Education

University Centre Folkestone
Students bring a distinctive vitality to any area. Lacking any higher education institutions Folkestone has never had a student life, so we have been working with Canterbury Christ Church University and the University of Greenwich to build the new University Centre Folkestone in a cluster of refurbished industrial buildings within the Creative Quarter.

When it opens in September 2007 the University Centre will offer innovative degree level courses mixing arts and media disciplines, with the range of courses building up over the next couple of years. In the first phase we aim to have up to 500 students, increasing to more than 1,500 if plans for an extended new university campus in the harbour come to fruition.

With the ever-rising cost of higher education it’s likely that more and more students will want to find ways of studying while remaining at home. The new University Centre gives Folkestone people a important new set of options for their personal and career development.

Folkestone Academy
Improvements to education at every level are at the heart of the shared regeneration vision. A flagship initiative is the construction of the £38 million Folkestone Academy, replacing the Channel School, and providing the children of Folkestone’s most deprived central and eastern wards with transformed educational opportunities.

The buildings have been designed by Foster & Partners, one of the country’s leading architectural practices, to create a beacon of excellence for 11-18 year olds with specialisms in Art, Media and European Culture.

The Academy will have links to the Creative Foundation with plans to develop mentoring from Creative Quarter artists and business .

The school sits alongside a number of initiatives in Folkestone's central and eastern wards, designed to work together to drive up educational attainment and improve the lives of the area’s children.

Kent Adult Education Service
Plans are afoot to consolidate Kent Adult Education Service's Folkestone provision within the Creative Quarter.