I do love Belfast Met, or BIFHE as it once was, really. It offers vocational NVQs and City and Guilds courses in everything from hairdressing to engineering, a wide range of GCSE and A level courses including several non standard ones such as photography, and - the best bit imho - loads of community based courses all around the city. You can do a birdwatching or dog training course here, for example, as well as really off the wall 'college' stuff like flower arranging, ballroom dancing, boxercise or - ahem - wine appreciation. All at a reasonable cost, especially if you're on benefits - I enrolled on their A level law course for just a fiver while on the dole some years back.
But. Absolutely everyone I have spoken to, and I myself, has had problems with the admin side of the college and courses. I applied for a course a few years back after being told the wrong closing date, and was quite abruptly told the course was full and there was nothing they could do when I went to enquire. It was a vocational type course I wanted to do as a career change, so really did throw my plans for the next year into serious disarray.
A colleague's son has been told in the past week that the course he allegedly was accepted on is now over-subscribed - it's a full time course and he's already quit his job and given notice on his flat to move closer to the college. And I've heard several nightmare stories from students who manage to get onto a course only to find themselves given the wrong starting date, or unable to use the slow and/or crashing computers, or not informed of exam dates. The quality of teaching is generally thought to be fine, but for a newly updated and major college BMC really needs to take a more professional approach. read more