About us

West Suffolk College is a rural further education college with its main campus located in Out Risbygate and Construction and Building Services at Anglian Lane, both within Bury St Edmunds. In addition, we serve our rural community through Local Learning Centres in Haverhill, Ipswich, Mildenhall, Stowmarket and Sudbury. The Haverhill, Mildenhall, Stowmarket and Sudbury centres are also designated LEAP centres (Learning and Enterprise Action Points). We use over a hundred different venues around the county to deliver our programmes.

In 20010/11 our student enrolment was 18,738; 2466 of these were full-time, 6975 were part-time and 900 were apprentices. We work with all of our local upper schools and have 804 School Link students who come to the College on one or two days a week.

In addition to Full-time, Part-time and Adult Education, we have a large contract for Apprenticeships and training for businesses. In support of these programmes we work with more than 1500 employers and in 2010/11 delivered a substantial volume of full cost courses to employers. We are a member of University Campus Suffolk and provide full and part-time degree courses for around 771 students. Our annual graduation is held in the Cathedral, and is a very important day for our students and the town alike.

A recent investigation into the socioeconomic impact of the College has identified a £193.2 million benefit to the region. For more information on the socioeconomic impact of West Suffolk College, click here.

We are a large local employer with 404 FTE staff and a turnover of £27 million.

We are very proud of the quality of provision that we are able to offer, both in terms of learning/training and individual support. Student success rates are very high, and we are placed within the top 5% of colleges in the country. The College is accredited as an Investor in People and for its outstanding Leadership and Management.

West Suffolk College led the way in meeting the Training Quality Standard (TQS), a benchmark of training excellence for employers.

Please click here to view the College Charter.

Please click here to download Financial Report and Statements July 2011.