College announces Joint Venture with University of Hertfordshire

27 June 2013

University Campus St Albans (UCSA) officially opened for business this week with its first part-time honours degree in Business Management and Innovation available for applicants.

The Joint Venture will offer innovative and affordable new flexible part time degree programmes for people who wish to combine both work and study. Flexible part-time pathways of study have been designed to provide those with busy lives improved career prospects.

UCSA plans to deliver its first new degree programme from both Oaklands’ St Albans Campus (one evening a week) and at the Hertfordshire Business School (one Saturday a month). The programme is flexible allowing students to start and stop at different times and build their way to a degree in a way to suit them. Typically students will study over a 4 year period but there are options to accelerate the learning over three calendar years while others may take a longer route in order to fit study around life. People can also attain smaller awards if studying for a full honours degree is too great a commitment.

The degree programme is competitively priced at approximately 30% less than a typical degree, reducing the cost for the individual. The focus is on providing a high quality learning experience in small groups.  

Quintin McKellar, Vice Chancellor at the University of Hertfordshire, commented: “UCSA broadens the Higher Education offering and is designed to allow students to build their degree in way to suit their lives, giving them more flexibility and choice.

“The degrees have been created in a way that makes it affordable with exceptional quality. It is the solution for those who don’t have the time to devote to full-time study or feel they missed out early in life.”

Zoe Hancock, Principal of Oaklands College, added: “We have worked hard with employers and the wider community to take UCSA to this stage and as we grow the focus will remain on the development of skills that employers want, so that on completion of the degree students will become a rich asset to any organisation.”