Term dates for the College and University Centre academic year 2024/2025 are now available online.
Welcome to The University Centre
Truro College opened in 1993 and in 2008 merged with Penwith College to become Truro and Penwith College (T&PC). Our initial partnership with the University of Exeter led to ten University courses by 1999.
A new partnership with University of Plymouth developed and now the College has over 40 university courses and teacher training with Pearson, the University of Plymouth and the University of Greenwich, including higher apprenticeships, foundation degrees, degree ‘honours progression’ course, teacher training graduate and postgraduate programmes.
In the last 15 years the College’s university level courses have been reviewed three times by the Quality Assurance agency (responsible for Higher Education quality) often with commendations on good practice. The University of Plymouth review our university approved programmes every year, with a full review of the College every five years, again with many commendations.
In 2016/17 the college was awarded the Gold standard on a national measure of higher education quality, the Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF). As important, our students consider us to be doing a good job with levels of student satisfaction above national and benchmark satisfaction levels recorded on the National Student Survey in the last four years.
The majority of our students are Cornwall based and we have an exciting mix of school and College leavers and mature learners (ranging from 21 to 60 plus).
Our ethos is to provide higher skilled employment for the people of Cornwall and so we have entry grades that allow mature students and retraining adults the opportunity to progress to higher education.
Truro and Penwith College has a strong record of putting the student first and I am confident that our Higher Education programmes support our University students in the same manner.
Andrew Smart - Programme Team Leader
how we manage courses to help students
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There are many reasons why students choose to study with us. We strive to be high quality, friendly and student focused and our staff recognise that their job is to teach and support students so that they can graduate and move into a successful career.Â
Our courses are approved by the University of Plymouth, University of Greenwich or Pearson, the national provider of HNC and HND qualifications.Â
Key reasons our students choose to study with us:
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Courses are delivered over three terms that align with the school and college terms where possible, with three reading weeks that coincide with half-terms.
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Compressed timetable into two or three days a week where possible. This means the typical day is quite intense but provides opportunity for students to work outside of lectures to support grant funding.
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Courses built around focused delivery to smaller groups giving easy access to staff who are aware of who you are and how you are getting on. It also means lots of discussions, practicals, trips and group research.
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A support system that helps learners apply for Disabled Student Allowance. We work with students with individual needs to do our best to support them through their programme of study. Study skills support and regular weekly tutorials help develop wider skills that employers look for in a graduate.
