World Universities

Manchester Business School

2011-01-12T01:00:00.000-08:00

Manchester Business School (MBS) is the largest department of the University of Manchester in Manchester, England. According to the Financial Times 2010 Global MBA Rankings, its M.B.A programme was ranked 40th (and 31st in the three-year average ranking). As now constituted it includes departments from both the former Victoria University of Manchester's Faculty of Business Administration, and from UMIST.

History
The "new" Manchester Business School was formed in 2004 as a result of the merger of UMIST's Manchester School of Management, the Institute of Innovation Research (IoIR), the Victoria University of Manchester's School of Accounting and Finance, and the "old" Manchester Business School. Prior to merger the constituent parts of new MBS formed, from 1994, the "Manchester Federal School of Business and Management" and occupied nearby buildings either side of Oxford Road

The foundation of the School dates back to 1918 when the Manchester Municipal College of Technology (as UMIST was then called) pioneered academic training in management, with the formation of a Department of Industrial Administration funded by an endowment from asbestos magnate Sir Samuel Turner. The London School of Economics and Manchester Municipal College of Technology were the first higher education institutions in the UK to follow the US trend of offering postgraduate management programmes in the 1930s. The Department of Industrial Administration was heavily influenced by management science pioneer Charles Garonne Renold. The Robbins Report in the 1960s recommended that two national centres for postgraduate business education be created, and the Franks Report subsequently suggested that one would be in London centred around the University of London, and one in Manchester centred around the (Victoria) University and UMIST. As a consequence, Manchester was one of the first two business schools in the UK offering MBA degrees.

Organisation
The school comes under the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Manchester. As of 2008[update] with over 200 teaching staff it is the largest campus-based business school in the country, and has an international student composition as three quarters of its student body is from outside the UK.

Manchester offers Ph.D (full and part time); D.B.A - Doctor of Business Administration (executive part time); M.B.A - Master of Business Administration (full time, executive part time, and blended learning); several specialist masters programmes as well as undergraduate degrees. Entry requirements for undergraduate and postgraduate degrees are both highly competitive. For popular undergraduate courses such as Accounting and/or Finance there are just 70 places available for approximately 1600 applicants. As of 2006, a minimum work experience of 3 years and a good GMAT is required for admission to the MBA programs.

The 18 months full time MBA program is known for its "Manchester Method" which puts emphasis on learning by doing throughout the entire duration of the programme, including significant real life projects. In addition, the school offers the so-called "Manchester Gold" programme, a mentoring scheme to provide students with opportunities to meet regularly with professionals from a wide variety of sectors and industries. Last year's mentors, for example, came from high-profile companies such as Morgan Stanley, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Royal Dutch Shell Group, IBM Global Services and GlaxoSmithKline among many others.

Professor Michael Luger Ph.D MCP (UC Berkeley) MPA AB (Princeton) is the new Director since January 2007; he joined from the Kenan-Flagler Business School, part of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Accreditation and reputation
Among the bodies validating MBS programmes, the British Psychological Society validates its Organizational Psychology masters, and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development its HRM MA degree. Its MBA is one of a select band worldwide which receive triple accreditation by AACSB International, AMBA and EQUIS. It is also a program partner of the CFA Institute.

The school was recently ranked among the top 25 business schools in the world for the third time for its MBA program, and 1st in the world for its doctoral program (both Ph.D and D.B.A). It is placed 9th in Europe and 4th in the UK, while being 5th in the world for international business and 4th in Europe for percentage salary increase of its graduates.[citation needed] Regarding international experience, MBS is 11th in the world and 1st in the UK as well as is ranked in the world's top 10 for the career progress of its alumni.[citation needed] The average starting salary of Manchester's MBA graduates is US$111,774 - one of the highest of European business schools.

Other rankings, such as the most recent Forbes survey, which lists business schools on their "return on investment" via a survey of alumni salaries, put Manchester 2nd in the UK and 5th in the world. In the Which MBA? survey MBS reached the 5th place in the UK, 8th in Europe and 30th in the world. The MBA Career Guide of international MBA recruiters placed Manchester 2nd in the UK, 7th in Europe and 15th in the world. In the 2009 QS Global 200 Business Schools Report the school was ranked 14th in Europe.

Furthermore, Manchester was selected by UK Border Agency as part of the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme which gives MBA-graduates from the world's top 50 business schools extra qualification points and helps them meet visa requirements to work in the UK. The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) assessed the school's teaching quality with 24 out of 24 points.

Buildings
The older part of MBS, called "MBS West" is part of the University Precinct Centre complex on the southwest corner of Oxford Road and Booth Street West. The building houses lecture and conference suites and restaurant facilities including a 101-room hotel. It is also the home of the MBA programme. The complex was designed by Hugh Wilson and Lewis Womersley and dates from the 1970s. The newer part "MBS East" lies on the northeast corner of Oxford Road and Booth Street East. It was completed in 1997 at the time when the UMIST departments co-located to form the Federal School. The building cost £7m and was designed by London architects ORMS. MBS East currently houses undergraduate services and some of the Research Centres of MBS.

Manchester Accounting and Finance Group (MAFG) of MBS is located in Crawford House, which is situated opposite MBS East on the southwest corner of Oxford Road and Booth Street West and is linked via a pedestrian walkway. The Manchester Enterprise Centre, pioneer of the Master of Enterprise degree, is located in the Zochonis Building, Brunswick Street

Research profile
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In the previous 2001 Research Assessment Exercise (pre-merger) the 'old' Manchester Business School and Manchester School of Management were both rated 5. Manchester School of Accounting and Finance is one of only two accounting and finance schools in the UK rated as 6* by the RAE (i.e. with RAE 5* rating for two consecutive periods). According to a survey published by Accounting and Finance in 2008, MBS is ranked as the "world number one for accounting research".

Manchester has several research centres of international standing. These include those in the areas of decision sciences, employment and labour studies, technology management and innovation, and critical management studies. Among its Professors with World-ranked reputations are Professors Luke Georghiou, Ian Miles, Richard Nelson and Giovanni Dosi (Manchester Institute of Innovation Research), Professor Fang-Lee Cooke (Chinese Business and Employment), Professor Colin Talbot (Public Policy and Management), Professor John Hassard (Organization Studies), Professor Mick Marchington (HRM), Professor Jill Rubery FBA (Employment Studies), Professor Andrew Stark (Finance), and Professor Richard Whitley (Business Systems). Professor Karel Williams is currently co-heading a major new centre for the research of social change called CRESC.

International exchange programmes
Manchester has one of the world's largest international exchange programmes[citation needed], among others with renowned institutions such as New York University, Cornell University, Emory University, University of Chicago, University of California (all USA), Queen's University, McGill University, Schulich School of Business York University and University of Toronto (all Canada), SDA Bocconi (Italy), Helsinki School of Economics (Finland), HEC Paris (France), Copenhagen Business School (Denmark), Rotterdam School of Management (Netherlands), Stockholm School of Economics (Sweden), IE Business School (formerly Instituto de Empresa) (Spain), University of St. Gallen (Switzerland), National University of Singapore, International University of Japan, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, CEIBS (China), University of Otago (New Zealand) and the Universities of Sydney and Melbourne (both Australia).

Notable alumni
* Sudhir Agrawal – COO MEA & APAC, Aegis Limited
* Richard Anao, Chairman, Nigerian Accounting Standards Board
* Tony Bickford, Former Chairman, QAS
* Tom Bloxham, founder of influential regeneration firm Urban Splash; Chancellor of the University of Manchester
* Terence Burns, Baron Burns, Chairman of Abbey National plc and of Marks & Spencer
* Liam Byrne, Member of the British House of Commons and Minister of State
* Roger Crook, Chief Executive Officer, DHL Latin America
* Don Cruickshank, Chairman of SMG plc and former chairman of London Stock Exchange
* Andy Duncan, Chief Executive of Channel 4 television
* Michael Earl, former Lecturer at MBS and current Dean of Templeton College at the University of Oxford
* Keith Edelman, Managing Director of Arsenal Football Club
* Rijkman Groenink, Chairman of the Managing Board, ABN AMRO
* Teo Chee Hean, current Minister for Defence of Singapore
* Robert H. Herz, Chairman, US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)
* Nicholas Lander, restaurant critic for the Financial Times and consultant to the restaurant industry
* Sir Terry Leahy, Chief Executive Officer of Tesco, the largest British supermarket chain. He was chosen as Britain's "Business Leader of the Year" in 2003 and the Fortune European Businessman of the Year for 2003 and was selected as Britain's most admired business leader by Management Today in 2005
* Tony Lloyd, Member of the British House of Commons
* Michael D. Parker, Chief Executive Officer, BNFL
* Andrew Pettigrew, currently Dean of the University of Bath School of Management
* Jurek Piasecki, Chairman and Chief Executive, Goldsmith Group plc
* Brian Quinn, Former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England and Chairman of Celtic F.C board
* James Ross, Former Chairman, The Littlewoods Organisation
* Paul Skinner, Chairman, Rio Tinto
* Brenda Smith, Group Managing Director of Ascent Media Group and Former Managing Director of Granada Television
* Sir Roland Smith, former director of the Bank of England and former chairman of Manchester United
* Vijit Supinit, Chairman, Stock Exchange of Thailand
* David Varney, Executive Chairman, HM Revenue and Customs
* Andreas Vranas, Vice-Governor, National Bank of Greece

University of Manchester, England, UK

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The University of Manchester is a "red brick" civic university located in Manchester, England. It is a member of the Russell Group of large research-intensive universities and the N8 Group for research collaboration. The university was formed in 2004 by the dissolution of the Victoria University of Manchester (which was commonly known as the University of Manchester) and UMIST (University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology) and the immediate formation of a single institution inaugurated on 1 October. The University of Manchester and the constituent former institutions combined have 25 Nobel Laureates among their past and present students and staff, the third largest number of any single university in the United Kingdom behind Oxford and Cambridge.

Following the merger, the university was named Sunday Times University of the Year in 2006 after winning the inaugural Times Higher Education Supplement University of the Year prize in 2005. According to The Sunday Times, "Manchester has a formidable reputation spanning most disciplines, but most notably in the life sciences, engineering, humanities, economics, sociology and the social sciences".

