Derby College Reviews 41

BROOMFIELD COLLEGE - I made a professional enquiry by email to the animal dept as I am finishing an accredited qualification in an animal complementary therapy which requires a portfolio of work. I enquired about the possibility of half an hours no-contact experience after I had seen they had an animal open day and so realised that the animals are not a no-go area to the public on the face of it. I received a very unprofessional 'no' with no attempt at an explanation or offers of alternative suggestions or even a good luck in your studies. If that is the level of professionalism, engagement and interest at Broomfield College I despair for students, parents and the animals. Obviously I could accept a 'no' but as a college dealing with students every day of the week, the interaction was extremely unprofessional. Needless to say I won't be taking my children to the Open Day or recommending Broomfield College as a place to study.

I am writing this review as the husband of a wife with disabilities. My wife who is autistic and suffers from cptsd and panic disorder wanted to take the massive step of going back to college to enrol on the upcycling course. So she did what was necessary to enrol and asked to speak to the inclusion and support team. Sharon or charon asked my wife to prove that she was autistic and had the disabilities stated. This straight away I found to be very derogatory and discriminatory. But it didn't stop there as my wife was only asking for myself as her carer to accompany her to the college not to partake just to support as after 22 years together im pretty sure I know when my wife is struggling in social circumstances, but the college disagreed and said it wasn't allowed due to safeguarding policies and that I would need an enhanced dbs which I can't get as an unpaid carer. I found this quite strange as if I had paid the college fee I can enrol on the course myself without any checks at all. Anyway after speaking to various people who never ever get back to you when they say they will they absolutely categorically denied my wife's request for a reasonable adjustments they were rude very discriminatory and confrontational this included sam Clarke and jenny rahman and finally a senior principal Mr Aaron Denton who after giving his final judgement shall we say still refused to furnish us with the policies he was referring too. Needles to say this has left my wife feeling extremely upset and targeted.

On the 21st of August my son attended his enrollment meeting.

He had worked very hard to make sure he was able to do the 3 courses, coming out with 8s and 9s, we were very proud of him.

He had put everything into his studies so he could do Geology, Georgraphy and Chemistry at Jospeh Wright College.

At the interview they told him they had pulled the Geology course the night before due to it not being financially viable. Geology was the main course he wanted to do. And that was it, no alternatives, you can't do it. The Geology teacher had only been informed the night before results day as well.

The day should have been one of celebration for his achievements and also getting on the course he had dreamed of. In the end it turned into panic and upset.

He has managed to get on at 6th form but is not able to study Geology now.

How on earth did the college not know until the night before results day? What a terrible way to treat students who have put all their hard work into achieving the best results possible.

We are also out of pocket by £65 as we purchased a monthly bus ticket with Arriva so he could get to college in September, which they will not refund.

2.5/5.

spent 3yrs here (Sep 2022-Jun 2025) @ the Roundhouse DCG.

Facilities are great: Costa Coffee, Starbucks & a restaurant in the Roundhouse. & a lot of courses to choose from across the whole DCG group. It’s also great how DCG has a lot of links to local companies & organisations that can get you an apprenticeship & work experiences.

However, some of the staff here seem like they don't like their job & are rude & cold to the brim, an example, my machining teacher gave me that ‘death stare’ when i greeted him, which isnt a big deal but it is disrespectful - he even shouted just at me for wearing headphones when the person behind me was wearing an earphone too & didn’t get told off, while we were studying.

1 teacher doesn't even teach at all in calculus & just sits there looking at us (no joke), writing stuff on the board or on his laptop, never talking nor explaining but he only helps when you approach him.

The management needs a lot of improvement, our timetables keep changing & sometimes we don't get emailed or get info in Microsoft Teams about room change or that no one will cover our lesson. Even sometimes the doors don't have a note saying you don't have a lesson today or any info.

There was even a time for 3 months that there was no 1 to cover us for 2 modules.

Some of the teachers made fun of me for asking for help or being unsure on a few subjects that i find very complex & challenging; sometimes trying to discourage me.

Aside from that, some of the few staff were helpful & friendly. Unfortunately, some good staff left early or was kicked out from what i heard.

In my experience here, a lot of the students were mental & what they were doing was crazy such as: d*ath threats to each other, sending n*des, full of beefing around, racial bullying (which i experienced a lot), quarrelling with some staff, destroying the toilets by ripping off sinks & wrecking the loos, etc in my field of study/department/campus that i think the staff needs to kick a few students out who keep doing the same thing over & over again delaying lessons & being a havoc. At least the bullying from many students was sorted out by the behaviour team however, some students need to be out completely because their attitude is absolutely appalling &/or repetitive. Of course this isn't the college's fault but the staff needs to be tougher & stricter, it's like they don't do anything to some of these students most of the time with strictness.

