Derby College Reviews 

Where to start?
I began teaching at Derby college on September 25th 2023, the exact time my students started. Their course was two weeks late starting as the management had changed their days and hours from all day Monday to Monday and Tuesday evenings. The tutor due to teach them had walked out. They were all wandering around on their first evening not knowing where to go.
Most had no kits for between 6 and 8 weeks, delaying their learning. The suppliers told them it was because the college hadn't paid the bill for them.
I needed a college laptop to access learning materials and to submit my hours for payment. I finally received my laptop at the end of November. I tried to submit my hours but a security setting meant I couldn't do it. On December 5th the manager assured me he had submitted them for me, cut off was the 7th. It wasn't done, and HR told me it was done on the 20th. As a result of this incompetence, I didn't get paid until the second week in January, three and a half months after starting working there. I was also offered extra pay for work done at home and this has now been denied.
Never in my life have I experience such disorganisation. Upon starting I was told I had one course to do 'Safeguarding', this I completed once I had my laptop and access to the college Internet. At a meeting with the advanced practitioner on 19th December, he told me I had 6 more to do and they were to be done by 9th January. Rather than give me them to do over the three months, he wanted them doing throughout Christmas and New Year. HR told me that I didn't need to wait for my laptop, they could have signed me in to do them at any time. When I noticed I hadn't been paid on 22nd December, this was the 'final straw'and I submitted my resignation.

The communication with the Student Support Fund is absolutely appalling, I submitted so far 2 lots of bus tickets so I am able to received refunds. I simply ask if they could give me an acknowledgement that they have got these & also if they could tell me when I will be receiving the refund. I have heard nothing, their customer service is just the worse I have ever come across.

I work for the NHS dealing with patients who are our customers, I would never dream of not replying to their e-mails or if they leave a voicemail message they would be guaranteed a call back.

Very disappointing.

I joined DC with academic aspirations. A few months after I'd joined, deciding I wanted to be a teacher. So applied for Teacher Training through the College. I was told that i couldn't because part of my Contract (of which was NEVER mentioned at the interview) meant I was an Apprentice!! ( at the time I was 55!!!) I'd heard the Govt. pay Colleges extra for employing apprentices. Needless to say i left asap. In my short time, I met some outstanding teachers and staff. Sadly whom were let down by disgraceful management. Too tribal. Non unifying. Insecure. Who do not like to be in a room or conversation with anyone with an outside opinion. If so, they get 'steamrolled'. Every morning the pool ball smashes into the balls and No-one knows what will happen. No structure. No strategy. Whilst this is the case DC will remain the same. Lazy, arrogant, mismanaged, inefficient, and a financial drain. I found this message from management to staff. During Covid crisis.
" Sarah
Morning all All sites are closed today. I will update you all after 3pm on tomorrow. Please let as many people as possible know. I’m stuck at my parent’s with no work phone and no access to emails "
Someone please explain how that makes any sense.
DC needs investigating and a complete overview
NB

This is an awful college. The poorly run Level 2 Business Administration course was a scam. An online course with parts that didn't work on Android meant a poor and incomplete delivery of course material. The material was out of date with no virtual assistant sections making it irrelevant today. The marking was poor I over answered questions and was told I did it wrong, I under answered what is an email with a communication media using the internet for personal and non personal uses, can attach documents but is not always secure - that was incomplete. I answered all the questions courses, no quality assurance and not properly set up. It's a scam to get you to fail so they can charge you £100for non completion...not worth it, don't bother

Attended here for both my college course and higher national diploma.

During my college years I had a below average experience. Within the first semester this college managed to lose an entire class load of work due to a teacher pulling out. We had to resit the entire module and was given the technician to teach us. Their disorganisation didn’t stop there and was a common theme throughout. Multiple teachers pulled out on us during my time there which put strain on the other lecturers. Teaching really did depend on who you was given as a teacher. The campus it’s self at the time was new meaning we had access to a library, computers , iPads and cafeterias. However the food was expensive and lacking. There was hardly any support for me travelling on public transport as I was just outside the catchment area. We did do some good trips but I wouldn’t say for me personally that they were helpful for my advancing career. Most of the course expected you to go out and find work experience so don’t rely on their help. I would recommend the college courses if you want an average experience.