In 2007/08, the University of Manchester had over 40,000 students studying 500 academic programmes and more than 10,000 staff, making it the largest single-site university in the United Kingdom. More students try to gain entry to the University of Manchester than any other university in the country, with more than 60,000 applications for undergraduate courses alone. In 2007 the University had an annual income of £637 million.

In the first national assessment of higher education research since the university’s founding, the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, the University of Manchester came 3rd in terms of research power after Cambridge and Oxford and 8th for grade point average quality when including specialist institutions. The university was also ranked 8th in Europe and 26th worldwide by the Times Higher World University Rankings 2009, although the 2010 rankings placed it as 9th in Europe and 30th in the world.

History
The University's history as an academic institution began in 1824 and is closely linked to Manchester's emergence as the world's first industrial city. The English chemist John Dalton, together with Manchester businessmen and industrialists, established the Mechanics' Institute (later to become UMIST) to ensure that workers could learn the basic principles of science. Similarly, John Owens, a Manchester textile merchant, left a bequest of £96,942 in 1846 for the purpose of founding a college for the education of males on non-sectarian lines. His trustees established Owens College at Manchester in 1851. It was initially housed in a building, complete with Adam staircase, on the corner of Quay Street and Byrom Street which had been the home of the philanthropist Richard Cobden, and subsequently was to house Manchester County Court. In 1873 it moved to new buildings at Oxford Road, Chorlton-on-Medlock and from 1880 it was a constituent college of the federal Victoria University. The university was established and granted a Royal Charter in 1880 to become England's first civic university; it was renamed the Victoria University of Manchester in 1903 and then absorbed Owens College the following year.

By 1905 the two institutions were large and active forces in the area, with the Municipal College of Technology, the forerunner of the later UMIST, forming the Faculty of Technology of the Victoria University of Manchester while continuing as a technical college in parallel with the advanced courses of study in the Faculty.

In 1987 Emeritus Professor John Griffith, then Chancellor of Manchester University, warned in an article entitled "The Attack on Higher Education" of the serious danger he saw in government policy which seeks to control the management of higher education. He pointed out the political weakness of the universities in the face of such governmental attack, a weakness which he saw as stemming from the universities' hierarchical structure, and the consequent antagonisms of political viewpoint between university heads and their staff. He concluded: "The history of this century in many countries warns us that democracy depends on a large degree of autonomy for the institutions of higher education. No governments of any political complexion must be allowed to destroy their freedom". In 1994 George Wilmers, elected member of Senate and Post Graduate Tutor in Mathematics, wrote: "Since that article was written the independence of both universities and individual academics has been savagely eroded, and one of the principal mechanisms for that erosion has been the corruption of the principle of collegial governance."

Before the merger, the University and UMIST between them counted 23 Nobel Prize winners amongst their former staff and students. Manchester has traditionally been particularly strong in the sciences, with the nuclear nature of the atom being discovered at Manchester by Rutherford, and the world's first stored-program computer coming into being at the university. Famous scientists associated with the university include the physicists Osborne Reynolds, Niels Bohr, Ernest Rutherford, James Chadwick, Arthur Schuster, Hans Geiger, Ernest Marsden and Balfour Stewart. However, the university has also contributed in many other fields, such as by the work of the mathematicians Paul Erdős, Horace Lamb and Alan Turing; the author Anthony Burgess; philosophers Samuel Alexander, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Alasdair MacIntyre; the Pritzker Prize and RIBA Stirling Prize winning architect Norman Foster and the composer Peter Maxwell Davies all attended, or worked in, Manchester. Well-known figures among the current academic staff include author Martin Amis, computer scientist Steve Furber, literary critic Terry Eagleton, economist Richard Nelson and biochemist Sir John Sulston, Nobel laureate of 2002.

In 2004, the Victoria University of Manchester (established in 1851) and the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (established in 1824) were formally merged into a single institution.

The university today
The newly merged University of Manchester was officially launched on 1 October 2004 when the Queen handed over the Royal Charter. It has the largest number of full time students in the UK, unless the University of London is counted as a single university. It teaches more academic subjects than any other British university. The founding President and Vice-Chancellor of the new university was Alan Gilbert, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, who retired at the end of the 2009-2010 academic year. The current vice chancellor is Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell, who held a chair in physiology at the university since 1994. One of the university's aims stated in the Manchester 2015 Agenda is to be one of the top 25 universities in the world. This follows Alan Gilbert's aim for the university to 'establish it by 2015 among the 25 strongest research universities in the world on commonly accepted criteria of research excellence and performance'. Manchester has the largest total income of all UK universities, standing at £637 million as of 2007. Its research income of £216 million is the fifth largest of any university in the country.Campus and facilities
The main site of the University contains the vast majority of its facilities and is often referred to simply as campus. Despite this, Manchester is not a campus university as the concept is commonly understood. It is centrally located and the buildings of the main site are integrated into the fabric of Manchester, with non-university buildings and major roads between them.

Campus occupies an area shaped roughly like a boot: the foot of the boot is aligned roughly south-west to north-east and is joined to the broader southern part of the boot by an area of overlap between former UMIST and former VUM buildings; it comprises two parts:

* North campus, centred on Sackville Street
* South campus, centred on Oxford Road.

These names are not officially recognised by the University, but are commonly used, including in parts of its website; another usage is Sackville Street Campus and Oxford Road Campus. They roughly correspond to the campuses of the old UMIST and Victoria University respectively, although there was already some overlap before the merger.

Fallowfield Campus is the main residential campus of the University. It is located in Fallowfield, approximately 2 miles (3 km) south of the main site.

There are a number of other university buildings located throughout the city and the wider region, such as One Central Park (in the northern suburb of Moston) and Jodrell Bank Observatory (in the nearby county of Cheshire). The former is a collaboration between Manchester University and other partners in the region which offers office space to accommodate new start-up firms as well as venues for conferences and workshops.

Despite its size The University of Manchester is divided into only four faculties, each sub-divided into schools:

* Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences consisting of the Schools of Medicine; Dentistry; Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work; Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences; and Psychological Sciences.
* Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences consisting of the Schools of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science; Chemistry; Computer Science; Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Science; Physics and Astronomy; Electrical & Electronic Engineering; Materials; Mathematics; and Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering.
* Faculty of Humanities includes the School of Arts, Histories and Cultures (incorporating Archaeology; Art History & Visual Studies; Classics and Ancient History; Drama; English and American Studies; History; Museology; Music; and Religions and Theology). The other Schools are Combined Studies; Education; Environment and Development; Architecture; Languages, Linguistics and Cultures; Law; Social Sciences and the Manchester Business School.
* Faculty of Life Sciences unusually consisting of a single school.

Major projects
Following the merger, the University embarked on a £600 million programme of capital investment, to deliver eight new buildings and 15 major refurbishment projects by 2010, partly financed by a sale of unused assets. These include:

* £60 m Flagship University Place building
* £56 m Alan Turing Building: housing Mathematics, the Photon Sciences Institute and the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics.
* £50 m Life Sciences Research Building (A.V. Hill Building)
* £38 m Manchester Interdisciplinary Biocentre (MIB)
* £33 m Life Sciences and Medical and Human Sciences Building (Michael Smith Building)
* £31 m Humanities Building - now officially called the "Arthur Lewis Building"
* £20 m Wolfson Molecular Imaging Centre (WMIC)
* £18 m Re-location of School of Pharmacy
* £17 m John Rylands Library, Deansgate
* £13 m Chemistry Building
* £10 m Functional Biology Building

John Rylands University Library
The university's library, the John Rylands University Library, is the largest non-legal deposit library in the UK, as well as being the UK's third-largest academic library after those of Oxford and Cambridge. It also has the largest collection of electronic resources of any library in the UK.

The oldest part of the library, the John Rylands Library, founded in memory of John Rylands by his wife Enriqueta Augustina Rylands as an independent institution, is situated in a Victorian Gothic building on Deansgate, Manchester city centre. This site houses an important collection of historic books and other printed materials, manuscripts, including archives and papyri. The papyri are in various ancient languages and include the oldest extant New Testament document, Rylands Library Papyrus P52, commonly known as the St John Fragment. In April 2007 the Deansgate site reopened to readers and the public, following major improvements and renovations, including the construction of the pitched roof originally intended and a new wing in Spinningfield.

Jodrell Bank Observatory
The Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics is a combination of the astronomical academic staff, situated in Manchester, and the Jodrell Bank Observatory near Goostrey, about ten miles (16 km) west of Macclesfield. The observatory boasts the third largest fully-movable radio telescope in the world, the Lovell Telescope, constructed in the 1950s. It has played an important role in the research of quasars, pulsars and gravitational lenses, and has played a role in confirming Einstein's theory of General Relativity.

Manchester Museum
The Manchester Museum provides access to nearly 4.25 million items sourced from around the world. Collections include butterflies and carvings from India, birds and bark-cloth from the Pacific, live frogs and ancient pottery from America, fossils and native art from Australia, mammals and ancient Egyptian craftsmanship from Africa, plants, coins and minerals from Europe, art from past civilisations of the Mediterranean, and beetles, armour and archery from Asia. In November 2004, the museum acquired a cast of a fossilised Tyrannosaurus rex called "Stan".

The history of the museum goes back to 1821, when the first collections were assembled by the Manchester Society of Natural History and later added by the collections of the Manchester Geological Society. Due to financial difficulties and on the advice of the great evolutionary biologist Thomas Huxley, Owens College accepted responsibility for the collections in 1867. The college commissioned Alfred Waterhouse, the architect of London’s Natural History Museum, to design a museum to house these collections for the benefit of students and the public on a new site in Oxford Road. The Manchester Museum was finally opened to the public in the late 1880s.

Whitworth Art Gallery
The Whitworth Art Gallery is home to collections of internationally famous British watercolours, textiles and wallpapers, as well as modern and historic prints, drawings, paintings and sculpture. It overall contains 31,000 items in its collection. A programme of temporary exhibitions runs throughout the year, with the Mezzanine Court serving as a venue for showing sculpture. It was founded by Robert Darbishire with a donation from Sir Joseph Whitworth in 1889, as The Whitworth Institute and Park. 70 years later the gallery became official part of the University of Manchester. In October 1995 a Mezzanine Court in the centre of the building was opened. This new gallery, designed chiefly for the display of sculptures, won a RIBA regional award.

