| West London College | |
| Coordinates: | 51.4915°N -0.2145°W |
| Type: | Further and Higher Education College |
| Established: | 1881-2002 – founding institutions 2002 – Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College |
| Head Label: | CEO & Principal |
| Head: | Karen Redhead OBE |
| Address: | Gliddon Road |
| City: | Hammersmith |
| County: | London |
| Postcode: | W14 9BL |
| Ofsted: | yes |
| Urn: | 130408 |
| Enrollment: | 13,000+ (2016)[1] |
| Lower Age: | 14 |
| Website: | http://www.wlc.ac.uk/ |
West London College, legally known as the Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College is a large further and higher education college in West London, England, formed in 2002 by the merger between Ealing Tertiary College and Hammersmith and West London College. It is based across three campuses located in Ealing, Hammersmith and Southall; the main campus of the college is situated on the north side of the busy A4 dual-carriageway, between Hammersmith and Earls Court. There are over 13,000 students as of 2016, providing training and development from entry level to postgraduate.
It is a member of the Collab Group of high performing colleges.[2]
In 1881, Hammersmith School of Art was established in Brook Green. There was also the Hammersmith College of Art and Building located in Lime Grove, Shepherds Bush. This college ran an Architecture course accredited by the RIBA and an Interior Design course. There were also facilities and studios in which were taught textile design, ceramics, sculpture and print-making. The 'building' side of the college included workshops in which the traditional building trades were taught, including plumbing, welding, plastering and brick-laying. The 'cross-discipline' opportunities that the close proximity that these departments afforded students was deliberate. That the sculpture students could learn from the welding classes (both instructors and apprentices) and the interior design students from the textile design students and the architecture students from the building trades apprentices was a recognized benefit of the graduates of the Hammersmith College of Art and Building. In 1970 the Architecture department of Hammersmith College of Art and Building merged with Woolwich Polytechnic to form Thames Polytechnic, which in 1993 became the University of Greenwich. The architectural teaching staff included Arthur Korn. In 1975 Hammersmith College of Art merged with West London College and forming Hammersmith and West London College.[3]
Ealing Grammar School for Boys was opened in 1913 as Ealing County School and expanded in 1936, also known as Ealing County Grammar School. It had the Ealonian Hall. In 1974, Ealing borough adopted the comprehensive education system and the school became Ealing Green High School, a boys' school. Another institute Thomas Huxley College existed until 1980. In 1992, the school turned into Ealing Tertiary College.
The Southall Technical College was founded in 1929 as a technical school for boys, merging with Southall Grammar School in 1963 (now Villiers High School). The college's skills provision moved to the Norwood Hall Institute of Horticultural Education, and this became part of Ealing Tertiary College.
Acton Technical College is another former institution that is a predecessor of the current college.
In January 2002, Hammersmith and West London College merged with Ealing Tertiary College to form Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College. At the time it was the largest further education college in London with over 30,000 enrollments.[4] It changed its public brand name to West London College from 2018.
Hammersmith is the largest campus, with over 10,000 students. The College offers a large number of full-time and part-time courses across a broad range of subjects for students of different ages, abilities and needs.
In the 1970s, the college was built on 14acres former playing fields of St Paul's School, despite campaigns opposing the development.[5] The College was designed by the Greater London Council Architects' Department, under the supervision of Bob Giles, the project architect, in a Brutalist style inspired by Alvar Aalto's Säynätsalo Town Hall.[6]
Completed in 1980, the college replaced 11 separate sites across West London.
Located at The Green in Ealing, it offers a range of full-time post-GCSE, academic and vocational courses, as well as tuition in ESOL and English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Recent refurbishments have significantly improved the Sixth Form Centre and a new £11.5m specialist centre, the Ealing Institute of Media, was launched in December 2005. It is situated in the former Ealing Green High School.
On Beaconsfield Road in Southall, students here have access to the Southall Sports Centre run by the London Borough of Ealing, the Sixth Form Centre, and separate facilities for adult learning and a vocational centre.
A former campus existed on Gunnersbury Lane, Acton.
The college was a Beacon Status College, awarded by the Quality Improvement Agency. In 2008, the International Centre at the college was awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise: International Trade. In 2012, West London College (then Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College) became the first Further Education college in London to receive the 'AoC Charter for International Excellence'. The charter is awarded to FE colleges that show a strong commitment to quality assurance and implement an ethical approach to all aspects of their international activities. In 2017, the college won the Times Educational Supplement FE Award for Outstanding use of Technology for Teaching, Learning and Assessment.[7]