The college was formed on 1 August 2008 after the Dewsbury College Dissolution order approved that the corporation of Dewsbury College be dissolved and all its property, rights and liabilities transferred to Huddersfield Technical College.[1] On 1 August 2008 Huddersfield Technical College changed its name to Kirklees College.[2]
Part of Dewsbury College is the former Wheelwright Grammar School for Boys. It had around 450 boys in the 1960s and was administered by the County Borough of Dewsbury Education Committee.
The Batley School of Art[3] moved to the Wheelwright Grammar School site on Birkdale Road. In addition to arts courses, Batley Schoolof Art was also home to sports and fitness courses, due to the large playing field on its grounds.[4] The centre operated an award-winning Photographic course – BA Hons Contemporary Photographic Arts, a full-time three year honours degree from the University of Huddersfield.[5] The course had a national reputation and has approval from the 'British Institute of Professional Photographers', until it closed in 2018 [6]
The main campus was on Halifax Road, Dewsbury, closed October 2020.[clarification needed][7]
The main site is a new campus off Manchester Road,[10] adjacent to the River Colne, just outside the Huddersfield town centre, at a cost of £74 million, in 2013 it replaced the New North Road Campus .[clarification needed][11][12]
There are 4 additional satellite sites in Huddersfield:
Engineering and adjacent Process Manufacturing Centres,[13] provides full and part time courses in engineering related fields including manufacturing, welding and motor vehicle.
The Brunel Construction Centre,[14] located just off the A62, which offers courses in construction related fields including plumbing, bricklaying, plastering, electrical installation and plumbing.
The college's Taylor Hill Centre, on Close Hill Road in the Huddersfield suburb of Taylor Hill, provides full-time courses relating to animal care, land-based studies, conservation and countryside management.[15]
The Leeds Metropolitan University validated the School of Art and Designs' flagship course B.A.Hons "Fine Art for Design", an internationally renowned and award-winning course. Art, Design & Fashion.[16] Since its creation in 1998 by Eve Jones and Richard Gray, students have gone on to study at The Royal College of Art, won the Unilever graduate of the year award and many other national and international prizes. The course exhibited in London every year at Free Range at the Old Truman Brewery on Brick lane.[17]
In November 2010 the college paid £5,000 compensation in a private settlement to a blind student, Tmara Senior, after legal action was taken against the school, for bullying by a teacher and other students in 2008. Tmara Senior and her husband Wayne, who is also blind said that they think it's important that what happened to Tmara shouldn't be "covered up" and "forgotten".[18]