Manchester University Press
Manchester University Press is an academic publishing house which exists as part of the university. It publishes academic monographs as well as textbooks and journals, the majority of which are works from authors based elsewhere in the international academic community, and is the third largest university press in England after Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press.

Contact Theatre
The Contact Theatre largely stages modern live performance and participatory work for younger audiences. The present fortress-style building on Devas Street was completed in 1999 but incorporates parts of its 1960s predecessor. It features a unique energy-efficient system, using its high towers to naturally ventilate the building without the use of air conditioning. The colourful and curvaceous interior houses three performance spaces, a lounge bar and Hot Air, a reactive public artwork in the foyer.

Old Quadrangle
The buildings around the Old Quadrangle date from the time of Owens College, and were designed in a Gothic style by Alfred Waterhouse (and his son Paul Waterhouse). The first to be built (in 1873) was the John Owens Building (formerly the Main Building: the others were added over the next thirty years. In fact, the Rear Quadrangle is older than the Old Quadrangle. Today, the museum continues to occupy part of one side (including the tower) and the grand setting of the Whitworth Hall is used for the conferment of degrees. Part of the old Christie Library (1898) now houses Christie's Bistro, and the remainder of the buildings house administrative departments.

Chancellors Hotel and Conference Centre
Formerly named The Firs, the original house was built in 1850 for Sir Joseph Whitworth by Edward Walters, who was also responsible for Manchester’s Free Trade Hall and Strangeways Prison. Whitworth used The Firs mainly as a social, political and business base, entertaining radicals of the age such as John Bright, Richard Cobden, William Forster and T.H. Huxley at the time of the Reform Bill of 1867. Whitworth, credited with raising the art of machine-tool building to a previously-unknown level, supported the new Mechanics Institute in Manchester – the birthplace of UMIST - and helped to found the Manchester School of Design. Whilst living in the house, Whitworth used land to the rear (now the site of the University's botanical glasshouses) for testing his "Whitworth rifle". In 1882, the Firs was leased to C.P. Scott, Editor of the Manchester Guardian. After Scott's death the house became the property of Owens College, and was the Vice-Chancellor's residence until 1991. The old house now forms the western wing of Chancellors Hotel & Conference Centre at the University. The newer eastern wing houses the circular Flowers Theatre, six individual conference rooms and the majority of the 75 hotel bedrooms.

Residential accommodation
Before they merged, the two former universities had for some time been sharing their residential facilities.

Main campus
These halls are owned by the University of Manchester and house 1,085 students of that university.[22] It is most notable for the unique triangular shape of the accommodation blocks which gave rise to the nickname of "Toblerones", after the chocolate bar.

The designer of these unique 'Toblerone' shaped buildings took his inspiration from the hill which has been there since 1962, when as a result of a nearby archaeological dig (led by John Gater) the hill was created from the excavated soil. A consequence of this triangular design was a much reduced cost for the contracted construction company. Due to a deal struck between the University and Manchester City Council, which meant that the council would pay for the roofs of all student residential buildings in the area, Allan Pluen's team is believed to have saved thousands on the final cost of the halls. They were built in the mid 1970s.

It is also said by alumni, that the then University of Victoria got a grant for building the halls, and the then government would pay for the roof if they paid for the rest, hence they made very large roofs and not many bricks.

The site of the halls was previously occupied by many small streets whose names have been preserved in the names given to the halls. Grove House is a much older building and has been used by the University for many different purposes over the last sixty years. Its first occupants in 1951 were the Appointments Board and the Manchester University Press. The shops in Thorncliffe Place were part of the same plan and include banks and a convenience store.

Notable people associated with the halls are Friedrich Engels whose residence on the site is commemorated by a blue plaque on Aberdeen House; the physicist Brian Cox; Irene Khan, Secretary general of Amnesty International; and Big Brother winner Omar Chaparro.

Sackville Street
The former UMIST Campus has five halls of residence near to Sackville Street building (Weston, Lambert, Fairfield, Chandos, and Wright Robinson), and several other halls within a 5-15 minute walk away, such as the Grosvenor group of halls.

Other accommodation
The former Moberly Tower has been demolished. There are also Vaughan House (once the home of the clergy serving the Church of the Holy Name)and George Kenyon Hall at University Place; Crawford House and Devonshire House adjacent to the Manchester Business School and Victoria Hall in Higher Cambridge Street.

Fallowfield and Victoria Park Campuses
The Fallowfield Campus, situated 2 miles (3.2 km) south of the main university campus (the Oxford Road Campus), is the largest of the university's residential campuses. The Owens Park group of halls with its landmark tower lies at the centre of it, while Oak House is another large hall of residence. Woolton Hall is also on the Fallowfield campus next to Oak House. Allen Hall is a traditional hall situated near Ashburne Hall (Sheavyn House being annexed to Ashburne). Richmond Park is also a relatively recent addition to the campus.

Victoria Park Campus, comprises several halls of residence. Among these are St Anselm Hall with Canterbury Court and Pankhurst Court, Dalton-Ellis Hall , Hulme Hall (including Burkhardt House), St Gabriel's Hall and Opal Gardens Hall. St Anselm Hall is the only all-male hall left in the United Kingdom.

Research and reputation
The university has a very high quality research profile and is counted among the leading universities in the world. In the first national assessment of higher education research since the university’s founding, the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, the University of Manchester came 3rd in terms of research power after Cambridge and Oxford and 6th for grade point average quality (8th when including specialist institutions). Accordingly, Manchester enjoys the largest amount of research funding behind Oxbridge, UCL and Imperial (these five universities being informally referred to as the 'golden diamond' of research-intensive UK institutions). Manchester also has a particularly strong presence in terms of funding from the three main UK research councils, EPSRC, MRC and BBSRC, being ranked 3rd, 7th and 1st respectively. In addition, the university is also one of the richest in the UK in terms of income and interest from endowments: at a recent rank it was placed at 3rd place behind Oxbridge.

Historically, Manchester has been linked with high scientific achievement: the university and its constituent former institutions combined had 25 Nobel Laureates among their students and staff, the third largest number of any single university in the United Kingdom behind Oxford and Cambridge; in fact, excluding Oxbridge, Manchester has graduated more Nobel laureates than any other university in the UK. Purely in terms of Nobel prize winners Manchester is ranked 9th in Europe. Furthermore, according to an academic poll two of the top ten discoveries by university academics and researchers were made at the University (namely the first working computer and the contraceptive pill). The university currently employs 4 Nobel Prize winners amongst its staff, more than any other in the UK.

The 2009 THE - QS World University Rankings found Manchester overall 26th in the world. It was also ranked by the same report 5th internationally by employer reviews (along with MIT and Stanford and ahead of Yale and Cornell) by receiving a maximum 100% rating which the university has retained since 2008. The separate 2010 QS World University Rankings (in 2010 Times Higher Education World University Rankings and QS World University Rankings parted ways to produce separate rankings) found that Manchester had slipped to 30th overall in the world.

The Academic Ranking of World Universities 2008 published by the Institute of Higher Education of Shanghai Jiao Tong University ranked Manchester 5th in the UK, 6th in Europe and 40th in the world. After several years of steady progress Manchester fell back in 2009 to 41st in the world and 7th in Europe, falling back further to 44th in the world and 9th in Europe in 2010. Excluding US universities, Manchester is ranked 13th and 11th in the world for 2009 by THES and ARWU respectively. According to the ARWU rankings the university is ranked 9th in Europe for natural sciences and 4th in engineering. Similarly the HEEACT 2009 rankings for scientific performance place Manchester 5th in Europe for engineering, 8th for natural sciences and 3rd for social sciences. And finally THES ranks Manchester 6th in Europe for technology, 10th for life sciences and 7th for social sciences. More recently a survey by the Times Higher Education Supplement has shown that Manchester is placed 6th in Europe in the area of Psychology & Psychiatry. According to a further ranking by SCImago Research Group Manchester is ranked 8th in Europe amongst higher education institutions in terms of sheer research output. In terms of research impact a further ranking places Manchester 6th in Europe. Manchester is also one of only seven universities in Europe which are rated Excellent in all seven main academic departments (Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, Psychology, Economics and Political Science) by the 2010 Centre for Higher Education's Development's Excellence Rankings.

According to the High Fliers Research Limited's survey, University of Manchester students are being targeted by more top recruiters for graduate vacancies than any other UK university students for three consecutive years (2007–2009). Furthermore the university has been ranked joint 20th in the world for 2009 according to the Professional Ranking of World Universities. Its main compilation criterion is the number of Chief Executive Officers (or number 1 executive equivalent) which are among the "500 leading worldwide companies" as measured by revenue who studied in each university. The ranking places the University only behind Oxford nationally. Manchester is ranked 5th among British universities according to a popularity ranking which is based on the degree of traffic that a university's website attracts. Also a further report places Manchester within the top 20 universities outside the US.

At a recent ranking undertaken by the Guardian, Manchester is placed 5th in the UK in international reputation behind the usual four: Oxbridge, UCL and Imperial. However, while as a rule world rankings (such as the ARWU, THES and HEEACT) typically place the university within the top 10 in Europe, national studies are less complementary; The Times 'Good University Guide 2011’ ranked Manchester 30th out of 113 Universities in the UK, ‘The Complete University Guide’2011 in association with The Independent placed it at 31st out of 115 universities whilst ‘The Guardian University Guide 2011’ ranked Manchester at 51st out of 118 universities in the UK. This apparent paradox is mainly a reflection of the different ranking methodologies employed by each listing: global rankings focus on research and international prestige, whereas national rankings are largely based on teaching and the student experience.

Athletics and outdoor games
Unlike some universities The University of Manchester operates its own sports clubs via the Athletics Union. Student societies on the other hand are operated by the Students' Union.

Today the university can boast more than 80 health and fitness classes while over 3,000 students are members of the 44 various Athletic Union clubs. The sports societies in Manchester vary widely in their level and scope. Many of the more popular sports have several university teams as well as departmental teams which may be placed in a league against other teams within the university. Common teams include: lacrosse, korfball, dodgeball, hockey, rugby league, rugby union, football, basketball, netball and cricket. The Manchester Aquatics Centre, the swimming pool used for the Manchester Commonwealth Games is also on the campus.

