A student is so keen to study at Bradford College that he makes a 400-mile round trip from London every week.

Nana Mborm is a mature student on the Higher National Certificate course in Metallurgy and Materials, a course which is only offered at about three colleges in the country.

Nana, 31, who lives in Tottenham, said: "I contacted the Institute of British Foundrymen and asked if they could recommend a course. It was also offered at Coventry but I was told Bradford was a very good college."

Nana, who wants to work with metals in a foundry when he graduates next year, travels from London on a Monday evening, stays in student halls overnight and spends Tuesday at lectures. But he still has to miss some time at college as he has to catch a train home.

"It takes me about two and a half hours each way," he said. "But I have to travel at certain times to make it cheaper."

He is determined to continue his course despite the long journey, which is usually beset with problems such as delayed trains and having to travel off-peak to keep the cost down.

But he said: "What I have learned at Bradford College makes the travelling worthwhile."

Nana has family and friends in London and works for a materials handling company the rest of the week. But he said he would be happy to move to Bradford if he could find a foundry job when he finished his course.

"Then I could help the community where I learned my skills. I have worked in a foundry before and I love working with metals."

Course lecturer Inwang Inwang said: "It's rather unusual. But Nana has to miss lessons sometimes because they officially finish at 8pm and come 6.30pm he has to rush out to catch a train to London."

Richard Brown, programme co-ordinator, said only seven students were registered on the course and it was very specialised. It involved looking at different types of materials as a whole such as metals, polymers and ceramics and studying their properties and content.

The college was the only one in the UK offering distance and flexible learning in the subject and they had had enquiries from as far away as Malaysia and Iraq.