K College was formed in April 2010 by the merger of South Kent College with West Kent College. The college had campuses in Ashford, Dover, Folkestone, Tonbridge and Royal Tunbridge Wells and at one point had more than 25,000 students., when the decision was taken to split it, the college had approximately 15,000 students and more than 1,100 staff. The college sustained a large amount of debt, after which the principal, Bill Fearon, and some members of the Board of Governors resigned, and the Skills Funding Agency recommended it be sold. The college received an "inadequate" grading by Ofsted in December 2013, and from 1 August 2014 it was again split into two units:
Hadlow College Group formally acquired K College Group; it took over the Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells campuses as West Kent College and Ashford campus as Ashford College.
East Kent College took over Folkestone and Dover.
In July 2014 prior to Hadlow College managing the Ashford, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells campuses, K College announced that there would be up to 127 redundancies of those not transferred under TUPE to East Kent College. However, East Kent College expanded offerings and recruited additional staff for the Folkestone and Dover campuses after the takeover.
Courses
K College offered Higher Education courses in conjunction with the College’s partner universities: Canterbury Christ Church University, University of Greenwich and University of Kent. The main campus in Tonbridge taught a large number of A-level and vocational courses including apprenticeships. It also ran teacher training courses, including additional teaching courses on deaf issues and dyslexia, and TUC courses and had a Professional Development Centre. The college also ran a construction-orientated teaching centre based at the Construction Crafts & Engineering Centre on North Farm Industrial Estate in Tunbridge Wells.
The West Kent College Student Association was rebranded as K College Student Union. The main rebrand involved developing a new logo, changing its name and initiating a consultation on its constitution. It consisted of a President, Vice-President, Communications Officer and six Union Officers. These have since split apart to cover each separate 'chain', but retain a similar democratic structure.
