University Centre Folkestone Joins Forces with Folkestone Public Library
The University of Greenwich and Canterbury Christ Church University today announced that all University Centre Folkestone students will automatically become members of Folkestone Public Library.
The universities, both offering a range of courses at the University Centre Folkestone, will buy a variety of books, CDs and DVDs for Folkestone Public Library and base these orders on academic reading lists and course material. In addition, students will receive access to the library's online catalogues and journals from the University Centre Folkestone's Campus, which is situated at the Old Glassworks, Mill Hill, Folkestone.
Head of Library Services at Canterbury Christ Church University, Pete Ryan, said: "This is a new and exciting way to deliver university library services in partnership with Kent County Council in order to meet the needs of our students. We are delighted that students will have access to the excellent learning resources available at Folkestone Public Library, which is in close proximity to the University Centre Folkestone's Campus. The University of Greenwich and Canterbury Christ Church University have a strong working relationship with the staff from the public library service who are keen to provide first-class support for students during their time at the new University Centre Folkestone."
Kent County Council Cabinet Member for Community Services, Mike Hill, added: "This arrangement with the University Centre Folkestone will enable more Kent students to make use of the county's learning resources and is an excellent development of the relationship already enjoyed by academic centres and Kent's Libraries. I am confident that students will make good use of the facility and library staff are looking forward to welcoming them from September."
University Centre Folkestone will open in September 2007 and aims to enrol around 300 students in the next two years, rising to 500 studentsin later years. An open day will be taking place at the University Centre Folkestone on Thursday 10th May 2007 to give people the opportunity to find out more about the new courses and facilities that will be available.
For more information please contact the Project Manager, Tim Barry, on 01303 248582.
Notes To Editors
University Centre Folkestone
University Centre Folkestone will be based at the refurbished 30,000sq ft Glassworks, a redundant industrial premises that includes two five-storey warehouses located just off Tontine Street, near Folkestone harbour. The Glassworks is part of Folkestone's new Creative Quarter.
The University Centre Folkestone will:
* Increase the range and level of higher level learning opportunities in the region and support lifelong learning for young people and adults;
* Widen access to learning for young people through creating new progression opportunities;
* Work with employers to identify education and training needs;
* Provide university level programmes in a range of disciplines related to the arts and creative industries, business and information,
and communication and applied professional studies;
* Create a resource of benefit to the regional and local community;
* Forge new partnerships with other education providers and employing organisations;
* Develop enterprise and research activities in partnership with employing organisations.
The Creative Foundation
The Glassworks is owned by the Creative Foundation, a charity established by Roger De Haan CBE to lead efforts to regenerate Folkestone through the arts. The Glassworks is part of Folkestone's new Creative Quarter, a regeneration area being established around the Old High Street and Tontine Street. Art galleries, specialist shops, street sculpture and artists give the Creative Quarter plenty of cultural character and it is also home to many cafes and pubs.
The Creative Foundation has made considerable investment in the town by the purchase and refurbishment of buildings, which are then let at affordable rents to artists and creative businesses.
University of Greenwich
The University of Greenwich has offered higher education in Kent for more than a century, since the creation of Dartford College in 1895.
Today it has nearly 3,000 students at the University of Greenwich at Medway, in Chatham Maritime, as well as a training and conference centre at King's Hill, near West Malling. Students also study for University of Greenwich courses in its network of partner colleges in the county, which includes: Hadlow College, K College, North West Kent College, Canterbury College, Bexley College, Bromley College and Orpington College, as well as by distance learning.
Altogether over 20,000 students are enrolled on a wide range of courses including: science, engineering, natural resources, business, education and training, pharmacy, computing and mathematical sciences, architecture and construction, health and social care, and humanities.
The University also has extensive involvement with the local community and business sector, offering research and consultancy services, and through its student volunteering and mentoring schemes.
Canterbury Christ Church University
Canterbury Christ Church University is the largest centre of higher education in Kent for public services - notably teacher training, policing and health and social care. The University is also a significant provider of programmes in a wide range of academic areas within its Faculties of Arts and Humanities and Business and Sciences. From a small independent College of less than five hundred students - all training to be school teachers - in the 1960s, we have grown to a fully fledged university with 14,000 students and 1,000 staff members with campuses in Canterbury, Tunbridge Wells, Broadstairs and Chatham. Our teaching and learning facility for health, education and policing students at Chatham is part of the Universities At Medway Project in partnership with the Universities of Greenwich and Kent with Mid-Kent College.
As an outward looking University and a Church of England foundation, our mission is to provide excellent academic and professional education underpinned by research, scholarship and creative work and by Christian principles and values.