Matthew Boulton Campus, Birmingham Metropolitan College
| Contact Details: | Clive Hill, Director of Information Systems & Facilities, chill@mbc.ac.uk |
| Type of Project: | New Build/Relocation. Existing site 1960's unfit for purpose and uneconomic to refurbish. Also delivered regeneration at both old and new sites. |
| Start/End Date: | Project conceived end 1999/early 2000. Commencement on site September 2003 (Demolition). Construction commenced January 2004, completion July 2005 and open to students September 2005. This case study was undertaken in 2006 at which point the institution was known as Matthew Boulton College. The Matthew Boulton Campus is now part of the Birmingham Metropolitan College. |
Technology
The new building gave college management the opportunity to completely overhaul the IT systems and technology infrastructure of the college. It was important to apply new systems to meet the expectations of 'tomorrow's students' and in order to do this research was carried out on the future direction of learning and the identification of the most effective strategy to deliver an up-to-date and sophisticated learning environment for future skills requirements. Research showed that 'effective IT systems, people and strategies are no longer 'nice to haves', but prerequisites for continued success'. The College is fully wireless and also has electronic learning aids in all teaching areas. The college used the Official Journal of the European Community (OJEC) to tender for a system to cover student records, a management information system (MIS) and the IT infrastructure.
Matthew Boulton College wanted to put IT at the centre of things in order to provide learners with a rich online resource. Reduction of paper has been a key driver and the storage of hard copies has been radically reduced as a result of the use of technology to store electronic copies.
The College piloted the IT over a year in advance of the move to ensure familiarisation with the equipment and software.
The college believes that 'new technology will allow us to move forward in terms of curriculum provision for actual learning delivery (be that management through planning and performance analysis)'.
The new MIS has streamlined processes for staff, and freed them up to do other work.
Gary Turton and Clive Hill of the College assert that 'Better systems can improve management data, learner experience and reduce costs - key issues and powerful arguments for implementation of new technology'.
