BPP becomes a university
HIGHER education college BPP, which specialises in business and law degrees, is to become the first private provider to gain university college status in nearly three and a half decades.
Universities and skills minister David Willetts will today award BPP the university college title, three years after it was granted degree-awarding powers. The move is the first of its kind for a private education provider since Buckingham University College was awarded the same status in 1976.
Willetts said the move would promote competition in the university learning sector and make it more dynamic and flexible. “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,” he said.
Carl Lygo, the chief executive of BPP, said he wanted the college to be a “pioneer” in the educational field, encouraging students and employers to drive demand for their preferred method of study and training.
BPP was established in 1976 and now has 2,000 staff and 40 locations worldwide.
It was listed on the stock exchange ten years after launch and was bought up last year by US rival Apollo Global, which stumped up 620p per share for BPP, putting a price tag of around $600m (£388.7m) on the company.
In addition to offering specialist business and law degrees, including the chartered financial analyst (CFA) and graduate diploma in law (GDL) programmes, BPP also provides corporate training to around 140,000 working professionals each year.