Birmingham College of Food, Tourism and Creative Studies
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Birmingham College of Food, Tourism and Creative Studies or BCFTCS is a higher education college in Birmingham, England.
The college is located in central Birmingham and offers both vocational education and academic education (both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees). The college specialises in the areas of hospitality and the culinary arts, hairdressing and beauty, tourism, sports and leisure, and health and social care.
The college was originally founded as part of Birmingham's Municipal Technical School in the 19th century, but became a separate College of Bakery, Catering, Domestic Science and Associated Studies (later Birmingham College of Food and Domestic Arts) under the control of Birmingham City Council in 1957. It moved to its present site in Summer Row in 1968 and took on its current name in the 1980s to reflect the breadth of courses it now offered.
As part of a general re-organisation of further education in the United Kingdom, the college became independent of council control on April 1, 1993. Continued successful expansion led to the college being re-classified as part of the higher education sector from August 1, 2002. It awards degrees from the University of Birmingham.
Currently the college has 6500 students in total, around 10% of whom are from outside the United Kingdom. Its further education programmes were rated as outstanding by OFSTED in 2004 [1].