Words and Phrases - "college"

SAE Education Ltd (SEL) was an English company which provided educational training in audio and digital media technologies and had established a relationship with Middlesex University (MU) whereby BA courses in Recording and Multimedia Arts were to be taught by "SAE Technology College" at specified campuses as "validated collaborative programs" of MU. Subsequent Memoranda of Co-operation ("MOC") eventually lead in 2007 to the validation by MU of three SAE programs comprising BA (Hons) degree courses in Applied Multimedia, Interactive Animation and Games Programming. By the 2009 MOC, students enrolled on the validated courses were to be "considered members of [MU]" but were not entitled to receive university student ID cards and access to university facilities and resources was very limited.

Before going on to find that SEL did not qualify as a “college…of…a university” for UK VAT purposes, Patten LJ stated (at paras 64-65):

The word "college" … denotes a group of people organised as an institution usually (but not necessarily) in the field of education. The use by SAE Institute of the word "college" to describe its Littlemore campus could not therefore be said to be a misuse of language, but whether it can properly be described as a college of MU is a different question which cannot in my view be answered simply by reference to a document under which the University agreed that SEL should be called an "associate college" of MU or the fact that for a long time the two bodies have collaborated in the delivery of a limited range of degree courses leading to an MU qualification.

The test is whether SEL (or SAE Institute) is or was part of the University in the constitutional or structural sense… . That test is not satisfied in this case… .