access to higher education pathways alongside its further education programmes.
History and Formation
Leicester College came into existence on 31 July 1999, following the merger of Charles Keene College and Southfields College. Maggie Galliers was appointed Principal in July 2002, and in June 2009 she received a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to local and national further education. That same year, on 12 May 2009, the Princess Royal officially opened the flagship Abbey Park Campus, which was the culmination of a £48 million building project that also included construction work at Freemen’s Park Campus and refurbishment of St Margaret’s Campus.
Campuses and What They Offer
Abbey Park Campus (LE1 3WA) has four floors of teaching facilities, including a 140-seat drama studio, science labs, dance and music studios, a language lab, and dental and childcare training rooms. Opposite the main building sits the college’s Technology and Engineering Centre. Freemen’s Park Campus (LE2 7LW) is where vocational training takes place, with a professional hair and beauty salon, working kitchens that supply a bistro and silver service restaurant, and construction workshops covering plumbing, brickwork, woodwork, and painting and decorating. A food manufacturing innovation suite opened there in November 2009. St Margaret’s Campus (LE1 3WL) houses courses in Art and Design, Fashion and Footwear, Computing, Creative Media, Photography, and Print. Beyond the main campuses, the college took on a five-year lease of the former Phoenix Arts Centre in November 2009, renaming it Upper Brown Street and using it as a live music and performance venue. Leicester College also runs the Retail Skills Centre Leicester, a dedicated retail training facility and founding member of the National Skills Academy for Retail, a government-backed network aimed at increasing productivity across the retail sector.