British and Irish Modern Music Institute


The British and Irish Modern Music Institute is a group of eight independent colleges with over 6,700 students that specialise in the provision of BIMM education in Brighton, Bristol, Dublin, Birmingham, Manchester, Berlin, Hamburg and London.
BIMM was founded in Brighton in 2001 as the Brighton Institute of Modern Music. BIMM Bristol opened in 2008. According to their website in 2010, BIMM Group acquired Tech Music School London and in 2011 BIMM Dublin opened and in 2013, the group opened BIMM Manchester in 2013 followed by BIMM Berlin in 2015 and BIMM Birmingham in 2017. The most recent college, BIMM Hamburg, opened in 2019.
In October 2014 the organisation was renamed the BIMM Institute, British and Irish Modern Music Institute. Tech Music School is now incorporated into BIMM London, based in Fulham.
In 2012 the Group became a full member of UCAS and the UK Colleges, Brighton, Bristol and London were successfully reviewed by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education. In 2016 BIMM Limited, Brighton, Bristol and Manchester were successfully reviewed for educational oversight by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education and were commended for the quality of student learning opportunities.
According to BIMM's website BIMM Degree programmes in London, Berlin, Hamburg, Brighton, Manchester, Bristol and Birmingham are validated by the University of Sussex Additionally, all level 3 Diploma provision is validated by Edexcel or Rockschool. BIMM Dublin courses are validated by Technological University Dublin.
The group's majority shareholder is Sovereign Capital, a mid-market private equity investor specialising in education, healthcare and support services.

History

BIMM was founded in 2001 by Damian Keyes, Kevin Nixon, Bruce Dickinson and Sarah Clayman. This team subsequently sold the group to Sovereign Capital in March 2010.
In 1983 Drumtech was founded by Francis Seriau, later becoming Tech Music School. In 2010, BIMM Group acquired Tech Music School London, and in 2014 Tech Music School changed their name to BIMM London.
In January 2012 Adam Carswell was appointed as Managing Director, to lead the management team of Vaseema Hamilton, Dara Kilkenny and Andrew Bates.
In mid 2012 the group appointed Tony Wadsworth CBE as a Non Executive Director.
In October 2012 the Group appointed Marketing Director, David O'Connor and in 2016 appointed a new Finance Director, David Jones-Owen.
According to their website in 2019 the Management team consist of Adam Carswell, David Jones-Owen, Julia Ruzicka, Bernard Yeboah, Dara Kilkenny, Vaseema Hamilton, Felice Ayling, David O'Connor and Andrew Bates.
BIMM Institute was granted Taught Degree Awarding Powers in the UK by an Order from the Privy Council on 14 March 2019, having demonstrated that it meets the criteria to become a ‘recognised body’ for awarding degrees in the UK. As such, BIMM Institute has overall responsibility for the academic standards and the quality of the qualifications they offer, and are able to award their own undergraduate and master's degrees.

Other Colleges

In 2017 BIMM Institute opened the Brighton Institute for Contemporary Theatre Training offering BA Performing Arts and a further education Diploma in Performing Arts. In 2019 BRICTT rebranded as Institute for Contemporary Theatre and announced they would be opening a second college based in Manchester.
2018 saw BIMM Institute partnering with the Brighton Film School, who offer Filmmaking degree and Diplomas. In 2019 they rebranded to Screen and Film School as well as announcing they would be opening in Manchester in 2020 alongside ICTheatre.
In 2019 Performers College became part of BIMM Institute. Based in Corringham, Essex, Performers College provide degree-level vocational training in dance and music theatre.

Course and accreditations

In 2019 BIMM introduced their latest course offerings across their UK Colleges. Launching in the 2019 academic year at BIMM London MA Popular Music Performance was introduced, and MA Learning and Teaching in Creative Industries was introduced at BIMM Brighton.
From 2020 their UK Colleges have introduced new degree courses, including Joint Honours options. Some new course offerings have also been introduced in their European Colleges.
Level 3 Diploma qualifications also continue to be offered across their colleges.

Notable BIMM alumni