National College of Agricultural Engineering

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In February 1959, the Minister of Education of the United Kingdom announced to the House of Commons that a new National College devoted to agriculture was to be established to provide a national centre for the agricultural engineering industry which would also attract overseas students. The National College of Agricultural Engineering as it initially became known began at Silsoe in Bedfordshire, England.

In September 1962, the first cohort of 20 undergraduate students began their studies at Boreham House near Chelmsford in Essex. In 1964 the first 15 postgraduate students joined from nine countries.

[edit] Merger

The Department of Education and Science, the Department for Education and Skills as it is currently, decided that the college should merge with a larger organisation and in December 1975 decided that it should become a part of the then Cranfield Institute of Technology, now Cranfield University. At the time there were 122 undergraduates and 100 postgraduates. The name was changed to Silsoe College in 1983^[1]. Shuttleworth College joined in 1988 with the Shuttleworth programmes being relocated to Silsoe in 1996. In 2005, it was announced that academic activities would move to the Cranfield main campus. This should be completed by mid-2008 and the Silsoe site sold for redevelopment.