A LOOK behind the scenes at Blackburn College Higher Education Centre.

HIGHER EDUCATION REPORT: The Centre for Higher Education at Blackburn is a unit within Blackburn College and brings together a wide range of higher education and professional courses in one centre. Approximately 80 per cent of the higher education programmes in East Lancashire are at Blackburn and we want to encourage more people from the region to undertake a programme of higher education.

PRESENT STUDENTS: The centre has 652 full-time students and 1,350 on part-time programmes. Most of these students study at the centre but more and more are choosing to study some modules by distance learning.

HISTORY LESSON: Higher education at Blackburn College has developed over a period of years. This produced some excellent programmes but HE lacked a sense of identity and many people reading this today will be surprised at the amount of HE available locally. During the summer of 2001 the college was restructured to bring all higher and professional education together in one centre and a Dean was appointed to lead it.

STAR STUDENTS: 2001 was an excellent year for our students. Seven were awarded first class honours degrees from Lancaster University and one of them, Cheryl Dunn, received a letter of congratulations from the university for achieving exceptional results. Janice Beneduce, 42, achieved the highest mark in the country in her BA (Honours) Accounting and Finance exam. Equally important are the many students who are now graduates when they didn't think they had it in them.

OUT AND ABOUT: Several of the programmes involve trips to enhance studies. Last year, the Graphic Design students went to New York to visit and listen to some of the world's leading designers; the Photography students are going to Madrid; Business students went to Paris earlier this month and will be going to Germany and Disneyworld in the new year.

SOMETHING TO BRAG ABOUT: Several of our programmes have been described as cutting edge and innovative by leading figures in education - English for the way it combines linguistics with literary studies; Technology for the way we have multi exits - HNC, HND, Foundation degree, Honours degree - from the same programme; MBA for it practical, applied approach. Blackburn is at the leading edge of the development of the new foundation degrees with two running this year and a further four in 2002.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH £100.000? Probably bring forward the introduction of a Managed Learning Environment -- an advanced computer-based system which allows staff and students to communicate and locate and store information much more efficiently.