Weston College has spent more than £1 million improving and extending facilities in time for the new term.

The work has been carried out over the summer at the Knightstone, South West Skills (SWS) and Loxton Campuses and has been welcomed by students and staff as the new term gets underway.

There have been major changes to the Higher Education (HE) floor at Knightstone Campus, plus improvements to facilities for Hospitality and Learning Difficulties and Disabilities (LDD) students. The SWS Campus on Locking Road has benefited from a major extension into an existing building that now houses the College's bespoke Motor Vehicle Workshop, related classrooms and superb IT facilities (including vehicle diagnostics).

Also new for the College are new Painting and Decorating and Multi-Trade areas and new bays for the popular Plumbing course, all based at the College's Construction and Engineering Centre of Excellence (CECE).

On the sixth floor of the Knightstone Campus a new HE Centre has been created. This architecturally designed area features the use of natural materials including oak doors and matching walkways. The new facility accommodates a new lecture theatre, an open study area, welfare / support rooms and new science labs.

The teaching kitchen for students with LDD, including wheelchair-friendly facilities, has been refurbished on the third floor of the building and the second-floor Grove training restaurant has seen the creation of improved kitchen facilities and changing areas.

A new photographic studio and an extended staff room has also been created at the College's Loxton Campus in Loxton Road.

Weston College Assistant Principal (Systems and Resources) Linda Burlison said: “The extensive work completed over the summer will benefit both learners and staff, underlining the fact that as a College we are prepared to make significant investment for the future.”

The British seaside resort of Weston-super-Mare and the American gambling city of Las Vegas are to be virtually linked later this month in a unique stage show involving performing arts students.

Ground-breaking computer technology and a video link will make it appear as if the students are alongside each other when the show ‘Time Lapse’ is staged by degree students of the Wessex Academy of Performing Arts (WAPA) at Weston College and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV).

In fact, they will be separated by more than 5,000 miles and an eight hour time difference when the performances take place on April 23rd at 4pm UK time in Weston and 8am Pacific Time in Las Vegas, and on April 24th at 8am in Weston and 12am in Nevada.

Weston College Higher Education Curriculum Co-ordinator for Performing Arts Degrees Ged Stephenson, said: “The performances will be done over video link, although the students will perform as if they’re on stage together.

“The technology that is being used to achieve this is ground-breaking and it’s believed that this performance will be a world first because there are no time delays in the visuals and only a very slight one in sound.

“The video link will be done using ultra-grids, which are really advanced computers that have been created by UNLV.”

Students from a variety of performing arts degree courses at Weston College will be performing with students from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV).

The collaboration between the two educational establishments began about a year and a half ago, after Weston College lecturer Sylvia Lane approached UNLV while on holiday in Las Vegas to see if she could forge links there.

Last year Weston College hosted a visit from two UNLV lecturers, Michael Lugering, Professor of Acting, and Louis Kavouras, Professor of Dance. They spent two days running specialist master classes for students on Foundation Degrees in Performing Arts and Musical Theatre, run in partnership with Bath Spa University.

This provided the basis for the project to stage a unique joint performance across time zones in the play ‘Time Lapse’, which has been specially-scripted for the show.

Ged Stephenson added: “Any live performance requires a considerable amount of organisation, but this show has also required exchanges and sharing of workshops using Skype, Facetime and YouTube.”

University Centre Weston (UCW) students approve of how the institution delivers higher education, according to the results of this year’s National Student Survey.

Students awarded UCW a score of 88 per cent in the category of ‘overall satisfaction’; above the average of 86 per cent for all of the university-level education providers in Britain.

The figure represents the third year in a row that UCW, which delivers its degrees in partnership with Bath Spa University and UWE Bristol, has improved its score in this key benchmark.

UCW is also in the top 25 per cent of higher education institutions in Britain for its ratings in the categories of ‘assessment and feedback’, ‘academic support’ and ‘personal development’.

Its Applied Computing, Business with Management, Early Years, Music Production and Musical Theatre foundation degrees received overall satisfaction scores of 100 per cent.

UCW student Becca Arlington, pictured, said: “I am not surprised that University Centre Weston's National Student Survey results are so high as I have loved my time here and have seen UCW go from strength to strength.
“The ethos of constant enhancement has been evident throughout my three years of study, and I am certainly very proud to have been a part of this phase of growth at UCW.” 

More than 300,000 final-year UK undergraduates responded to this year’s National Student Survey, which is conducted by independent research company Ipsos MORI.

UCW still has a limited number of places available on its more than 35 foundation and top-up degrees starting this September.