International Christian College to Close

Friday February 21 2014

International Christian College (ICC) in Glasgow has announced that it is to wind down its operations over the next year and a half.

The ICC will accept no new students this summer, and says it will provide one final year of teaching for existing students or help them to transfer to other institutions. Most of the staff will be made redundant this summer, with a small number kept on to deliver the 2014-15 programme.

In a statement, ICC Principal Richard Tiplady said that the college had been struggling with falling student numbers since 2007, and that attempts to balance the finances - including cost cuts and selling its building - had been unsuccessful.

He said: "It would be unfair in these circumstances to allow new students to begin their studies with us if there were real doubts that the college might not be around long enough for them to complete them.

"In the light of this, the college’s Board of Directors consider that the right course of action is to cease our educational programmes and work on a managed transition or exit for our current students. We will move into a small suite of offices, classroom and library facilities for one final year of teaching."

The ICC was formed in 1998 from the merger of Glasgow Bible College and Northumbria Bible College, and occupied new premises near Glasgow city centre. Its website says it has over 180 students, representing more than 20 nationalities.

Mr Tiplady added: "We will also begin a process of reflection, listening, prayer and discernment before deciding how the college’s remaining financial and library assets should be used. We do not believe that this is the end of the college’s ministry, but that it may take a different form in future. In these deeply troubling circumstances and amid difficult decisions, we take comfort in the words of Jesus Christ, 'Very truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds' (John 12:24).

"None of us know what the future holds not only for our own lives, but also for the future of equipping people for Christian ministry in Scotland today. But although we don't understand how at the moment, ceasing our current educational programmes will, we trust, lead to new opportunities and new life in the future."

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Comments

Nick - Friday, February 21st, 2014

“So sorry to read this, but God willing, something good will come out of it.”

andrew fincke - Sunday, April 5th, 2020

“What were Ted Herbert's years as dean?”

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