However I would stay FAR away from this place for their higher education courses. Firstly they do not have the space or facilities to support a university level course. We were often crammed into a room that three classes needed to share. We didn’t have free access to the computers when needed. If you took your own laptop you was often fighting for a plug space to charge. The library lacked the books we do crucially needed to make a bibliography. I often found that I couldn’t use the resources that were linked to the university. Plus I’m whole honesty to say we were affiliated with the university I never felt like we existed in their eyes. I had numerous issues with my ID at both the college and university. There was no support if you needed to use the university’s facilities. You had to travel and pay to park there. The car park at the college is just as awful, numerous times I could not park. Trips were badly arranged with a few organised on assignment hand in days. I knew a few people that had issues with dissertation support. Some of the staff didn’t know how to teach a particular subject on the syllabus so teaching was poor. Lastly I experienced bullying by staff that really pulled my mental health down. This college does not offer any support for those that need it and would rather punish you if you fall behind because of mental health. They do not support you if you have an issue. AVOID and go to a proper university not this poor excuse of a “6th form” HND course.

Joseph Wright A levels - poor experience. If you have your GCSEs apart from either maths or English Derby won't give you the chance to do A levels considering the stressful time students have had with Covid, they make no allowance for mitigating circumstances. Other colleges ,Bilborough have given people a chance this year, they understand the impact that Covid has had on students learning, their health and well-being, Derby do not appear to get this and this year would not allow students to do A levels without both maths and English. T levels not good this year, could only offer GCSE retakes.

Wouldn’t recommend it, I had many problems with this college.
Problems I had:
if you suffer from anxiety or learning issues, you’ll just be push under the mat, a lot of the students felt like a number
Rude staff, in equine if your new to horses, they will put you in the deep end. A lot of new equestrians left this college, because how the staff judged them, or how dangerous the horses were.
Most of the women in equine are very catty and two face.
Please think before you go to this college, as I use to dread going there.

Great college. I did an engineering course at Derby College and it was the best thing I did. I'm now in employment with a very reputable company and I'm pleased that the College helped me get there.

Shocking treatment by Marie Banks of their so called 'safeguarding' dept. She doesn't care, not about all pupils if my daughter's treatment today is anything to go by. All pupils should be treated equally, she clearly has no idea how to do that. Complaint to follow as we have to adhere to their 'system', going all the way with this - no one should have to deal with such incompetance and disregard.

I started a NVQ level 2 in plumbing in 2018 I completed and passed all my exams and practical. Then covid struck so unfortunately I was laid off so it had to pick up some work sub contracting to make ends meets. I didn’t think this would be a issue but even though I completed all that was asked of me on the course with nothing left to do they refused to give me my certificate as they couldn’t claim any more from the government. The college system is just a money making scheme and to be honest I’m not sure there even very good at that either. If your starting a apprenticeship in plumbing go to Smart Gas in Ashbourne there in another league !

My daughter attended here doing A levels in English and Spanish, from application process to finish it was SUPERB. She is a academically capable but as a wheelchair user with numerous chronic conditions she was so poorly that previously she was studying for limited number of GCSES entirely from home with a hospital tutor. Derby college could not have been more accommodating or helpful, she grew in confidence advancing her skills in many ways while studying there. For example she had one to one tuition to help her, we could park in the staff car park in order to get her into the building independently and with ease in her wheelchair, classrooms were swapped to ensure adequate space for chair, her PA was awesome and as a result of this and SO much more she came out with two A levels at grade B and is now studying for a degree. I cannot praise this college enough and would ( and do) recommend this institution highly.

Would certainly not recommend this college , The staff are very incompetent ,arrogant & patronising to say the least .If you have any form of disability or learning difficultly the help is non-existent they only know how to level teach at one level diversity is a word that is not well understood in any context and as for common sense I've seen more in a 5 year old ! You ask questions about how courses are set & graded they havent got clue and there teaching it, this is information that should be given to students from day one to give them more understand regarding there final grades . If you question things they get nasty with you so ,so un-professional indeed! Where's the old school teaching gone where students actually gained confidence ..................!And the fact the college has not responded to feedback in 12 mths speaks for its self sadly we live in a couldnt give a damn society now and our taxes are funding it !

Derby College well what can I say, APPALLING from start to finish. Not overly competent with disabled students, using staff members that are well below of average. Trying to disadvantage me and my disabilities and certainly didn't have a clue of the health issues that I was experiencing and how they effect me. Overall I felt like I had to drag myself threw the last year. Would not recommend this place to any student regardless of mobility.

