DLD College London, an independent sixth form college which is part of the Abbey DLD Group, has opened its new campus just metres from the River Thames and Waterloo Bridge, hoping to capture market share among international students by offering classrooms and boarding accommodation in this prime London location.
Upgraded facilities on the new campus – such as electronic registers and spacious study areas – have also enabled the school to expand its subject offering, it says.
“It just improves the whole community feel of the college”
The school hopes that having the students’ living space in the same building as the their learning space will help to allay any safety concerns agents and parents might have, as well as enabling better monitoring of students’ attendance, according to marketing manager, Lilla Somogyi.
“It just improves the whole community feel of the college,” she told The PIE News.
The accommodation, set across 15 floors, has the capacity to house 200 boarding students, both in single and twin rooms.
The upgrade has come about as a result of merging the colleges’ two former London campuses in Marylebone and Belgravia.
The new classrooms also include six science laboratories and a drama theatre, along with more equipment for creative media subjects – a subject area that the school is expanding.
The common areas in the students’ accommodation looks out over the city centre.
“We’ve offered a music technology BTEC, so we’ve expanded our offering in terms of A-Levels and international foundation programmes,” said Simogyi. “We’re offering an art foundation which we never offered previously.”
Around 40% of the 500 students enroled in the college are domestic students, with the rest coming from 43 different countries.
“Some of our bigger markets are places like China, Nigeria, Russia, Kazakhstan,” Simogyi noted.
Abbey DLD Group, also has colleges in Cambridge, Manchester and Birmingham, all of which have undergone some changes and developments recently.
A new boarding school, where the intake will be 99% international, is also currently under construction in Cambridge, which will bring all the existing buildings under one roof.
Abbey DLD Colleges form part of the Alpha Plus Group.
