London College of Business & innovation: Origins and Development

The beginning – 2004(Acton)

The College was originally established in 2004 by the current Principal as Queensland College London (QCOL) in Acton, west London. The objective was to provide high quality international education for post-eighteen-year-old students.

College Centres

The original College campus was situated in the Vale, Acton and
in 2006 a second campus was established in London Street, Reading, partly to accommodate the College’s expanding portfolio of provision and also to cater for international students who preferred to reside and pursue their studies outside the Capital.
During 2008, the Acton Campus was relocated to a building conveniently situated at The Mount in Central Acton and in
2009 the College acquired additional spacious premises in London Street, Reading, adjacent to the existing Campus building. Over this period the College made extensive investment in both its academic and administrative staff, estate and educational technology. The strategy was to build a reputation for outstanding student support and to create a diverse and welcoming educational community.

In 2012, following a review and update of the College Strategic Plan, it was decided to change the college title as marketing research revealed that the foundation name lacked resonance. The new name decided upon was ‘ABI College ‘. which incorporated the three core elements of the college educational provision: ‘Academic’, ’Business’ and ‘Innovation’ under which banner the College looked forward with confidence to an exciting future and an expanding range of courses to cater for the needs of both home and international students.

Recognition and Accreditation

During 2004 and 2005 the College offered a range of professional certificate and diploma courses, validated by professional bodies such as the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), the Association of Business Executives (ABE), The Institute for the Management of Information Systems (IMIS) andOCR (Oxford, Cambridge and Royal Society of Arts). The College delivered a range of courses at levels 3-6.

In 2007 the College successfully received accreditation from the British Accreditation Council (BAC) and in 2012 following changes to the regulatory framework for private providers the College was again successful in its application for educational oversight from the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education in England (QAA).At this time ABI’s core provision was the provision of Pearson BTEC courses in Business, Health & Social Care and allied subjects at levels 4-6 although there was also a developing focus on the NEBDN level 3 diploma in Dental Nursing.- The first QAA review found that Confidence could be placed in the College’s management of its academic standards and learning opportunities and that Reliance could be placed on the accuracy and completeness of the information that the college published about itself and its programmes of study (www.qaa.ac.uk). Additionally at this time the College gained UK Border Agency Highly Trusted Sponsor (HTS) status.

Subsequent to 2012 the College was consistently successful in further QAA annual monitoring visits and review: indeed, in 2017 the QAA concluded that ABI was making commendable progress in the enhancement of its academic standards and learning opportunities.www.qaa.ac.uk (Click here to read full report)
Since 2008, the College has had Pearson Edexcel as an awarding organisation for its Higher Education provision. By September 2010 the number of student enrolments steadily increased, as its provision expanded and the College’s reputation became established. At that time, the number of students enrolled in higher education programmes (Levels 4 – 7) exceeded 400, drawn from forty-three non-EU countries.

An important development in 2012 was the establishment of a collaborative partnership with a UK HEI – St Mark and St John Plymouth (now Plymouth University Marjon). This enabled the College to expand its range of educational provision to include undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes. Its first master’s students in Leadership and Management graduated in November 2013.

In 2012 the College was successful in having its undergraduate level courses designated for student finance which increased the accessibility of its programmes to an increasingly diverse range of students drawn from UK/EU. In 2017 this was extended to its postgraduate programmes which also then included an MBA programme for the first time.

Continuous Development

In 2011 the College established a Governing Council with external membership drawn from academia and the professions and chaired by a scholar of international standing and with experience of both the private and public higher education sectors in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, and the United Arab Emirates. The council proved highly valuable in extending the range of expertise available to the College and student representation on this body was recognised as a feature of good practice by the QAA. Mention must also be made of the continuous investment by the College in state-of –the art educational technology which was also recognised and commended by QAA review teams.

Re-evaluation

In 2019 changes in the UK, HE regulatory framework, including controls on the admission of international students and eligibility for student finance as well as the growing interest in online delivery prompted a further strategic review of the future direction of ABI. At the same time a Language School was created ‘Language Vision’ building on English language teaching which had been part of the College’s educational portfolio since its foundation. This received accreditation from the British Council in the Summer of 2019. However, planning for the future was curtailed early in 2020 with the advent of COVID-19 when on-site teaching was suspended and the Reading centre disposed of. Much reduced College teaching centred on online delivery of the NEBDN Diploma.