The university competes annually in 28 different sports against Leeds and Liverpool universities in the Christie Cup, which Manchester has won for seven consecutive years.[63] The university has also achieved considerable success in the BUCS (British University & College Sports) competitions. It is currently positioned in 8th place in the overall BUCS rankings for 2009/10 The Christie Cup is an inter-university competition between Liverpool, Leeds and Manchester in numerous sports since 1886. After the Oxford and Cambridge rivalry, the Christie's Championships is the oldest Inter–University competition on the sporting calendar: the cup was a benefaction of Richard Copley Christie.

Every year elite sportsmen and sportswomen at the university are selected for membership of the XXI Club, a society that was formed in 1932 and exists to promote sporting excellence at the university. Most members have gained a Full Maroon for representing the university and many

Political activity, social sciences and performing arts
Manchester also has a reputation for producing many active members of the Labour Party. Former students have included Phil Woolas, John Mann, Margaret Beckett and Liam Byrne.

Manchester has the largest degree programme in the country in the School of Social Sciences. It has a unique degree programme under the umbrella name of BA(Econ and Social Sciences). It is a multidisciplinary degree designed to give students maximum flexibility and choice. Within it, students can specialise in, or combine it with, other social science disciplines, such as economics, business studies, politics, or sociology. The course is fortunate by having a long, distinguished history in Economics, with a Chair in Political Economy founded at Manchester in 1854. There is an extensive choice of course units, thanks to the significant diversity of interests of Manchester staff.

The BA(Econ and Social Sciences) programme has its own society, BA Econ Society, the largest course-based society in the country. The society boasts around 1000 active members offering a variety of opportunities including different socials (from bar crawls to BBQs, from trips to Alton Towers to nights out in neighbouring cities), career events (with a long list of corporate sponsors and array of development, political and government-based links), a large international offering for students new to the UK, an annual trip abroad and huge Summer Ball. The society is one of the most established at the university with strong representative sports teams (hockey, football, netball and rugby) and good links with the academic staff at the School of Social Sciences.

In addition to this the university is also home to Manchester University Music Society (MUMS) which promotes many classical and jazz ensembles including MUWO (Manchester University Wind Orchestra), a large wind orchestra whose members include present students, alumni and other wind players in the Manchester area. The band were awarded Gold at the National Concert Band Festival at The Sage Gateshead in 2007 and again at Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in 2009. In 2008 the University of Manchester Symphony Orchestra (a MUMS ensemble) was a finalist in the inter-University Symphony orchestra competition SymphUni. In 2009 MUMS appointed Sir Peter Maxwell Davies to be their patron.

The university has done particularly well in recent years on BBC2 quiz program University Challenge. In 2006, Manchester beat Trinity Hall, Cambridge to record the university's first triumph in the competition. The year after, the university finished in 2nd place after losing out to the University of Warwick in the final. The team has progressed to the semi finals every year since 2005.

In 2009, the team battled hard in the final against Corpus Christi College, Oxford. At the gong, the score was 275 - 190 to Corpus Christi College after an extraordinary performance from Gail Trimble. However, the title was eventually given to the University of Manchester after it was discovered that Corpus Christi team member Sam Kay had graduated 8 months before the final was broadcast, and the team was disqualified.

Manchester reached the semi-finals in the 2010 competition before being beaten by Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

NHS hospitals
The Manchester Medical School, established in 1874, is one of the largest in the country, with over 400 medical students being trained in each of the clinical years and over 350 students in the pre-clinical/phase 1 years. Approximately 100 students who have completed pre-clinical training at the Bute Medical School (University of St Andrews) join the third year of the undergraduate medical programme each year.

The university's Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences has links with a large number of NHS hospitals in the North West of England and maintains presences in its four base hospitals: Manchester Royal Infirmary (located at the southern end of the main university campus on Oxford Road), Wythenshawe Hospital, Hope Hospital and the Royal Preston Hospital. All are used for clinical medical training for doctors and nurses.

The School of Pharmacy[67] also benefits from the university's links with the Manchester Royal Infirmary and Wythenshawe and Hope hospitals. All of the undergraduate pharmacy students gain hospital experience through these links and are the only pharmacy students in the UK to have an extensive course completed in secondary care.

Moreover, the university is a founding partner of the Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, established to focus high-end healthcare research in Greater Manchester.

Notable academic staff and alumni
Many notable and famous people have worked or studied at one or both of the two former institutions that merged to form the University of Manchester, including 25 Nobel prize laureates. Some of the best known include John Dalton (founder of modern atomic theory), Ludwig Wittgenstein (considered the one of the most significant philosophers of the 20th century), George E. Davis (founded the discipline of Chemical Engineering), Bernard Lovell (a pioneer of radio astronomy), Alan Turing (one of the founders of computer science and artificial intelligence), Irene Khan (current secretary general of Amnesty International) and Robert Bolt (two times Academy Award winner and three times Golden Globe winner for screenwriting Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago). Additionally, a number of politicians are associated with the university, including the current Presidents of Belize, Iceland and Trinidad and Tobago, as well as several ministers among others in the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Canada and Singapore and also Chaim Weizmann, a chemist and the first President of Israel.

Nobel prize winners
Overall, there have been 25 Nobel Prizes awarded to staff and students past and present, with some of the most important discoveries of the modern age being made in Manchester.

Chemistry
* Ernest Rutherford (awarded Nobel prize in 1908), for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements and the chemistry of radioactive substances (He was the first to probe the atom).
* Arthur Harden (awarded Nobel prize in 1929), for investigations on the fermentation of sugar and fermentative enzymes.
* Walter Haworth (awarded Nobel prize in 1937), for his investigations on carbohydrates and vitamin C.
* Robert Robinson (awarded Nobel prize in 1947), for his investigations on plant products of biological importance, especially the alkaloids.
* Alexander Todd (awarded Nobel prize in 1957), for his work on nucleotides and nucleotide co-enzymes.
* Melvin Calvin (awarded Nobel prize in 1961), for his research on the carbon dioxide assimilation in plants.
* John Charles Polanyi (awarded Nobel prize in 1986), for his contributions concerning the dynamics of chemical elementary processes.
* Michael Smith (awarded Nobel prize in 1993), for his fundamental contributions to the establishment of oligonucleotide-based, site-directed mutagenesis and its development for protein studies.

Physics
* Joseph John (J. J.) Thomson (awarded Nobel prize in 1906), in recognition of the great merits of his theoretical and experimental investigations on the conduction of electricity by gases.
* William Lawrence Bragg (awarded Nobel prize in 1915), for his services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays.
* Niels Bohr (awarded Nobel prize in 1922), for his fundamental contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics.
* Charles Thomson Rees (C. T. R.) Wilson (awarded Nobel prize in 1927), for his method of making the paths of electrically charged particles visible by condensation of vapour.
* James Chadwick (awarded Nobel prize in 1935), for the discovery of the neutron.
* George de Hevesy (awarded Nobel prize in 1943), for his work on the use of isotopes as tracers in the study of chemical processes.
* Patrick M. Blackett (awarded Nobel prize in 1948), for developing cloud chamber and confirming/discovering positron.
* Sir John Douglas Cockcroft (awarded Nobel prize in 1951), for his pioneer work on the splitting of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles and also for his contribution to modern nuclear power.
* Hans Bethe (awarded Nobel prize in 1967), for his contributions to the theory of nuclear reactions, especially his discoveries concerning the energy production in stars.
* Nevill Francis Mott (awarded Nobel prize in 1977), for his fundamental theoretical investigations of the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems.
* Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov (awarded Nobel prize in 2010), for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene.

Physiology and Medicine
* Archibald Vivian Hill (awarded Nobel prize in 1922), for his discovery relating to the production of heat in the muscle. One of the founders of the diverse disciplines of biophysics and operations research.
* Sir John Sulston (awarded Nobel prize in 2002), for his discoveries concerning 'genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death'. In 2007, Sulston was announced as Chair of the newly-founded Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation (iSEI) at the University of Manchester.

Economics
* John Hicks (awarded Nobel prize in 1974), for his pioneering contributions to general economic equilibrium theory and welfare theory.
* Sir Arthur Lewis (awarded Nobel prize in 1979), for his pioneering research into economic development research with particular consideration of the problems of developing countries.
* Joseph E. Stiglitz (awarded Nobel prize in 2001), for his analyses of markets with asymmetric information. Currently, Professor Joseph E. Stiglitz heads the Brooks World Poverty Institute (BWPI) at the University of Manchester.

University of Reading, Berkshire, UK

2011-01-11T10:19:00.000-08:00

The University of Reading is a university in the English town of Reading, Berkshire. One of the so-called "red brick" universities, it was established in 1892 as University College, Reading and received its Royal Charter in 1926. It is based on several campuses in, and around, the town of Reading.

The University has a long tradition of research, education and training at a local, national and international level. It offers traditional degrees and also less usual and other vocationally relevant ones. It was awarded the Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education in 1998, 2005 and again in 2009. It is one of the ten most research-intensive universities in the UK, and is ranked in the top 2.5% of universities in the world.

The University owes its origins to the Schools of Art and Science established in Reading in 1860 and 1870. These became part of an extension college of Christ Church of the University of Oxford in 1892, which became known as University College, Reading.

The new college received its first treasury grant in 1901. Three years later it was given a site, in London Road, by the Palmer family of Huntley & Palmers fame. The same family's continued support enabled the opening of Wantage Hall in 1908 and the Research Institute in Dairying in 1912.

The college first applied for a Royal Charter in 1920 but was unsuccessful at that time. However a second petition, in 1925, was successful, and the charter was officially granted on March 17, 1926. With the charter, the University College became the University of Reading, the only new university to be created in England between the two world wars.

In 1947 the University purchased Whiteknights Park, which was to become its principal campus. In 1984 the University started a merger with Bulmershe College of Higher Education, which was completed in 1989.

In October 2006, the Senior Management Board proposed[8] the closure of its Physics Department to future undergraduate application. This was ascribed to financial reasons and lack of alternative ideas and caused considerable controversy, not least a debate in Parliament over the closure which prompted heated discussion of higher education issues in general. On October 10 the Senate voted to close the Department of Physics, a move confirmed by the Council on November 20. Other departments closed in recent years include Music, Sociology, Geology, and Mechanical Engineering. The university council decided in March 2009 to close the School of Health and Social Care, a school whose courses have consistently been oversubscribed.

