- Luton has featured along the best universities for graduate employment, appearing top of the UK table, according to The Times newspaper, in both April 2001 and May 2002.
- In the last Research Assessment Exercise, we scored a high 4 in one of our newest areas - Tourism. We also scored well in subjects such as History, Media, Business and Management and Sport.
- The college also came top of the league table for research power, according to Government data (December 2003). The statistics show that Luton provides the best value for money for research. The Guardian described us as "most ingenious in leveraging grants and contracts". Indeed, we are "14 times better than the average for the sector", the newspaper said.
- We have invested millions in our facilities, including £5.5m in a new Media Arts centre, which was officially opened by Greg Dyke, former BBC Director General, in May 2004. Among the first students to make use of the facilities is a group of journalists and PR practitioners from Beijing, studying for the MA in Media Management in preparation for the 2008 Olympic Games.
- We have also invested nearly £500,000 in the last year in new equipment for our Psychology, Sport and Exercise Science laboratories.
- We have launched a new Postgraduate Medical School, in partnership with Hertfordshire and Cranfield Universities. And we are among the leaders in a collaborative project to build a £26m Science Park in Luton. Partners include the East of England Development Agency.
- We also launched a new range of Foundation Degrees in 2004 in partnership with local colleges. Indeed, we think we have one of the fastest growing partnerships in the country, having signed agreements with five colleges in the space of a few months. New courses include Creative Writing, Web Development, Media Production, Exercise Therapy, Care Management, Fine Art and Interior Design.
- We are also launching a series of exciting new Undergraduate Degree courses, including Music Technology, Television Production, Interior Architecture, Packaging Design, Contemporary Islamic Art, Digital Photography and Video Art, Advertising Design and Coaching Science.
- We have totally re-designed our prospectuses, to be more useful to students, in the style of our magazine thexperience, which was picked out for praise by design guru Wayne Hemingway.
- We have around 11,500 students and 900 staff. Some 9,500 students are studying at undergraduate level, with 2,000 more studying at postgraduate level and for professional development.
- We are a global college, nearly one-third of our students are from outside the UK - almost double the national average for international recruitment to a British college. That places us in the top 14 (out of more than 100 universities in the UK), according to Government figures.
- We also have one of the most diverse student populations in the country, which includes the fact that 45 per cent of our students are aged over 24, and 30 per cent of our students are from ethnic minority groups.
- A number of our former students are succeeding - visibly - in their chosen careers. Examples include Matt Thomas, who is now playing for the England Rugby League team; Gemma Hunt is the CBBC presenter; Becky Jago is Capital Radio’s morning co-presenter; and Zema Abbey plays football for Norwich City.
- Finally, Luton recently won the second largest solo bid to launch a Knowledge Exchange, to enhance our links with businesses and the community. The £1.8m grant from the Government comes from HEIF 2 initiative (Higher Education Innovation Fund). In less than five years we have been awarded £4m in Government funding for developing business partnerships and won £20m worth of contracts.
Luton College Fact File
We currently have students from various countries in the world, many of whom are from the Indian subcontinent, studying on a wide range of stimulating and flexible courses. The culture diversity of the college is one of its main characteristics. Our long experience with international students has taught us that a sympathetic, supportive and challenging environment will help you to get the best out of your time with us.
