Telford College has formed a ‘special relationship’ with one of the region’s leading universities.

The college is working closely with Keele University in Staffordshire in a move which it says will help to widen skills and education opportunities for local students.

Janet Stephens, Telford College’s deputy principal and chief executive, said: “Keele is world-renowned for its breadth of teaching and research, and has been ranked by students as Britain’s best university.

“We’re delighted to be working in close partnership with their team, which has already seen them visiting the Wellington campus to support our open events, freshers’ fairs and student awards.

“Just like Telford College, Keele believes in delivering a broad-based education in a dynamic environment where debate, discussion and learning happens within the classroom and beyond.

“We have a shared desire to educate the whole person, building their skills for life, as well as preparing them for the world of work.”

Professor Mark Ormerod, deputy vice-chancellor and provost of Keele University, said “We are really looking forwards to building a stronger partnership with the college.

“As a local, as well as national and global university, Keele University’s relationship and engagement with our local and regional communities is really important to us.

“Having good relationships and partnership working activity with colleges across the region is essential to our mission to provide accessible high quality relevant educational opportunities to people from all backgrounds from our local communities.

“We are really excited by the very positive discussions and engagement with the team at Telford College and the opportunities and value that closer partnership working and collaboration will bring to both organisations and to learners.”

Keele University has just been awarded the highest rating for the quality of its educational offer in an important national assessment of all higher education institutions in England.

It achieved an overall Gold rating in the Teaching Excellence Framework 2023 – maintaining the level it achieved in the previous exercise in 2017.