Suffolk College goes digital

AMBITIOUS Suffolk College has taken a step forward into the digital age.The college has long-held dreams of full university status and was linked with moves by the University of East Anglia to establish a campus at the Ipswich waterfront.

AMBITIOUS Suffolk College has taken a step forward into the digital age.

The college has long-held dreams of full university status and was linked with moves by the University of East Anglia to establish a campus at the Ipswich waterfront.

Now the development of higher education at the Rope Walk site has received a massive boost with the launch of the Suffolk Institute of Technology.

Professor Richard Nicol, of BT Exact Technologies and Suffolk Development Agency, said the institute would bring Ipswich to the forefront of European technology.

He said: "The SIT will support the further development of IP City and provide the training backbone necessary to support our shared ambition for this region to become the leading area for ICT development in Europe."

SIT will be one of just 18 technology institutes across the country and Suffolk College hopes it will benefit the local economy as well as the students.

Courses will include telecommunications, multi-media, computing, digital art and the business skills that go with them.

In welcoming the launch, SIT executive director Peter Funnell said the key element of the SIT would be spreading resources into Suffolk's business community.

But the Suffolk technology institute will also have a particular Suffolk flavour.

While it will link into the IP City and Haven Gateway Partnership projects, it will also reflect rural issues.

A college spokesman said: "It will focus on the key ICT sector, but do so with an understanding of the rural nature of the eastern region and the development needs of the rural economy."

Suffolk College hopes to recruit 700 students over the next three years. And college officials believe the boost in numbers and the new SIT will pump £4.5million in the local economy.