Facilities Available at CI
We are continually working to improve our resources to help you with your studies. There are a number of resources available at both our Colchester and Braintree sites, and these are open to all students. We’re incredibly proud of the strong sense of community among staff and students that exists across the College, with over 4,000 students studying at our main Colchester campus and many more based at our sister sites in Braintree and Harwich.
Our campuses have a fantastic range of facilities for you to enjoy – from places to relax where you can meet with friends, to dedicated study areas where you can get on with your work. There are on-site food and beverage facilities (see the Catering tab for more) so you can get a bite to eat at breakfast or lunch, and grab a coffee or cake between your classes. Our Higher Education Centre provides a great range of specialist facilities including well-equipped teaching spaces and private study areas.
There are excellent facilities for students including dance and drama studios, recording studios and two iMac suites running Logic, Reason, Sibelius and Soundtrack Pro. We also have a concert hall and practice rooms for bands and orchestras. Our in-house theatre in Swinburne Hall, isn’t just an ideal practice space for students of the dramatic arts – it’s also a great place to catch ground-breaking performances throughout the year.
We have a great reputation for sports and recreation at Colchester Institute and, when you see our sport and fitness facilities, you’ll understand why. With an on-site gym, and a wide range of competitive sports opportunities, you’ll find that it’s easy to stay active across our campuses.
Colchester Institute has an extensive modern computer network with over 1,000 computers available for student use. All students have their own personal accounts with Internet access and email. The network is equipped with up-to-date word processing, spreadsheet, database and graphics applications software.
In addition, some suites have specialist software available such as AutoCAD, Sage Accounting, QuarkXPress and Photoshop. There are a number of areas with high specification computers for e-learning. This type of learning is increasingly popular with students because it adds a new dimension to their course.
There are Libraries at Colchester and Braintree campuses offering a range of services. There are over 100,000 resources which include books, academic journals, DVDs, CDs, music scores and online information sources designed to support you with your studies. We also have a range of equipment for you to borrow to enhance your work, such as cameras, digital audio recorders, video cameras, microphones and CD players.
Please click an area below for more information.
Catering Facilities
Colchester Institute provides a wide range of catering facilities for students, staff and visitors.
Whether your looking to sit down with a hot meal for lunch or you have to shoot off to a class and have no time to sit down and eat, our refectories offer tasty food at even tastier prices. If your on the move, whatever you fancy, be it a Costa or Starbucks coffee, a sandwich, a bacon roll, salad-to-go, some chips, fruit or a bit of cheeky chocolate – you’ll find the treat for you.
There are a number of in-house options for food and drink, with refectories offering a selection of breakfast options, main meals, drinks and snacks. Students can choose between healthy meals cooked on the premises, sandwiches and grab-and-go options.
At our Colchester campus students can also eat food prepared and served by our catering students and there are even Costa Coffee shops on-campus. There are daily meal deals offered at each campus with choices of hot or cold options to help students to budget, and to fit in with the Free Meals at College daily allowance.
Colchester Campus has a fully equipped gym and sports halls on-site.
At the Colchester campus students are able to join the newly-equipped College gym, which features ultra-modern equipment including the latest cardiovascular machines, free weights and ‘Tanita’ scales which monitor and measure body composition. The suite of high-tech apparatus includes ergonomically designed non-motorised treadmills that give the athlete the experience of running at full speed and ‘smart’ fitness equipment with interactive consoles that store personalised training programmes and connect with personal devices. Click here to visit the Colchester Gym.
