SWINDON College has come under fire from two mature students after frustrations with the teaching on their foundation degree course led them to leave mid-way through the year.

Sam Marion, 39, and Michelle Heaven, 30, both from Cirencester, applied for the Oxford Brookes accredited Business, Management and Communications degree from September 2014 to further their career prospects.

Told that Swindon College would offer a supportive learning environment, they opted to study at the North Star campus.

But such was their level of dissatisfaction that they left mid-way through the second year.

They are not the only two to do so either – a number of their course mates will not be returning to complete their BA year at Swindon College in September either.

Sam said: “It’s left a bad taste in their mouths and they’ve decided it isn’t worth it.”

Among the main concerns raised are staff shortages, failures to replace lecturers months after they left and then issues with the failure of new staff to deliver the material adequately.

“We would get an assignment brief but basically we were self-teaching because they just did not have the staff,” added Sam.

“We’re paying £6,000 a year to be there and we’re not getting anywhere near what we expect in return.”

Michelle added: “The curriculum manager left half way through our first year and they didn’t replace her until the next September.

“There was one day for example when there was a BA exam, a first year exam and we had to be taught as well – with one teacher.

“Even when new lecturers did turn up they just didn’t know what needed to be delivered, the first question one of them asked us was ‘does anyone know what IT means’ – this was in the second year of a degree course.”

Of the students that started the year, Michelle, Sam and one other moved to Abingdon and Witney College in February and three others are now in the process of transferring to the main Oxford Brookes campus in Oxford even though they live in Swindon.

At least two others have decided not to return to continue with their BA studies.

Since moving to Abingdon in February, Sam and Michelle say the improvement in teaching has been reflected in their academic performance.

Michelle said: “We were so far behind when we left Swindon, we were really panicking.

“But we’ve both ended up with a distinction – I started the year on 55 per cent and I’ve made the jump to 77 since coming here, that’s the difference between the two colleges.”

Nicola Boland, Higher Education Manager at Swindon College, said: “We acknowledge that during the first semester of the academic year there were some challenges in relation to staffing in this programme area.

“Swindon College worked with Oxford Brookes to put in place measures to ensure that students were fully supported in meeting the University's quality assurances and student experience expectations.

“Additional staff have since been in place, with remaining students having gone on to successfully achieve their Foundation Degree. Many are now progressing on to a Level 6 BA Honours programme.”