A former Principal of Uxbridge College joined his current day counterpart as he celebrated his 75th birthday - and said he was impressed to see the progress made.

Tim Hannagan, who was Principal from 1984-1995, and his wife Yvonne came back to see how things had changed since he left.

They toured both campuses, and were shown plans for improvements, including the replacement sports hall.

When Dr Hannagan joined the College in 1984, there was an emphasis on engineering and he introduced a number of new subject areas including catering, hairdressing, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), travel & tourism, drama, dance, and courses for people with learning difficulties. He also introduced Uxbridge College's logo and its signature shade of blue, which have both been used ever since in College signage and publications.

Dr Hannagan set up Uxbridge College Nursery and launched a learning centre with computers - the forerunner to today's Learning Resource Centres.

During his time in post, Uxbridge College took over and refurbished Townfield School to form the Hayes Community Campus, the College was incorporated, and links with local communities strengthened.

Dr Hannagan said: "I really enjoyed my visit to Uxbridge College - and it's terrific to see everything panning out in the way I wanted it to. Revisiting the College brought back many memories.

"I am very impressed with the progress made and it was wonderful to see building developments which were well out of our reach in the nineties put into place.

"The developments have changed buildings which were clearly in need of considerable updating into an educational institution of which you can be very proud.

"To put this into some perspective, there was a time we discussed putting our first lift into the Uxbridge Campus and decided we could not afford it.

"It was also very interesting to observe that many of the educational initiatives in which I had been involved have developed and flourished, and the excellent use of the Hayes Community Campus.

"The acquisition of Hayes in 1988/89 made a considerable expansion of student numbers possible, and changes to funding also encouraged us to expand.

"One of the major developments since that time has obviously been the introduction of new technology. There are now computers everywhere!"

Dr Hannagan continues to take an interest in Further Education through the Journal of Further and Higher Education where he has served on its Advisory Board as the main FE specialist, and as a Visiting Research Fellow of the Open University Business School. He has also written books on management and statistics.

He and his wife live in Chalfont St Giles and their hobbies include playing golf and foreign travel.