After graduating UCB in 1978, Mike Coombs and Mike Butler kept in touch via yearly Christmas cards. Last year, they managed to track down two more ex-classmates over the internet 鈥� over five decades since they all first started their Higher National Diplomas in 1975. The four graduates returned to Birmingham for a tour of the University and were bowled over by their alma mater鈥檚 transformation.
Now close to retirement, alumni Mike Coombs, Mike Butler, Simon Willson and Graham Read went on to rich and varied careers in catering and business after graduating what was known as 鈥楤irmingham College of Food and the Domestic Arts鈥� in the late seventies.
鈥淚t was a pleasure to revisit the scene of so many fond memories,鈥� said Mike Coombs, now Catering Manager at Liverpool College Boarding School.
UCB has expanded its facilities almost beyond recognition since the ex-students graduated, incorporating Richmond House in 2001 and building state-of-the-art campus facility McIntyre House in 2014, with plans for a further site, Moss House in the Jewellery Quarter, well underway.
However, some features of the tour still bought a pang of nostalgia 鈥� like Summer Row鈥檚 5th floor Library, which was a student bar in the late seventies and a favourite haunt for the four alumni.聽
鈥淲e would love to get in touch with other ex-students from our days in the 5th floor bar,鈥� added Mike. 鈥淲e are four of just five in our old class at college, and it would be great to track down our final classmate. It has been great for the rest of us really 鈥榦ld boys鈥� to have such an informative tour.鈥澛�
