SAE – Court of Appeal of England and Wales broadly defines “college”

The ETA definition of a “university” includes a “college affiliated with” a qualifying university. Patten LJ defined the word “college” broadly as “a group of people organised as an institution usually (but not necessarily) in the field of education,” before going on to find that a corporation providing training in audio and digital media technologies and whose students in courses validated by Middlesex University were considered by MU to be members of MU nonetheless did not qualify as a college “of” MU, as required by the UK VAT legislation.

Neal Armstrong. Summary of SAE Education Ltd v. Revenue and Customs Commissioners, [2017] EWCA Civ 1116 under ETA s. 123(1) – university.