College Students Celebrate First Class Degrees

Higher education students on Walsall College’s Level 6 BA Photography and Graphic Design courses are celebrating after graduating with first class honours degrees!

The college, which has offered a range of Access to HE, HNC and HND courses for a number of years, started offering full degree level courses, in Fashion, Photography and Graphic Design for the first time in its history in 2014, after forming a partnership with Birmingham City University (BCU). Business and Computing programmes were introduced 2015.

Emma Richards and Fruzsina Schreck (Photography) and Kyle Marlow (Graphic Design) completed their respective courses with outstanding results, as they all received firsts.

Graduate Fruzsina Schreck said: “It’s been a lot of hard work but it’s all been worth it. I’m now working as a product photographer for a mobile phone company and really enjoying it.”

For fellow graduate Emma Richards, completing this course has given her the confidence to establish herself as a freelance photographer and also pursue a career in teaching the subject. She said: “I really enjoyed the course and the tutors were always very supportive and passionate about photography, which inspired my career choices.”

For Graphic Design graduate, Kyle Marlow, getting a degree is the first step towards starting a new career. He said: “Since leaving school I’ve done various odd jobs but I wanted a career and have always been interested in this subject. I enrolled at Walsall College as it local and it is was more affordable than going to university.”

Boasting a HE success rate of 97% and a commendation from the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) for Higher Education, the equivalent of Ofsted, Walsall College became one of the first colleges in the region to offer degree level courses, enabling students to achieve a full degree at a fraction of the cost of going to university.

With lower costs than university, high success rates, one-to-one support and more course options, there has never been a better time to enrol on a university level course at Walsall College and pursue a career.