Having sent quite a few Trainees to this Colledge over the Past 15 Years they all come back saying how bad it is and 95 % struggled to pass without allot of external Help,Shocking miss management on all levels ,Teachers not turning up for Exams ,rooms not available for pre booked exams,computer problems etc etc,We even had to pull one off a course last year as they forgot to arrange a resit of one of the exams after the teacher called in sick,When you call nobody knows whats going on and when you challenge them they blame everything on the student,All our Students go to another college now,How Ofsted have not shut them down who knows,

Do not send you children here!! Lack of support and care for vunrable children who need it most 14 year old did pre 16 corse and got kicked out because I got stabbed! It’s a joke they only care about making themselves look better and their money. Had a virtual meeting (because of covid) and they were sat there trying not to laugh after almost having my life taken.and then tried to blame it on me with “why didn’t you tell a teacher” as if I knew I was going to get stabbed 🙄and they also let the attacker get to me for a second time instead of keeping all eyes on her and keeping ME their student safe I had to have major surgery on my liver kidney and bowel my mum and social worker tried to contact them before it happened as I knew ONE girl was after me. No answer and if they’d answered my mum who saw the crowds of people approach college maybe this could have all been prevented. So many people were aware of what was going to happen and many people where outside which would have rose suspicion to the college. But it seems with the lack of security they just don’t care who gets inside there buildings and harms there pupils. many girls who aren’t even pupils got in the building many students could have been hurt and I was. And they didn’t care at all they just see me as another number and because it’s going to be a little harder to work with me after the trauma there not interested because at the end of the day there bank balance stays the same weather I’m there or not just one less problem for them.
They really said if they’d known I was Vulnerable and had issues before they wouldn’t have even given me the place.
Which I think is a pathetic excuse I had some troubles at school yes but people change and grow up from there past I’m autistic and sometimes I say bad things without thinking it could ever be taken badly. But if your not in school your most likely misbehaved and can’t get along in that environment or you got bullied there what I feel like are the 2 main reasons for being out of school and people who have been bullied can be vulnerable and people who have behaviour problems need support and that little bit more help and if you shut them down and kick them out for being l Vulnerable then don’t open a pre16 corse if ur too much up your own backside to care now what do I do education ? Can’t go to a school can’t go to a college and now my future is jeopardised because I got stabbed? Like it’s my fault this college is pathetic and ignorant and they’ll lie there way through anything to make sure they don’t look bad and should take accountability for there mistakes instead of blaming the victim! When I first joined I was really happy in college education was good. I was enjoying my time there. Until I noticed things weren’t handled in the correct way they where handled there way which is cover up the situation and get rid of the students as if nothing happened. May I add in a email which was sent to my mum they said “we are aware the injury’s were not life threatening” which I find ignorant weather they were or not it makes no difference I still got harmed on there premises FYI derby college there WERE life threatening and you’d know that if you actually cared and investigated properly.

Awful experiences 6 months of trying to apply, server issue all the time. Got blocked from starting right on enrolment for the most ludicrous reason... because they needed 'additional information' which was just the usually application stuff, copy of a letter which they already had. ( I took anything they would need in person on induction day where they said they didn't need anything from me).

Wouldn't let me send this letter by email only through their server which kept crashing.
I kept sending screenshots of the crash error page yet they insisted it works fine.
Still wouldn't let me send by email even though they had asked for other things by email.
Three times I asked why I can't I simply email it to you? Never got an answer just we'll get back to you one time....course had already started at this point...kept telling them it's stressing me out and I suffer with anxiety.
They just kept insisting I do the same thing over and over expecting a different result (which is literally Einstein's definition of insanity).
I gave up and cancelled shocking shower of you know what....fire in a mad house. I was gutted. Didn't get confirmation of cancellation I requested either.

Never been treated so poorly by any business and this would have been the most expensive purchase I had ever made, pure and simple idiocy.

This college is now in a massive decline staff expected to work on good will but the staff are treated really badly the college is now just a cash cow for the upper management people on the ground are barely earning living wage estates department run on skeleton staff with no control supervisors and estates management that are there for the ride, policies and protocols completely ignored and used to protect management at all times mental well being completely ignored, distressed and stressed staff having to take time off with no support at all when returning , YES things are in place but it is all for show if you are offered a job my advise would be to look elsewhere THIS IS NOT A GREAT PLACE TO WORK management and HR department should be embarrassed.

I work part time at the local hospital and in order to improve my career prospects I applied for their adult apprenticeship programme which was based in the hospital itself.

This would have actually paid me three grand more in terms of salary and given me much needed skills such as audio typing and medical terminology which would have been an extension of the role I was currently doing.

This was open to all staff who needed some experience relating to the apprenticeship which working in the hospital I did have.
Imagine my shock then when I didn't get accepted. They are a joke and their apprenticeship programme is a complete and utter farce. I am almost glad I didn't get on now because if that is the quality of the programme, it clearly isn't worth much. When I asked for feedback, they couldn't even provide anything viable.

I decided to just get the extra training and skills I wanted by myself through good old fashioned hard work. I would award them minus five if I could. Call themselves a college? I am disgusted and they should at least have the courage to admit that they are complete liars when say they need certain requirements to even be accepted when clearly this is not the case.