Keep up to date with all the news from West London College.

Christine Grant

I am very sorry to announce that our Deputy Head of Hotel and Tourism Management, Christine Grant, passed away on 15th June. She had been ill for some time.

Christine joined us in 2003 and was a highly valued member of staff. She was an oustanding teacher who was frequently singled out by former students as the lecturer most responsible for their success at WLC. She will be very sorely missed.

The funeral will be on Thursday 24th June at St Matthew's Roman Catholic Church, Northwood at 1.30pm, and as a mark of respect and to allow students and members of staff to attend the funeral there will be no classes at the College on that day.

Christine's friends and family have requested that there be no flowers but would appreciate donations to Macmillan Cancer Support. The College will be making a donation on behalf of our staff and students.

Paul Smith, Principal

Relocation, Refurbishment and Refinement

During the period November 2009 to April 2010 the College will undertake a major construction programme which will involve the addition of a new administrative block in Duke Street (see map for location), refurbishment of the 2nd and 4th Floors of Parliament House, and the refurbishment of the 1st and 3rd Floors of Hannah House. This will give substantially more lecture room space at Hannah House, an improved Student Services facility at Parliament House, and a new internet facility and a 'tuck-shop' for the Parliament House student common-room. We now have premises to the north, south and east of Selfridges. Perhaps west is next (if we can persuade Marks and Spencer to move of course!)

Heriot-Watt University up in the rankings

Our partner university for business studies, Heriot-Watt University, has risen an astonishing 30 places in the Guardian newspaper University league table for 2009 and is now ranked 22 out of 118 universities in the United Kingdom. This is good news if you are studying Business Administration, Marketing, or Finance at WLC because it means that your degree will be worth more on the UK job market. Another of our partner institutions, Bournemouth University, is up 5 places to 32.

WLC student chosen as finalist in Metro Re-Create 2 Competition 2009

WLC Fashion Students entered the Metro Re-Create 2 competition for 2009. The brief was to create a piece of art or design from used newspaper using the environment as their inspiration. Three of our students' pieces appeared in the Metro Newspaper on February 25th 2009. Mathilda Spjuth made studies of a bird skull and bone structure to create an interesting sculptured piece for the body, which was created out of the Metro, string and wire. Pooja Sharma drew from a pine cone for her entry and will use recyclable materials in her future work. Siann Au Yeung created a marbled effect using coloured parts of the Metro cutting the newspaper into strips and rolling them into fine lines.

'All the students created exciting innovative work after a visit to Kew Gardens and Liron Kliger has been chosen as one of the finalists. She has developed an exciting sculptural piece for the body after studying rosehips. Her work is very spiky, colourful and original.' Said Louise Lidington, Head of Fashion at WLC.

Click here to view our students' entries.

March 2009

The College has been issued with a Grade "A" sponsor licence by the United Kingdom Border Agency, for use when the Points Based System takes effect on 31 March 2009 .

Now we have a cinema!

Builders are hard at work refitting an additional floor to our Hannah House building in central London. The new facility will include an additional lecture room, an 80 seater lecture hall, which will be used as a cinema in the evenings, six English language classrooms and assorted offices. At the same time contractors are also undertaking a range of redecoration works to the building including improved staffroom facilities, redecoration of communal areas and additional seating to the Cafe Hannah student restaurant. This will give the ever growing college student body access to even better facilities once it opens in late April 09!

6 Nov 08

Stefan Schwarz, former Arsenal and Swedish international footballer, visited WLC to make enquiries about our fashion and hotel management programmes on behalf of his daughter.

Three WLC students receive 'Gold Standard' awards from CTH

Three of our students won awards for achieving the highest subject mark world-wide in the June 2008 Confederation of Tourism and Hospitality exams.

Top rock band 'Razorlight' play at ISH

One of Britain's top bands, Razorlight, recently played at International Students House (ISH), to which all WLC students are given automatic membership.

Wi-Fi has arrived at WLC!

Students can now access the internet free of charge from anywhere in the College, using a laptop. This is in addition to the 100 PC terminals already available!

West London College fashion department opened in January 2008

In January 2008 the British Study Centres group moved its fashion design courses from Oxford Media and Business School to newly built fashion studios at West London College's Hannah House building, so as to make the department geographically closer to the centre of the UK fashion industry in the West End of London. The department will offer a Foundation Diploma in Fashion Design and also short courses during the summer vacation period.

Meet WLC staff visiting your country

Senior members of the College staff make regular visits overseas to meet with representatives, attend exhibitions and conduct seminars on the study opportunities in London.

In the last year we have been all over the world including the following countries: Sweden, Holland, Turkey, Ukraine, Iran, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Japan, Korea, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Ghana, Gambia, Tanzania and Kenya.

Please contact us to find out when we are next passing through your region. We look forward to meeting you then!

ABE student receives President's Prize

Sonia Nurse from Trinidad, a student on our ABE Advanced Diploma, was awarded the ABE President's Prize this year. The award is for achieving the best results on aggregate (across the five papers) worldwide. She has since been hired as an executive administrator by a Canadian firm in Barbados.

Fidelio hotel booking system installed

Front Office version 7 from Fidelio is the latest industry-standard software system used by all the major hotel chains. It incorporates front desk, reservations, cashier, and housekeeping among many other functions. WLC uses the system to train students on both the CTH Diploma and Advanced Diploma in Hotel Management.

WLC is a member of the British Study Centres group of colleges, a non profit making company limited by guarantee. Registered office: Parliament House, 35 North Row, Mayfair, London W1K 6DB. Registration No: 2749354. As well as WLC, British Study Centres group consists of 4 English schools: BSC London, BSC Oxford, BSC Brighton and BSC Bournemouth as well as another vocational college - Hove College, Brighton