There were times i had to use self defence from multiple individuals at different times, which was successful & things settled down along with the involvement of the safeguarding & behavioural team. The worst was my 2nd yr & 1st yr. The college is safe only when you're being vigilant & doing your best to avoid those students who make problems & drama out of thin air. Because there were a few times when k*ives were brought into college, so the college had to check our bags. However, like i said, the college seem to not do anything else but keep them in college doing the same similar thing again & again; not kicking them out.

Also, the assignment briefs made by some of the teachers are not clear, because some tasks tell us to do this but when we do the work, we shouldn't do what some of what the assignment says which is strange. 1 example was the assignment told me to add images to my work relating to the info & my health & safety teacher literally got mad at me by making fun of me & humiliating me in front of the class loudly which i don't think is embarrassing to me but disgustingly disrespectful because i added a few images & diagrams relating to the info & he told me not to add images when the assignment brief says to add images & referencing, like WHATTT? At least he got humbled when i messaged him on MS Teams, he calmed down.

If you have any learning difficulties, I DO NOT recommend coming to Derby College for engineering, otherwise some of the teachers won't teach, or make fun of you, discourage you, or barely do anything.

Aside from some of the staff & many of my classmate's attitudes (which is not the college's fault), I got lots of good grades in most modules & did a good performance through my 3yrs for lvl 2 & BTEC lvl 3 in college (no flex), doing way way way better than back in secondary sch lvl 1 & 2. Though i think these issues in college are possible for improvement.

Of course no place is perfectly perfect, but this college has so much room for improvement. This is just my own experience here, i know others’ experiences are different & i heard the other blocks, campuses or departments are different.

honestly horrible !

let me break it down for people

- poor safe guarding
- multiple assaults
- no academic help from teachers
- i was kicked of my course and wasted 1year due to teachers not helping me in work and not showing you what work to do
- racist
- neglectful

What lessons are like:
Awful. Teachers don’t care. Each lessons are 1hr 40mins. The lessons are dull lessons and eachers show you a PowerPoint, ask you to copy into your notes, and then it’s your responsibility to actually learn about what you’ve copied down at home, most kids sit on phones. they don’t teach you - they just expect you to know it by next lesson. That’s not teaching, that’s shoving responsibility off on to the students. Disgusting college.
When you need help woutside of lesson, you have send a message to your teacher. They see your message, and then ignore it.

What a day in college looks like: and this is the reason attendance and exam results overall are so low. many people get one lesson first thing at 8:45-10:20am, then the only other lesson they have that day is at 3-4:30pm - what are you supposed to do for 5 hours. It’s not worth the 90 mins commute on the bus and the cost of transport. I have 5 college days, all were the same. Once a week, you have tutorial and it is the most pointless thing. A lot of people skipped this, more listening to a teacher read from a power point

I had such high hopes, but they were VERY quickly smashed. It’s very hard to make friends with the type of people who attend.I’m an academic person, but this college has drained that in me. I really could go on and give a list of reasons about why the is college is so poor. The head of A Levels, assistant head are appalling people.
There are better college providers with more interested teaching staff

Solid 4 stars for me for DCG. As an adult moving from a different country, I wanted to explore different learning opportunities, which Derby College helped me to achieve. The courses I took were online and in person, so I have something to compare. I can say one thing, all tutors are very professional and can deliver knowledge to adults as they were children. The tutor, who supported me throughout the online course, was particularly good, efficient at marking my assessments and kept me informed and supported all the way.

I have completed a number of remote courses with the college and always had outstanding help, guidance and reassurance. Couldn’t recommend them enough!

My daughter applied for childcare, on application we informed staff she had severe anxiety issues and had struggled with school attendance. No problem as they had a good pastoral support system. Sadly her attendance started to drop and she was kicked off the course. Despite me trying to speak to tutors to ask them to give her one last chance till end of term, no! They didn’t even speak to her, rang me at work and that was it. She’s now at a different college with loads of support and her attendance is so much better, she even went in on Friday despite feeling unwell. All she needed was some support which sadly Derby College promised but never delivered. It’s all very well having lovely buildings and I’m sure she would have thrived if she hadn’t got anxiety as she was enjoying her time there and liked her tutors. I understand that attendance is important but the way it was handled was not good and very upsetting.

Just completed a Mental Health Awareness course through work and going on to the next level.
Well worth the time, and the support is there (thanks Tina).

I was needed in college on my day off due to an incident the previous day, I told the head of my course that I have a Friday prayer to attend that I cannot miss and he told me college is more important and to not attend my Friday prayer. I took a lot of offence to this!

