End of an era for UCA
THE doors are set to close on the collegewhich brought Britain the likes of dress designer Karen Millen and acclaimed artist Tracey Emin. The final students are expected to leave the Maidstone campus of the UCA – the Univer- sity of Creative Arts – next summer, following the sale of the campus to neighbouring Mid Kent College. Formerly Maidstone College of Art, UCA has produced Oscar-winning film makers, televi- sion presenters, a plethora of promising pho- tographers and Turner Prize nominees. As a specialist university, it is a nationally recognised centre for all the creative arts. Maidstone College of Art - along with the
other UCA founder colleges in Canterbury, Epsom, Farnham and Rochester - opened its doors in Victorian times, in 1867. It was its mission to serve local people and to
offer education irrespective of social class. More than 120 years later, in 1987, its Oak-
wood Park campus merged with Medway Col- lege of Design and Canterbury Art College and the Canterbury School of Architecture to be- come the Kent Institute of Art & Design (KIAD). KIAD was granted accreditation by the Uni- versity of Kent giving it the power to award its own degrees in 1992. After a series of mergers, the University for
the Creative Arts achieved full university title in 2008 and fashion designer Zandra Rhodes was appointed its first chancellor in May 2010. The UCA Board of Governors agreed to ac-
cept an offer from MidKent College in 2011 to purchase the Oakwood Park campus, since which time courses have been slowly phased out, with a view to permanent closure in mid- 2014.
The purchase and refurbishment of the UCA campus is part of the wider £25m refurbish- ment of MidKent College’s Maidstone Campus, due for completion in December this year. MKCnow owns the formerUCA campus and
uses it as a higher education centre, but UCA still rents some space to fulfil its ongoing de- gree courses. UCA will decide by the end of this month whether or not to withdraw com- pletely from the campus in the summer of 2014. A spokesman for UCA said: “We are com- mitted to delivering our pre-degree courses at the campus until July 2014 and will be re- viewing this over the coming months to see if we extend that provision. “UCA will also maintain a presence in the
town with our BA (Hons) Broadcast Media course, based at The Maidstone Studios. “We believe the sale is in the best long term interest of the university, its staff and stu- dents.” A spokesman for the new owners said: “We
at MidKent College are delighted to have taken ownership of the University for the Creative Arts’ former Maidstone campus, and look for- ward to continuing the tradition of providing first-class higher education courses in the county town. “We are continuing to revise our curriculum according to local need and considering the possibility of running new design-based courses at the campus to ensure there is a re- placement curriculum in place for when the UCA departs Maidstone.” The former UCA campus will be MidKent College’s dedicated higher education centre. Further education subjects will continue to be taught in the college’s existingMaidstone Cam- pus.
Antony masters marathon run
A MAIDSTONE healthcare worker crossed the finish line in the Brighton Marathon at the start of his six-month charity campaign ending with the Chicago Marathon in October. Antony Masters, PR manager for
BMI The Somerfield Hospital, is raising funds and awareness for Or- chid Male Cancer Charity. The 39- year-old completed the Brighton run of 26.2miles in 4 hours 37 min- utes. He said: “Men are notorious for
not getting things checked out by their GPs, so I wanted to do my bit to raise awareness of the impor- tance of doing that. My double marathon challenge is also to help in the research to find a cure and inevitably help people survive.” Antony aims to raise £1,000 for Orchid and hopes to complete a couple of half marathons aswell as the Chicago event in the autumn. You can sponsor him by logging
on
towww.justgiving.com/antmas- ters or by texting ANTM74 £5 to 70070.
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