In January 2008, the University announced its merger with the Henley Management College to create the university's new Henley Business School, bringing together Henley College's expertise in MBAs with the University's existing Business School and ICMA Centre. The merger took formal effect on the 1st August 2008, with the new business school split across the university's existing Whiteknights Campus and its new Greenlands Campus that formerly housed Henley Management College. A further restructuring announced in September 2009 portends the loss of additional jobs, in the film, theatre and television department.

Campuses
Whiteknights Lake
The University maintains over 1.6 square kilometres (395 acres) of grounds, in four distinct campuses:

* Whiteknights Campus, at 1.3 square kilometres (321 acres), is the largest and includes Whiteknights Lake, conservation meadows and woodlands as well as most of the University's departments. The campus takes its name from the nickname of the 13th century knight, John De Erleigh IV or the 'White Knight', and was landscaped in the 18th century by Marquis of Blandford. The main University library, in the middle of the campus, holds nearly a million books and subscribes to around 4,000 periodicals.

* The smaller London Road Campus is the original University site and is closer to the town centre of Reading. The London Road site forms the base for the majority of the university's extramural and distance learning activities, and is home to the Centre for Continuing Education and the Professional Management Programmes as well as the Museum of English Rural Life. Moreover, it plays host to the University graduation ceremonies twice a year, in the Great Hall. London Road is currently undergoing extensive renovation to allow a number of departments to move from Bulmershe from 2011.

* The Bulmershe Court Campus in Woodley is the site of the former Bulmershe Teaching College, which merged with The University of Reading in 1989. The campus is now the home of The Institute of Education and the Department of Film, Theatre and Television, alongside the Bulmershe site of Students’ Union, Breeze Bar, and Bulmershe Hall of Residences. It also has the largest hall of residence of the University. Furthermore, the campus hosts a range of the University's home sporting fixtures, including football, basketball and American Football. Bulmershe is currently due for closure in 2011 with departments moving to either London Road or Whiteknights Campuses.

* The Greenlands Campus, on the banks of the River Thames in Buckinghamshire. Once the home of William Henry Smith, founder of WH Smith, and latterly the site of the Henley Management College, this campus became part of the university on the 1st August 2008, with the merger of that college with the university's Business School to form the Henley Business School. The school's MBA and corporate learning offerings will be based at Greenlands, with undergraduate and other postgraduate courses being based at Whiteknights.

The University also owns 8.5 square kilometres (2,100 acres) of farmland in the nearby villages of Arborfield, Sonning and Shinfield. These support a mixed farming system including dairy cows, ewes and beef animals, and host research centres of which the flagship is the Centre for Dairy Research.

As part of the proposed Whiteknights Development Plan in Autumn 2007, the University proposed spending up to £250 million on its estates over 30 years, principally to focus academic activities onto the Whiteknights site. The University also intends to site some functions on the London Road site, with a complete withdrawal from Bulmershe Court proposed by 2012.

Research
In the Research Assessment Exercise in 2001, five departments were awarded the top rate of 5* – Archaeology, English, Italian, Meteorology and Psychology, and fifteen departments were awarded the rating of 5. In the wake of the 2008 RAE, the university saw a cut of £4m (19%) in its recurrent research funding, the largest cut among the 1994 Group of British universities.

The Department of Meteorology was awarded a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education in 2005. Reading was the first university to win a Queen's Award for Export Achievement, in 1989.

The University of Hong Kong

2011-01-11T10:02:00.000-08:00

The University of Hong Kong (or HKU, traditional Chinese: 香港大學) is the oldest tertiary institution in Hong Kong. Its motto is "Sapientia et Virtus" in Latin, meaning "wisdom and virtue", and "明德格物" in Chinese. The official language of instruction is English.

The University is referred by Quacquarelli Symonds as a "world-class comprehensive research university". In 2010, it was ranked 23rd in the QS World University Rankings and 1st in their Asian University Rankings. In another rankings, the 2010-2011 Times Higher Education World University Rankings cooperating with Thomson Reuters as the new data supplier since 2010, the university was ranked 21st in the world and 1st in Asia.

Origins
The University of Hong Kong traces its origins to the former Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, founded by the London Missionary Society in 1887 and would later become the Medical Faculty of the University of Hong Kong. The College is noted for being the Father of the Nation Sun Yat-sen's alma mater.

The University was founded in 1911 when Governor Sir Frederick Lugard proposed to establish a university in Hong Kong. Lugard felt an urgent need to establish a university in Asia to compete with the other Great Powers opening universities in China, most notably Prussia, which had just opened Tongji University in Shanghai. The colonial Hongkongers shared British values and allowed Britain to expand its influence in southern China and consolidate its rule in Hong Kong.

Parsi businessman Sir Hormusjee Naorojee Mody learned of Lugard's plan and pledged to donate HK$150,000 towards the construction and HK$30,000 towards other costs. The Hong Kong Government and the business sector in southern China, which were both equally eager to learn "secrets of the West's success" (referring to technological advances made since the Industrial Revolution), also gave their support. The Swire Group also contributed funds, wishing to repair its corporate image following an industrial accident that had injured many Chinese sailors. Along with other donors including the United Kingdom government and companies such as HSBC, Lugard finally had enough to build the university.

Lugard laid the foundation stone of the Main Building on 16 March 1910 and hoped that the university would educate more Chinese people in British "imperial values", as opposed to those of other Western powers.

December 1916: first congregation
The University was formally established in 1911 and had its opening ceremony in 1912. As Lugard felt that Chinese society at the time was not suited to ideals such as communism, the University originally emulated the University of Manchester in emphasising the sciences over the humanities. It opened with only a Faculty of Medicine, which had evolved from the Hong Kong College of Medicine. However, within a year the Faculties of Engineering and Arts (which then did not offer sociology and philosophy degrees) were established. In December 1916, the University held its first congregation, with 23 graduates and 5 honorary graduates.

Move towards Chinese cultural education, and WW2
After the 1925-26 Canton-Hong Kong strikes, the government moved towards greater integration of Eastern culture, increasing the number of Chinese courses. In 1927, a degree in Chinese was created. Donations from wealthy businessmen Tang Chi Ngong and Fung Ping Shan - for whom campus buildings are named after - triggered an emphasis on Chinese cultural education. In 1941, the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong led to the damage of university buildings, and the University closed until 1945.

The University was founded as an all-male institution. Women students were admitted for the first time only ten years later. In 1937, the Queen Mary Hospital opened and has served as the University's teaching hospital ever since.

Post-WW2
After World War II, the University reopened and underwent structural developments as post-war reconstruction efforts began in earnest, requiring more investment in law and social sciences. The Faculty of Social Sciences was established in 1967 and the Law Department in 1969. The student population in 1961 was 2,000, four times more than in 1941.

In 1982, the Faculty of Dentistry, based at the Prince Philip Dental Hospital, was established. It remains to this day Hong Kong's only faculty training dental professionals. In 1984, both the School of Architecture and School of Education became fully-fledged faculties, and in the same year a separate Faculty of Law was created. The Faculty of Business and Economics was established in 2001 as the University's tenth and youngest faculty.

After 1989, the Hong Kong government began emphasising local tertiary college (大專) education, retaining many local students who would have studied abroad in the United Kingdom. In preparation for the 1997 handover, it also greatly increased student places and course variety. Consequently, the 2001 student population had grown to 14,300 and degree courses on offer numbered over a hundred.

HKU has nurtured the largest number of research postgraduate students in Hong Kong, making up approximately 10% of the total student population. All ten faculties and departments provide teaching and supervision for research (MPhil and PhD) students with administration undertaken by the Graduate School.

2001: 90th anniversary
The year 2001 marked the 90th Anniversary of HKU. Growing with Hong Kong: HKU and its Graduates - The First 90 Years was published by the University Press in 2002 as an impact study on HKU's graduates in different fields of Hong Kong.
[edit] 2006: renaming of Faculty of Medicine

In January 2006, despite protest from some students and various alumni, the Faculty of Medicine was renamed as the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine "as a recognition of the generosity" of Mr. Li Ka Shing and his Foundation, who pledged HK$1 billion in support of the University "general development as well as research and academic activities in medicine".

Shield, Motto and Coat of Arms
The design of the University's Shield was proposed to the College of Arms by the University in October 1912. On 14 May 1913, the Shield, along with 2 motti (1 in Latin, 1 in Chinese) were granted by the College of Arms. The field resembles the lions on the Coat of arms of England, whereas the book on the Shield is a common reference to university's role in learning and knowledge.

The Latin motto Sapientia et Virtus translated in to English as "Wisdom and Virtue". The Chinese motto on the pages of the opened book, written from right to left, top to bottom in accandance with traditional Chinese writing direction, contains 2 phrases: 明德 (mingde) and 格物 (gewu), meaning "illustrious virtue" and "the investigation of things" respectively. The first phrase mingde makes homage to the opening sentence of classic Confucian Classical Chinese literature the Great Learning, in which the author discusses the 3 great duties of a ruler - illustrious virtue, the renewal of the people, and repose in the highest good. The second phrase gewu is a reference to the writing of Confucian scholar Zhu Xi 致知在格物 (lit. exhausting by examination the principles of things and affairs) The phrase occurs in discussion regarding how wise rulers set about cultivating wisdom and virtue. If one desires to rectify his hearts, he must first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, he must first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things.

In 1981, the year of the University's 70th anniversary, an application was made to the College of Arms for a full coat of arms, which was granted in 1984, comprising the original Sheild and motti with the addition of a crest, supporters, a helmet and compartment.

The supporters of are a Chinese dragon and a lion, indicating the University's aspiration to blend East and West, whereas the Compartment is an allusion to Hong Kong Island, where the University's main campus is located.

Campus
The university's main campus covers 160,000 square metres of land on Bonham Road and Pok Fu Lam Road in the Mid-levels of Hong Kong Island. HKU buildings are some of the few remaining examples of British Colonial architecture in Hong Kong.

The Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine is situated 4.5 km southwest of the main campus, in the Southern District near Sandy Bay and Pok Fu Lam. The medical campus includes Queen Mary Hospital, the William M.W. Mong Building and research facilities. The Faculty of Dentistry is situated in the Prince Philip Dental Hospital, Sai Ying Pun.

The university also operates the Kadoorie Agricultural Research Center, which occupies 95,000 square metres of land in the New Territories, and the Swire Institute of Marine Science at the southern tip of the d'Aguilar Peninsula on Hong Kong Island.

