UCE Survivors

In June 7 years will have passed since I graduated from the University of Central England (AKA UCE.) UCE is not a venerable red brick institution of academia, instead a fusion of an old polytechnic with several previously independant schools of art, jewellery, music and nursing. There are 8 separate campuses spread across Birmingham, offering (mostly) vocationally focused education.

I didn’t have a great experience at UCE, I studied Marketing in the Business School in Perry Barr. The joke I heard before I joined was that you could get into courses with a U, C & E grade at A level. Perfect for me – as these were the grades I received in Chemistry, Biology & English in my first year at college – prompting me to try the equally comically named GNVQ (known as ‘generally not very quick’) in Business Studies. I later found out I could have attended UCE with no qualifications at all. Consequently my class and whole campus was a very mixed bag.

A lot of crazy times were had in and outside the class room, lots good and some very bad. I’m attempting to write up some of the notable events before I forget the details as I think it will make a good record of the culture at the time.

In the meantime I’ve started an online community for a bit of fun and to find out where my fellow UCE graduates have ended up in their careers and lives. I’ve called it UCE Survivors as (on my course at least) you had to have some grit to get anything out of it. I’ve kept in touch with plenty of my class mates and friends and the same attitude has allowed them to get ahead in the ‘real’ world – academic or not.

Now we can all laugh about UCE, I hope the community will show how far people have gone and we can share some stories, memories and many a business referral or two. First job is to get the group out there so all the survivors can get involved, and if it takes off I’ve got some great ideas to keep people interested. It could be big!