New College Durham

Age: 34, in its current form

History: A merger between Neville's Cross College of Education and Durham Technical College in 1977 saw the formation of New College Durham.

Address: Framwellgate Moor on the edge of Durham, right up north.

Ambience: Set in the historic city of Durham, a £35m revamp of the campus was completed in 2005 and was officially opened by Tony Blair. There's a main building with a specialist sixth form centre, a sports and music building and the Neville Building, which houses the HE provision and has a 120- seat lecture theatre, large seminar rooms and tutorial suites.

Vital statistics: A large college with around 3,500 full-time students. Around 9,000 students in total are enrolled, including part-time students and apprentices.

Added value: The £35 million redevelopment and is now one of the most state- of-the-art colleges in the UK. Centre of Vocational Excellence for multi-skilled systems maintenance engineering, travel and tourism and construction. HE courses are validated by Leeds Metropoiltan University, Sunderland University and Teesside University. In August 2011, the New Durham College was the first college in County Durham, and only one of two in the country, to be given the power to award its own foundation degrees by the Privy Council.

Easy to get into? A minimum of 40 UCAS points for foundation degrees. However, they welcome applications from those with non- standard entry qualifications.

Glittering alumni: Natalie Wheen, hotel general manager for Swallow Group; Gavin Nicholson, winner of The Chartered Institute of Builders' Roy Irving Award and Stephen Hughes, MEP for Durham.

Transport links: Only one mile from Durham Railway Station, which is on the East Coast Line. Alternatively, there are many coach services linking Durham to major British cities. Newcastle International and Durham Tees Valley Airports are both under one hour from Durham.

Who's the boss? Principal and chief executive, John Widdowson CBE.

Teaching: The QAA gave the higher education provision the highest rating for academic standards and quality of learning opportunities in its latest inspection. Ofsted rated the college as outstanding in its 2009 inspection.

Foundation Degrees: Complementary health care, assistant practitioner in podiatry, counselling, business, internet computing for business, housing, public sector administration, computing and networking, applied health and social care, sport and exercise studies, supported learning, public and community services, travel and tourism management. There are also a number of BAs and BScs through a 'top-up' year.

Nightlife: Durham is not renowned for having a wild nightlife, but as a university town there is a fair amount going on and there are numerous pubs, bars and clubs. The new Walkergate Development near the riverside provides even more high quality entertainment venues. Its only a 15 minute train ride to enjoy the nightlife of Newcastle.

Any accommodation? No halls of residence, but there are plenty of private properties available for rent.

Cheap to live there? Not bad. Fees are set at an affordable level and the college offers a generous bursary to most full- time students. Local rents are from approximately £60 per week.

Fees: £3,375 per year for full-time HE students from 2011/2012. FE varies by course. The college proposes to charge a flat fee of £6,000 per year for HE courses from 2012.

Bursaries: The college offers a generous bursary for each year of study depending on programme eligibility. Students will receive the bursary whatever their level of family income. For full details visit www.newcollegedurham.ac.uk/adultfinance.

Prospectus: 0191 375 4000; www.newcollegedurham.ac.uk

UCAS code: N28