Main building
The oldest structure in the University of Hong Kong was sponsored by Sir Hormusjee Naorojee Mody and designed by Architect Messrs Leigh & Orange. Constructed between 1910 and 1912, it originally comprised two courtyards in the post-renaissance style built with red brick and granite. The main elevation is articulated by four turrets with a central clock tower (a gift from Sir Paul Chater in 1930). Two courtyards were added in the south in 1952 and one floor in the end block in 1958. It was originally used as classrooms and laboratories for the Faculty of Medicine and Engineering and is now the home of various departments within the Faculty of Arts. The central Great Hall (Loke Yew Hall) is named after Mr. Loke Yew, a benefactor of the University in its early years. It became a declared monument in 1984.

Hung Hing Ying Building (孔慶熒樓)
Financed by Sir Paul Chater, Professor G. P. Jordan and others, it was opened in 1919 by the Governor of Hong Kong Sir Reginald Stubbs and housed the student union. After World War II, the building was used temporarily for administrative purposes. The East Wing was added in 1960. The building was converted into the Senior Common Room in 1974. It was named in honour of Mr Hung Hing Ying in 1986 for his family's donations to the university. The building was subsequently used again for administrative purposes, and now houses the Department of Music. This two-storey Edwardian style structure is characterised by a central dome and the use of red brick to emulate the Main Building opposite. The building was declared a monument in 1995.

Tang Chi Ngong Building (鄧志昂樓)
The idea to establish a school of Chinese was proposed between the two World Wars. Construction of the premises began in 1929 with a generous donation from Mr Tang Chi-ngong, father of the philanthropist Sir Tang Shiu-kin, after whom the building was named. It was opened by Governor of Hong Kong Sir William Peel in 1931 and since then further donations have been received for the endowment of teaching Chinese language and literature. The building has been used for other purposes since the 1970s but the name remained unchanged. At present, it houses the Centre of Asian Studies. This three-storey flat-roofed structure is surfaced with Shanghai plaster and was declared a monument in 1995.

University Museum and Art Gallery
The three-storey Fung Ping Shan Museum was originally erected in 1932 as a library for Chinese books. Named after its donor, the building consists of masonry on the ground level surmounted by a two-storey red-brick structure with applied ornamental columns topped by a pediment over its entrance. Since 1962, the Chinese books collection, now known as the Fung Ping Shan Library, was transferred to the University's new Main Library and the whole building was converted into a museum for Chinese art and archaeology. Among its prized collections are ceramics, pottery and bronzes. In 1996, the lowest three floors of the new T. T. Tsui Building were added to the old building to form the University Museum and Art Gallery.

Reputation/rankings
University rankings (overall) ARWU World[10] 201-300
QS World 23
Times Higher Education[12] 21

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings ranked the University of Hong Kong as follows:
Year↓ In Hong Kong↓ In Asia↓ In the World↓
2010-2011 1st 1st 21st

The QS World University Rankings ranked the University of Hong Kong as follows:
Year↓ In Hong Kong↓ In Asia↓ In the World↓
2010 1st 1st 23rd

The QS Asian University Rankings ranked the University of Hong Kong as follows among Asia's top 200 institutions:
Year↓ In Hong Kong↓ In Asia↓
2010 1st 1st

The are plans to open a new science building in 2011. Business magnate Jose Ma will provide the funds. The cost of the building is estimated to cost around 2 Billion HK dollars.

Administration
The University's Chancellor is the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Donald Y. K. Tsang. The Pro-Chancellor is David Li. The Chairman of the University Council is Dr. Leong Che Hung. The Vice-Chancellor and President is Professor Lap-Chee Tsui. The Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost is Professor R. T. H. Chin, and the Pro-Vice-Chancellors and Vice-Presidents are Professor S. P. Chow, Professor J. H. W. Lee, Professor J. G. Malpas, Professor P. K. H. Tam and Professor A. B. M. Tsui. The academic staff population is over 800.

Professor Ian Davies was the Vice-Chancellor for two years before a worldwide search culminated in the selection of Professor Lap-Chee Tsui as the new head of the University in 2002.

Research and endowment
The University of Hong Kong is a founding member of Universitas 21, an international consortium of research-led universities. HKU benefits from a large operating budget supplied by high levels of government funding compared to many Western countries. Since 1991, the Research Grants Council (RGC) has granted the University of Hong Kong a total of HK$893 million, the highest amount amongst all eight universities in the territory. HKU professors were among the highest paid in the world as well, having salaries far exceeding those of their U.S. counterparts in private universities. However, with the reduction of salaries in recent years, this is no longer the case.

100 members of academic staff (>10% of professoriate staff) from HKU are ranked among the world's top 1% of scientists by the ISI, by means of the citations recorded on their publications.

Demographics
According to the latest profile indicators [3], the student population of the University was 21,652 in 2008-2009, comprising 11,962 undergraduates, 7,326 taught postgraduates and 2,364 research postgraduates. There were 2,068 non-local students (2008–2009) studying at the university.

HKU attracts some of the best students in Hong Kong. For the last five years, the University has admitted around 50% of all the Hong Kong A-level Grade-A students. It accepts most of its undergraduate students from Form 7 graduates of local secondary schools through the Joint University Programmes Admissions System (JUPAS). The University also operates an Early Admissions Scheme (EAS) which allows Form 6 students with at least 6 Grade A in the HKCEE (local schools) or at least 6 A* in GCSE or IGCSE (international schools) results to join the University without sitting the Hong Kong A-Level Examination. In 2009, over 50% of all Early Admissions Scheme applicants put HKU as their first choice.

Academic units
The university comprises 10 faculties and a number of non-faculty academic units, which provide study programmes and courses for students (source: http://hku.hk):

Faculties
* Faculty of Architecture
* Faculty of Arts
* Faculty of Business and Economics
* Faculty of Dentistry
* Faculty of Education
* Faculty of Engineering
* Faculty of Law
* Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine
* Faculty of Science
* Faculty of Social Sciences

School of Professional and Continuing Education (SPACE)
HKU SPACE was established in 1956 to provide different levels of continuing education on a wide range of subjects, for instance, Japanese language courses and Mandarin language courses. HKU SPACE runs its programmes without subsidy from the Hong Kong Government and it has recently evolved into a community college-type institution, somewhat similar to community colleges in the US.

HKU SPACE Community College
HKU SPACE Community College was established in March 2000. It mainly provides sub-degree programmes for Form 5 or Form 7 graduates to further their studies. There are three main streams of programmes provided, they are Higher Diploma Programmes (2- or 3-year full time), Pre-Associate Degree (1-year full time) and Associate Degree (2-year full time).

Libraries
HKU Libraries (HKUL) was established in 1912 and is the oldest academic library in Hong Kong with over 2.3 million holdings. While the total stock in physical volumes has been growing, the electronic collection has also expanded rapidly. A web-based library catalogue, DRAGON, allows one to search HKUL's books, journals and other resources.

HKUL now comprises the Main Library and six specialist branch libraries, the Dental, Education, Fung Ping Shan (East Asian Language), Yu Chun Keung Medical, Lui Che Woo Law and the Music Library. They are located in buildings around the campus with varying opening hours.

HKUL Digital Initiatives
The HKUL Digital Initiatives, through its digitization projects, has opened up online access to local collections originally in print format. The first HKUL Digital Initiative, ExamBase, was launched in 1996 and other projects of scholarly interests were subsequently introduced. More digital projects are being developed to provide continuous access to digital content and services. It now provides open access to a number of Chinese and English academic and medical periodicals published in Hong Kong.

Student life
The university provides other services to meet students' personal needs, including

* Career Education and Placement Centre
* Computer Centre
* Centre of Development and Resources for Students
* Personal Development and Counselling Centre
* Sports and Recreation Programmes/Facilities
* University Dental Service
* University Health Service
* University Museum and Art Gallery (formerly Fung Ping Shan Museum)

Residential halls
The largest residential hall in HKU, Starr Hall.

Mostly male and female with shared room types unless specified.

* St. John's College (co-ed undergraduates and postgraduates, an Anglican Foundation College, single room)
* Morrison Hall (male undergraduates and co-ed postgraduates)
* Ricci Hall (male only, run by Jesuit Fathers, single room)
* Lady Ho Tung Hall (female only, shared room)
* University Hall (male only)
* Robert Black College (named after Governor Robert Black, postgraduates and visitors only)
* Swire Hall
* Simon K. Y. Lee Hall
* Lee Hysan Hall
* R.C. Lee Hall
* Wei Lun Hall
* Madam S.H. Ho Residence for Medical Students
* Pokfield Road Residences
* Graduate House (postgraduates only)
* Starr Hall (The largest residential hall in HKU)
* Patrick Manson Student Residences
* Lee Shau Kee Hall
* Suen Chi Sun Hall

Non-residential halls
* Hornell Hall (male only)
* Duchess of Kent Hall (female only)
* Lee Chi Hung Hall (co-educational)

Student organisations
There are two officially recognised student bodies, giving opportunities for students to participate in extracurricular activities.

The Hong Kong University Students' Union (HKUSU) principally serves the undergraduate students. This organization is renowned amongst student activists, having been the main driving force behind evicting a chancellor in recent years. There was controversy when the head of the Students' Union, Ayo Chan, said that some of the protesters involved in the Tiananmen Square Massacre had acted irrationally. Many students thought his remarks were offensive and he was ousted by a vote in under one week. The Postgraduate Students Association (PGSA) represents the postgraduate students.

People affiliated with HKU
Being the oldest and the only university in Hong Kong for decades, the University of Hong Kong has educated many notable people. One of them was Dr Sun Yat-sen, founding president of the Republic of China, who was a graduate of the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, the predecessor of HKU. Over 40 principal officials, permanent secretaries, and Executive Council/Legislative Council members of the Hong Kong SAR Government are HKU graduates. HKU graduates also form the senior management teams of many large organisations in the private sector, covering many business and professional fields.

Study abroad programme
In 2009, the Times Higher Education Supplement ranked the University of Hong Kong 24th in the world. Student welfare is served by several units, including the Centre of Development and Resources for Students (CEDARS), which provides guidance for most areas of student life; and University Health Service, which provides health care, referrals and preventive services. This student run organization offers more than 100 clubs and associations catering to the diverse interest of the student population.

