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BPP becomes UK's first private university college in three decades

26 July 2010 | By Corinne McPartland

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BPP College of Professional Studies has been named as the UK’s first new private sector university college for more than 30 years.

The minister of state for universities, science and skills David Willetts announced today that the institution is to become BPP University College with immediate effect.

Willetts said: “It’s healthy to have a vibrant private sector working alongside our more traditional universities. International experience shows a diverse range of higher education providers helps widen access, focuses attention on teaching quality and promotes innovative learning methods, such as web-based distance learning.”

This is the first time a private institution has been awarded the University College title since Buckingham University College – now the University of Buckingham – was created in 1976.

As reported by The Lawyer last year, BPP’s long-term goal of transforming itself into a full-blown university was thrown into jeopardy after its US parent Apollo Group was investigated by the SEC in connection with accounting irregularities (23 November 2009).

BPP became the first privately owned company to receive degree-awarding powers in September 2007 and has since launched an undergraduate law degree that attracted 100 students in its first year.

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Readers' comments (14)

  • Anonymouse | 28-Jul-2010 9:42 am

    @IHateBPP I am doing my QLTT with BPP and found (like most people around me that sat that exam) that BPP "made a real mess" too with the property law exam in June 2010 (completely different in style to the mocks exams and their lectures). So I was wondering which exams you refer to in your post, since I intend to write to the SRA and complain - and more background info could come handy.
    Many thanks!
    Anonymouse

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  • Anonymous | 28-Jul-2010 9:56 am

    This is a tragic day. Going from a real university to the GDL at BPP was a terrible experience. Their legal course is shallow, favours regurgitation of one sentence summaries of complex authorities and (worst of all) is taught with an intolerable smugness which is impossible to justify given the narrowness of the course content. This development can only be a reflection of how debased the term "university" has become.

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  • IHateBPP | 28-Jul-2010 10:45 am

    @Anonymouse I only sat the Land Law module as I was exempt from all others but I know that anyone studying their LPC with BPP after the GDL (must be masochists) had their VLE change from the GDL to LPC on Monday this week, leaving them unable to access their results for quite some time.
    I hate so many problems with BPP it was unbelievable. My favourite was the very threatening claim that I owed them seven thousand pounds (even though I was only studying one module) when I owed them nothing. It took three attempts from me including forwarding an email from their manager saying I paid them in full, and an email from a solicitor before they accepted their mistake.

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  • Anonymous | 29-Jul-2010 10:49 am

    I am at BPP right now, and must say that it has been very impressive. The LPC is an extremely professional and is run by very warm, helpful and informative tutors. To be honest the study experience at BPP was a lot better than at my uni.

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