By Ramesh Mathew/Staff Reporter
The 180-year-old Bradford College in Britain’s Yorkshire county is exploring possibilities for establishing key contacts with Qatari institutions, especially those in the educational and training sectors.
Some of the Qatari students at Bradford College with Binns, Mohamed and Lee at their get-together yesterday. PICTURE: T K Nassar
College officials Martin Binns and Adil Mohamed told Gulf Times that their college has working partnerships with educational and business institutions across the world and the Yorkshire college has undertaken a host of professional projects, covering different fields, in many countries over the years.
Binns, Mohamed and senior faculty Caroline Lee had an interaction yesterday with former and present students as well as potential students and their parents.
Tomorrow and on Tuesday, the three officials would also hold talks with operators of local educational institutions and senior government officials.
Binns recalled Bradford College is one of the oldest in England and has been attracting students from Qatar for more than 25 years now. “Currently, we have more than 100 students from Qatar, including girls pursuing higher education at our college,” he said.
The college has more than 23,000 students at present with over 600 educational programmes, including 150 higher level academic courses. “There are close to 1,500 teaching staff and almost 90% of them are full-time faculties,” said the Binns.
According to the officials, students from the Middle East, specifically the GCC, constitute the highest international segment at Bradford College these days. “Next to home children, GCC students are the largest group at Bradford now and their numbers are growing as each year passes.”
Management, accounting, computing and engineering attract the most number of students from the GCC. “Anyone who has ever visited the Bradford campus could easily conclude that it’s one of the safest for international students, including those from the GCC states and one of the best in terms of quality of education in the UK,” Binns reiterated.
Currently, the college has more than 70 nationalities among the students and the number is bound to grow in the next few years.
Binns said the college, started as a technical institution in 1832, transformed itself into a college a few decades later after its operations were taken over by a team of engineering professionals in the middle of the 19th century.
The official said that owing to ongoing developments in Syria and Egypt, their team had to postpone their student induction programmes in these two countries.
Mohamed said their institution has been on a professional tie-up with an acclaimed film city in Mumbai and they are also looking forward to cementing a similar association with Doha Film Institute (DFI) in coming years. “Such co-operation would be beneficial to local students undergoing training in our facilities in Yorkshire,” added faculty member Lee.