Studying abroad students will be assigned to a local student who they can correspond with prior to departure for Hong Kong. These local students assist visiting students upon arrival at the airport, assist with settling into student residence and offer advice and support during their stay.

To date, more than 3,000 students have participated in the exchange programmes through universities spanning 18 countries around the world with the support of the University Grants Committee, the University of Hong Kong Foundation for Educational Development and Research, the Hongkong Bank Foundation, the UBC Alumni Association (Hong Kong), the Dr. Lee Shiu Scholarships for Hong Kong and South-East Asia Academic Exchange, Shell (Hong Kong) Limited, and the C.V. Starr Scholarship Fund and other donations.

Future development
In 2003, the HKU management panel put forth a strategic development plan with the goal of placing HKU even higher among the world's best universities in the next decade or so.

The University will build a new campus, the Centennial Campus, west of the Main Campus. The construction of the Centennial Campus began in 2008, and will have been completed by 2011.

In addition to increased academic research and development, HKU also aims to promote continuing education to the public, through improved links between the University and the School of Professional and Continuing Education (SPACE).

HKU is also trying to better its alumni and external network for financially sustainable development.

Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK

2011-01-11T09:54:00.000-08:00

Queen's University Belfast (Irish: Ollscoil na Banríona, Béal Feirste) is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The university's official title, per its charter, is the Queen's University of Belfast. It is often referred to simply as Queen's, or by the abbreviation QUB. The university was chartered in 1845, and opened in 1849 as "Queen's College, Belfast", but has roots going back to 1810 and the Royal Belfast Academical Institution.

Queen's is a member of the Russell Group of the UK's 20 leading research intensive universities, the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the European University Association, Universities Ireland and Universities UK. The university offers academic degrees at various levels and across a broad subject range, with over 300 degree programmes available. The university's current President and Vice-Chancellor is Professor Peter Gregson, and its Chancellor is the current Secretary General of the Commonwealth of Nations, Kamalesh Sharma.

The University also forms the focal point of the Queen's Quarter area of the city, one of Belfast's seven cultural districts.

History
Queen's University Belfast has its roots in the Belfast Academical Institution, which was founded in 1810 and remains as the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. The present university was first chartered as "Queen's College, Belfast" in 1845, when it was associated with the simultaneously founded Queen's College, Cork and Queen's College, Galway as part of the Queen's University of Ireland - founded to encourage higher education for Catholics and Presbyterians, as a counterpart to Trinity College, Dublin, then an Anglican institution. Queen's College, Belfast opened in 1849. Its main building, the Lanyon Building, was designed by the English architect, Sir Charles Lanyon. At its opening, it had 23 professors and 343 students. Some early students at Queen's University Belfast took University of London examinations.
War Memorial and main entrance

The Irish Universities Act, 1908 dissolved the Royal University of Ireland, which had replaced the Queen's University of Ireland in 1879, and created two separate universities: the current National University of Ireland and Queen's University of Belfast.

Queen's has been led by a distinguished line of Vice-chancellors, including Sir David Keir, Lord Ashby of Brandon, Dr Michael Grant, Sir Arthur Vick, Sir Peter Froggatt, Sir Gordon Beveridge, and Sir George Bain, the current Vice Chancellor is Professor Peter Gregson.

The university's Chancellors have included Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 9th Earl of Shaftesbury, Field Marshall Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, Sir Tyrone Guthrie, Eric Ashby, Baron Ashby and George J. Mitchell. The incumbent is Kamalesh Sharma.

Parliamentary representation
The university was one of only eight United Kingdom universities to hold a parliamentary seat in the Parliament of the United Kingdom at Westminster until such representation was abolished in 1950. The university was also represented in the Parliament of Northern Ireland from 1920–1968, where its graduates elected four seats.

Academic life
In addition to the main campus not far from the centre of Belfast, the university has two associated university colleges, these being St Mary's and Stranmillis both also located in Belfast. Although offering a range of degree courses, these colleges primarily provide training for those wishing to enter the teaching profession. The university has formal agreements with other colleges in Northern Ireland and operates several outreach schemes to rural areas.

While the university refers to its main site as a campus, the university's buildings are in fact spread over a number of public streets in South Belfast, centring around University Road, University Square and Stranmillis Road, with other departments located further afield.

On June 20, 2006 the university announced a £259 million investment programme focusing on facilities, recruitment and research. One of the outcomes of this investment has been a new university library, opened in July 2009.

In June 2010, the university announced that they would be launching a £7.5m Ansin international research hub with Seagate Technologies.

Schools
Academics at Queen's are organized into twenty schools across three faculties. Each school operates as a primary management unit of the university and the schools are the focus for education and research for their respective subject areas.

* School of Biological Sciences
* School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
* School of Education
* School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
* School of English
* School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology
* School of History and Anthropology
* School of Languages, Literatures and Performing Arts
* School of Law
* Queen's University Management School

* School of Mathematics and Physics
* School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
* School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences
* School of Music and Sonic Arts
* School of Nursing and Midwifery
* School of Pharmacy
* School of Planning, Architecture and Civil Engineering
* School of Politics, International Studies and Philosophy
* School of Psychology
* School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work

Institutes
Several institutes are also associated with Queen's. Located close to the main campus is the Institute of Professional Legal Studies at Queen's which offers training to law graduates to enable them to practise as solicitors or barristers in Northern Ireland, England & Wales and the Republic of Ireland.

The Institute of Theology consists of several colleges with a Christian emphasis, including St Mary's (Catholic), Union Theological College (Presbyterian) as well as Baptist and Methodist colleges in Belfast. In all five colleges teach any programmes with a theological emphasis on behalf of the university; the university may confer theology degrees but cannot teach the subject itself.

Reputation
Queen's University Belfast was admitted to the Russell Group of UK research-intensive universities in November 2006.

* In the prestigious 2010 QS World University Rankings, Queen`s University Belfast was ranked 197th moving up 4 places from 2009.
* The UK wide research assessment exercise (RAE), announced in December 2008, showed Queen’s has 11 subject areas ranked within the top 10 in the UK and 24 in the top 20. With almost 800 staff submitted, every area had research assessed as world leading.
* In its independent 2009 league tables The Guardian newspaper placed the university at number 46 out of 117 institutes of higher education within the United Kingdom, a drop of 17 places compared to 2008 .
* In its independent 2009 league tables The Times placed the university at equal 31st out of 113 ranked universities in its Good University Guide.
* In its independent 2008 league tables The Sunday Times placed Queen's at number 37 of 119 in its University Guide 2006 League Table, up two places from the previous year.
* In 2007 the Times Higher-QS World University rankings (known from 2010 onwards as the QS World University Rankings placed Queen's at number 88 out of the top 150 universities in Europe and commented that Queen's 'is a leader in innovation and education with an international academic reputation'.

Admissions and students
Entrants to Queen's have, on average, 359 A/AS-level points and there are currently 5.3 applications per place.[39] The Sunday Times has described the Queen's admissions policy as "among the most socially inclusive in Britain and Northern Ireland".[39] 99.5 per cent of first degree entrants are from state schools,[40] although this is mainly due to the lack of private schools in Northern Ireland.

The total student population is 24,560, of whom 19,165 are undergraduates and 5,395 postgraduates. Of the undergraduate population, 18,145 are from the UK, 640 from elsewhere in the European Union and 380 are from outside the EU. The figures for postgraduates are 4,115 from the UK, 650 from elsewhere in the EU, and 630 from the rest of the world, mainly from China, India, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Queen's was established as a non-sectarian institution, with the aim of attracting both Protestant and Catholic students. While the university does not publish data on the religion affiliation of its students, Rupert Taylor, who conducted his PhD research on the university during The Troubles, argued in an article published in 1988 that "Whilst in the past, especially before the Second World War, Catholics were under-represented this is not currently the case". Taylor cites data showing that Catholic representation amongst undergraduates rose from 21.9 per cent in 1958/59 to 27.4 per cent in 1968/69 and 42.5 per cent in 1978/79. By the late 1990s, 54 per cent of Queen's students were Catholics, compared to a 48 per cent share of the Northern Ireland population aged 18–25. The growing share of Catholics in the student population is in part due to the tendency of middle-class Protestants to go to university in Great Britain rather than Northern Ireland.

Student life
The Students' Union at Queen's (QUBSU) is located opposite the Lanyon Building on University Road, and is provided for under the University's Statutes. All students at the University are automatic members of the Union, making it one of the largest Unions on a single campus in Ireland and the UK. It is administered by the Students' Representative Council (SRC) (elected every October, on a Faculty basis) and an Executive (elected in March), who manage the operations of the Union in conjunction with several full time staff.

Union Services
A range of services are provided by the Students' Union following its reopening in March 2007 after a £9 million redevelopment, including an Advice Centre with full-time staff to help with issues such as money problems, accommodation and welfare. Commercial services are also provided for by the Union and include a shop, canteen and coffee franchise. There are also four pubs within the building, the biggest of which, the Mandela Hall, hosts concerts and the Shine nightclub.
David Keir building, Stranmillis

Clubs and Societies
More than fifty sporting clubs and over 100 non-sporting societies are recognised by the Student's Union Council and therefore eligible to apply for an annual grant from the University.[43] The QUB boathouse, home of Queen's University Belfast Boat Club (QUBBC) and Queen's University of Belfast Ladies Boat Club (QUBLBC), is located on the River Lagan near Stranmillis. The Dragonslayers Gaming Society hosts one of Ireland's largest games conventions, Q-Con, in June of each year, and cultural groups such as An Cumann Gaelach and the Ulster-Scots Society are also present. The Queen's University Mountaineering Club is notable for producing three Everest summiteers including Ireland's first, Dawson Stelfox. Dr Roger McMorrow and Dr Nigel Hart also summited in May 2007, and were subsequently jointly announced Queen's University Graduates of the year for 2006/07 for their role in rescuing a young Nepalese climber left for dead near the summit.

Housing
Queen's provides housing for both undergraduates and postgraduates, although because of the compact size of Northern Ireland many students chose to live at home and commute to the university. In 2005/06, 36 per cent of Queen's students lived in private accommodation within Belfast, 29 per cent lived with parents or guardians, 20 per cent in private accommodation outside of Belfast, and 10 per cent lived in university maintained accommodation.