Excellent course content and prompt support when needed from Debbie W

This college is a waste of time. As a student I study a coarse and honestly it has been the worst 4 months ever. I have previously been to this college to study 2 other courses and they were bad by this just tops it off. I have been given 3 assignments which one I completed with no problem. Another one I completed and had feedback give on it about a month later and then I was that the improvements that I had to make should be handed in by the end of the following week. The teachers then decided on the Monday of that week she wanted it in by the end of that day when I still she 4 days to complete it just for her own benefit. The other assignment was handed to me on a subject of my course that I haven’t been even taught and then the teacher decided that’s she wanted to do an exam on this in 2 weeks time which I don’t not understand because I don’t even know what the unit is about because we haven’t been taught it. The teacher then decides that she feels ill bearing in mind she is on college premises. I get that ur not feeling very will but you can’t be that bad if you have decided to show up. So the teachers decided to send us to the library to an assignment that I don’t even know what to do on. Honestly what a waste of time. No wonder why the students don’t pass their courses because no teacher can be bothered to teach a lesson that there supposed to be “qualified” in.

Just completed an online course. My tutor (Tina) was absolutely brilliant. So lovely and helpful. The course was easy to access, very informative and I enjoyed the discussion on how different situations can affect you and your work place.

If you are thinking of applying for a job at this college, don’t bother because the HR Dept are unprofessional and will discriminate you on various grounds.
They offered me a job and all relevant paperwork was successfully submitted and accepted by HR and then two weeks before my start date they withdrew the offer.
A complete waste of time and because of their incompetence I lost out on two other job offers from other employers. Don’t waste your time here!

Do not send your kids here, or send yourself here. I cannot stress this enough, it may seem like the only option in Derby but it’s not, please find somewhere else.

What lessons are like:
Awful. Teachers don’t care, and are quick to judge. Each lesson is 100 minutes long, so it’s hard to keep your attention span for that long, especially with such dull lessons. Teachers show you a PowerPoint, ask you to copy into your notes, and then it’s your responsibility to actually learn about what you’ve copied down at home, they don’t teach you - they just expect you to know it by next lesson. That’s not teaching, that’s palming your own responsibility off on to the students. Disgraceful. Students end up teaching themselves what they’ve copied down, I had to spend hours doing it. When you need help with work outside of lesson, you would obviously send a message to your teacher. Only problem is, they see your message, and then leave you on read. Give your head a wobble.

What a day in college looks like:
Timetables are laughable, and are the main reason that the college’s attendance and exam results overall are so low. This is because many people get one lesson first thing at 8:45-10:20am, then the only other lesson they have that day is at 3-4:30pm - what on earth are we meant to do during those 5 hours free? You could go home, but who would want to come back for one lesson? It’s not worth the 2 hour commute on the bus. To add, once a week, you have tutorial (a bit like form time) and it is the most pointless thing. A lot of people skipped this.

Overall experience:
I really wish my experience was better here, I had such high hopes, but they were VERY quickly squashed. It’s very hard to make friends with the type of people who attend, it’s very hard to get a seat in the atrium/cafeteria due to so many groups hanging around the tables, it’s very hard to enjoy the whole process. I’m a very academic person, but this college has drained that in me. I really could go on and give a list of reasons about why the is college is so unbelievably appalling, but I’ve got a character limit, so this is a little insight.

Unless you’d like mental health issues caused by this college due to the mind numbing lessons and awful experiences, please reconsider your choice for tertiary education. JWC is so poor that by November in the first year, so many people have already dropped out.

Finally, the college shop is extortionate. £1.65 for a Snickers. There’s making a profit and then there’s that. Sort yourselves out.

Just completed a Mental Health course with Derby College. My tutor was Tina Evans.
Tina provided all the back up I needed when completing the course and was always on hand if i needed to ask any questions. Sign up was easy to do and Tina made me feel at ease with the whole process.
The course content was easy to use (this is the second course I have completed).

I was given excellent course content to study. Immediate and efficient support was given by my assessor Deborah Wray

I studied an online course with Derby College. Compared to another online learning provider this course was exceptionally good. Tutor was very helpful, the online e-assessor was easy to use. I found the course notes to be thorough and lots of links for further research. Very good highly recommended for online learning

My daughter was sexually assaulted by a boy in the same performing arts class, although the offence occurred off college grounds. She was brave enough to report the incident to the police and the boy admitted what he'd done, the boy was removed from college while the case was investigated. My daughter was subjected to name calling and even had false allegations made against her from another boy who admitted he'd made it up to the teacher and was told to keep quiet about it. The boy has this week been let back into the same class as my daughter, despite my daughter making it clear she is extremely uncomfortable about the situation. Her police liaison officer told her she's never known a college let a student back to the same college after being found guilty of a sexual assault. My daughter has had little support from anyone in safeguarding at the college, if anything they seem more concerned in welcoming the boy back, unbelievable!!!