Latest environmentally sustainable technology unveiled at new £37.5m college

21.10.09 Latest environmentally sustainable technology unveiled at new £37.5m college HRH The Princess Royal is officially opening the new Highbury College Campus in Portsmouth this tomorrow after an impressive £37.5million rebuild. The college has been ranked top for student success in Hampshire by the Learning and Skills Council. The new facility, billed as the flagship college for the south coast, benefits from the latest environmentally sustainable technology including; • installation of the largest ground source heat pump in the country • ambient temperature and lighting that adjusts to each room • solar cells producing 13,600kWh of energy annually • new desktops PCs which use half the power of old ones. Highbury, known for its popular vocational courses, also boasts a cutting edge art hairdressing and beauty salon set across two floors, an impressive, modern automotive department, up-to-date media and journalism facilities including radio and TV studios and new sports facilities with sprung, full-size sports hall and gym equipment. For more information on the building and opening of Highbury College’s new Campus, the ground-breaking environmentally-friendly technology used, Princess Anne’s visit or to take a look around the college please call Debbie Osborne on 0845 345 6969 or Louise Oakley on 02392 32888. ENDS Word Count: 164 Highbury College celebrates its 45th anniversary in 2010. Here are 45 celebratory facts on Highbury that you may not know! 1. Highbury is the overall top performing general further education college in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. 2. Highbury is rated in the top 10% of general further education colleges in the country due to student success. 3. More than 500,000 students have graduated from Highbury since 1963. 4. The new Highbury redevelopments cost £57million. 5. In 2001 Highbury’s Stella Mbubaegbu became the first black female college Principal in the country. 6. Highbury is the largest college in Portsmouth. 7. Highbury fast-track journalism course is rated top by the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). 8. The College employs 675 staff: 265 lecturing staff and 410 support staff. 9. Highbury was judged to be ‘outstanding’ in its approach to educational and social inclusion in the 2007 Ofsted inspection. 10. The sustainable technologies used at the new Highbury Campus will reduce the College’s carbon footprint by over 25%. 11. Highbury’s ‘Back on Track’ project, helping young people with mental health issues, has been launched as a national programme by the Learning and Skills Council. 12. Highbury has two nationally awarded Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVE); Gas Installation & Maintenance and Business, Accounting & Financial Services. 13. Stella Mbubaegbu, Principal and Chief Executive of Highbury, has been awarded a CBE by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, for her services to Further Education. 14. Former Highbury students include TV journalists Mark Austin, John Pienaar and Janine Jansen. 15. Guests of Highbury College include former US President Bill Clinton, former UK Prime Minister John Major and HRH Queen Elizabeth II. 16. In 1997 Highbury’s Travel Centre offered customers return tickets to the moon. 17. Solar cells at the new campus can generate13,600kWh of energy per year, saving an equivalent of 8,000kg of CO2 equivalent to 500,000 party balloons. 18. The community sports centre in Cosham is a Centre of Excellence for Badminton England. 19. Highbury’s new PCs save over 30 tonnes of CO2 a year. 20. In 1967 Portsmouth’s first colour television was installed in Highbury’s Electrical Engineering Department 21. In 2008 Highbury hosted one of the largest teacher training conferences in the South of England. John Stone, Chief Executive of the Learning and Skills Network and Dr. Cheryl Jones, Government Inspector of Education and Training were in attendance. 22. The new Campus has a purpose-built flat to help Independent Living and Work Skills students achieve greater independence and confidence. 23. Highbury’s theatre has 160 seats, which slide back and fold flat with the push of a button - giving a complete floor space. 24. In 1978 Highbury took part in the early testing of commercial microwave ovens. 25. The Highbury City of Portsmouth Centre has three student-run commercial eateries including Chimes Fine Dining, an 80-seater training restaurant. 26. Highbury’s three libraries enables students to access over 55,000 books, 300 magazines as well as videos, DVDs and CD Roms. 27. Highbury is working with Lagos State Polytechnic to established a Vocational Skills Village in Nigeria. 28. The entire top floor of ‘The Tower’ at the Campus once housed a giant computer. 29. Glass windows at the Campus are fitted with special blinds that reduce solar glare but still allow sufficient ventilation of the building. 30. Highbury Northarbour was the first college in the country to have its interior designed by staff rather than architects. 31. In 1964 Highbury became the first college in the South East to have its own language laboratory. 32. The Eco Dry hand dryers installed at the new campus perform efficiently using just 1–1.4kW of power, ensuring low annual running costs of around £8. 33. Highbury is home to Express FM, the community radio station broadcasting throughout South East Hampshire on 93.7FM. . 34. The Campus houses the largest geothermal or ground source heat pumps in the country. 35. Highbury has over 45 community venues for adult and family learners. 36. The college has a cutting edge High Definition TV Studio with digital editing facilities. 37. The glazed 'street' at the Campus includes a motorised brise soleil system, reducing solar gain during warmer seasons and allowing passive solar heating during the winter months 38. Highbury’s Art & Design studios face north, providing students with natural light whilst working. 39. Floors are covered in environmentally friendly marmoleum lino, made from sustainable materials. 40. Highbury City of Portsmouth Centre has eight industry-standard training kitchens with state-of-the-art catering equipment. 41. Classrooms at the new Campus are fitted with a PIR movement detection system, which saves energy as the lights and heating turn off when there is no one in the room. 42. The college’s Virtual Learning Environment, Moodle, enables students to interact easily with staff and access a wide variety of resources online. 43. Among the animals cared for by the College are a gecko called George and guinea pigs Bubble and Squeak. 44. Eden, Highbury’s industry standard hair and beauty salon is open to the public, offering everything from barbering to manicures. 45. In the 1970s the College’s Occult Society controversially organised a trip to Glastonbury for the Summer Solstice. Notes to editors: Highbury College Portsmouth • Highbury College Portsmouth is one of the largest vocational colleges in the south east of England and is now celebrating its 45th year of providing excellent education and practical training. • Highbury College has seen the completion of its £56.4 million programme of redevelopment across its five centres in the Portsmouth area, with the opening of the new Highbury Campus in September 2009. • The new campus is home to a range of vocational courses in areas including journalism, automotive engineering and music production and will include digital TV studios and newsrooms, motor vehicle workshops, hair and beauty salons, specialist computing suites, a sports hall and a theatre. • In addition to high-tech classroom technology, the extraordinary new campus, costing around £35 million, is supported by some of the latest green technologies. Solar panels have been installed on the roof of the building, providing 13,600kWh of electricity a year and saving eight tonnes of carbon emissions, equivalent to five Olympic swimming pools or ½ million party balloons. The development also uses one of the largest heat pump installations of its kind in the UK, with 60 boreholes dug 80 metres deep into the ground, allowing the College to use its waste heat more efficiently and reduce its carbon footprint by over 25 per cent.