The university provides accommodation on a purpose-built 'student village' called Elms Village, which has its own bar and shop, located on the Malone Road, south of the main campus, as well as in a number of houses in the South Belfast area, including at College Gardens and on Mount Charles.

Cultural life
The university hosts the annual Belfast Festival at Queen's and the Belfast Film Festival, and in 2007 held the Irish Student Drama Association Festival.[citation needed] It runs Northern Ireland's only arthouse cinema, Queen's Film Theatre, and an art gallery, the Naughton Gallery at Queen's, which is a registered museum. In 2008 the Naughton Gallery was awarded the prestigious Times Higher Award for Excellence and Innovation in the Arts. Housed in the Lanyon building since 2001 is a marble statue by Pio Fedi of the great physicist Galileo, portrayed deep in thought.

University of Portsmouth, England, UK

2011-01-11T09:49:00.000-08:00

The University of Portsmouth is a university in Portsmouth, England. The University was ranked 60th out of 122th in The Sunday Times University Guide. The University is a member of the University Alliance, a group of 23 major business-focussed pre and post 1992 universities.

History
The University was founded as the Portsmouth and Gosport School of Science and the Arts in 1869. Due to the dependence on shipping and trade to the city, the main function of the college was to train the engineers and skilled workmen who went on to work at the city docks, as well as at the large Royal Navy dockyard situated in Portsmouth. However, due to a decline in shipping and population since World War II, when large swathes of the city were destroyed by German bombing, the college was forced to diversify in terms of its syllabus and teaching in order to attract new students.

This steadily continued until the 1960s when, due to a massive government-sponsored expansion in Higher Education, the college was renamed Portsmouth Polytechnic. Along with this new name came the power for Portsmouth to award degrees, accredited and validated by the centralised CNAA. The expansion of the polytechnic continued and in the late 1980s, it was considered one of the largest and the best performing polytechnics in the UK. Portsmouth was granted university status with the power to validate its own degrees along with the other polytechnics in 1992, under the provision of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992.

The University of Portsmouth is managed in accordance with Articles of Government approved by the Secretary of State. The Act also set the general format for an Instrument of Government determining the membership, constitution and organisational structure of Boards of Governors.

The formal inauguration of the University of Portsmouth was celebrated at a ceremony in the Portsmouth Guildhall on 7 July 1992.

Campus
The University is split between two campuses: Guildhall and Langstone.

Langstone is the smaller of the two campuses, located in Milton on the eastern edge of Portsea Island, the island on which the city of Portsmouth sits. The campus overlooks Langstone Harbour and it is home to the University's sports grounds. It also includes a restaurant and bar, as well as a 'student village', which provides accommodation for 565 students in three halls of residence; Queen Elizabeth Queen Mother (QEQM), Trust Hall and Langstone Flats. Students in QEQM and Langstone Flats have en-suite rooms. It used to be home of the University's School of Languages and Area Studies. The School has now moved into the Park Building on the Guildhall Campus.

The Guildhall site is much larger. Unlike most university campuses, it is not all enclosed on one tract of land, instead featuring various university buildings scattered throughout the centre of the city. This campus contains much of the University's teaching facilities, and nearly all of the Student Halls of residence (except the Langstone student village and two halls (Rees Hall and Burrell House) located on Southsea Terrace, the city's main esplanade).

The University Library (formerly the Frewen Library) was extended in 2006 at a cost of £11 million. Originally due to open in October, ongoing delays meant that it was not complete until January 2007, when it was opened by the crime writer P. D. James. The University has also in recent years invested in the Faculty of Science, in particular through the renovation of its aluminium-clad main building (St Michael's) which is adjacent to the student halls, James Watson.

A new faculty called "Creative and Cultural Industries" was opened in September 2006. It aims to provide a unique environment in which all aspects of creative thinking will flourish and develop by combining creative schools from across the university.

Academic organisation
[edit] Structure

Portsmouth Business School

* Department of Accounting and Finance
* Department of Economics
* Department of Human Resource and Marketing Management
* Department of Strategy and Business Systems
* School of Law

Faculty of Technology

* School of Civil Engineering and Surveying
* School of Computing
* Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation
* Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering
* Department of Mathematics
* Department of Mechanical and Design Engineering

Faculty of Science

* School of Biological Sciences
* School of Earth and Environmental Sciences
* Department of Geography
* Dental Academy
* School of Health Sciences and Social Work
* Institute of Marine Sciences
* School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences
* Department of Psychology
* Department of Sport and Exercise Science
* The Expert Centre (CETL)

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

* Institute of Criminal Justice Studies
* School of Education and Continuing Studies
* School of Languages and Area Studies
* School of Social, Historical, and Literary Studies
* Foundation Direct (CETL)
* Sigma Research (based in London)

Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries

* Portsmouth School of Architecture
* School of Art, Design, and Media
* School of Creative Arts, Film, and Media
* School of Creative Technologies
* Portsmouth Centre for Enterprise
* Institute of Industrial Research

Students' Union
The University of Portsmouth Students' Union was voted best Union in the UK in the New Musical Express in 2004. Formerly housed in the ex-NAAFI (Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes) building Alexandra House, a new £6.5 million purpose-built Union was opened in 2002 at the other end of Ravelin Park, to the north of Frewen Library, though the main entertainment area has been significantly altered recently.

The Union houses a bar and a Co-Op grocery shop, along with Blackwells bookshop, Connect up the university's computer help store and also its own radio station, Pure FM. The Union formerly comprised two nightclubs, Lux and Co2, however it has been announced these will close with immediate effect.

Since the summer of 2005, a restructure resulted in the division of the Union into the UPSU - whose broad remit covers such areas as providing representation and running University clubs and societies - and its trading-orientated operations, under the remit of the University of Portsmouth Enterprise Ltd., a company owned by the University of Portsmouth to offer "to business, industry and the public sector the wide range of skills and knowledge in the University".

In June 2010 The University of Portsmouth Students' Union was the first Students' Union within England and Wales to register as a full charity. The change came so as to comply with legislation introduced in 2006.

The University announced in June 2009 their intention to permanently close two of the remaining three late-night entertainment venues, with both clubs Lux and Co2 closing.

The Students' Union offers a range of sports clubs and social societies for students. The sports on offer vary from traditional team games like football, rugby union, netball and cricket to Octopush, a form of underwater hockey and men's lacrosse. Notably, the University is home to the longest-running university paintball club in the United Kingdom[citation needed]. Unsurprisingly given Portsmouth's rich maritime history and location, Sailing and Rowing are also very popular, and the sailing team enters a team the for the annual Cowes Week regatta on the Isle of Wight. There is also a range of extreme sports available, including wakeboarding, surfing, climbing and skiing and snowboarding. Ski and snowboard is the most popular club in the Athletic Union, with over 300 members and trips to various ski resorts in Europe. For those less sport-inclined, there are a whole host of student-run societies, including the award winning Amnesty Student Group, Juggling, Afro-Caribbean, LGBT, Pagan and Spiritual, Christian Union and Geography societies, as well as course-oriented societies such as the Politics Society, Brightsparks Enterprise Society which is affilated with the Portsmouth Centre of Enterprise, the Property Development Society based out of the School of Civil Engineering & Surveying, and the Student Law Society.

Despite not offering a degree in Music, the University has a full-time music department offering instrumental lessons and ensembles. These include the Choir, Orchestra, Wind Band and Big Band.

In April 2011, Brightsparks Enterprise Society and the UPSU will be organising the first ever student run variety show 'Not So Royal Variety Show' at the Kings Theatre, Southsea. The show aims to showcase as many students performing talent as possible, whether they be part of a club or society within the Students Union or if they are part of a group or an individual. The show will be funded entirely through sponsorship from local businesses, fundraising events prior to the show and through ticket sales.

The Student Union runs a number of volunteering projects, these have won awards such as HEFCE's Volunteering Team of the Year. In 2010 the Union was awarded a £15,000 grant to work with elderly residents in the city.

University of Portsmouth Enterprise Limited (UPEL), which operates the Student Centres Bar operation

Following financial difficulties in 2005, UPSU was re-structured and is now a registered charity, with its trading arm (UPSU Trading Ltd.) placed under the direct control of the University, through the auspices of UPEL (University of Portsmouth Enterprise Ltd, previously only used for commercialising research). As a result of this new investment, in October 2005 the Union was redeveloped.

People
University officers
On 16 May 2007, Sheila Hancock CBE was appointed Chancellor of the University.

Ms Hancock is an actor and author and received an honorary degree from the University in 2005 in particular recognition of her services to drama.

The former Chancellor was Lord Palumbo of Walbrook, a property developer who was once Chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain. He sits as a Conservative peer in the House of Lords and was educated at Eton College and also Worcester College, Oxford.

The Vice-Chancellor is Professor John Craven, who was appointed in 1997. Professor Craven is an economist, and was educated at the University of Cambridge and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He previously was a Professor of Economics at the University of Kent.

Deputy Vice Chancellor is Rebecca Bunting. Pro Vice Chancellors are Professor David Arrell and Professor John Turner.

Notable alumni
* Simon Armitage - Poet
* John Armitt CBE - Chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority for the 2012 Olympics
* David Chidgey, Baron Chidgey of Hamble-le-Rice in the County of Hampshire - Liberal Democrat politician
* Shirley Conran - Writer
* Ron Davies - Former Labour Politician and Former Secretary of State for Wales
* Kate Edmondson - Television presenter of TMF UK's 'The Loaded Hour'
* Malcolm Evans - Computer programmer
* Ben Fogle - Television presenter and Travel writer
* Simon Hill - Sports Commentator
* Frazer Irving - Comic book artist
* Rizwan Khan - Journalist
* Rachel Lowe - Game Designer, Entrepreneur & Head of RTL Games (Companies in liquidation)
* Diana Maddock, Baroness Maddock - Liberal Democrat politician
* Grayson Perry - Artist winner of the 2003 Turner Prize
* Ricky Salmon - Radio presenter
* Howie Watkins - Television presenter and "Performance Biologist"
* Asha Tanna - Television five news presenter
* Martin Whitmarsh - Team Principle of McLaren and Chief Executive of the McLaren Group
* Ehsan Masood - Science Journalist and Editor of Research Fortnight
* Timothy Peake - First British citizen to be selected as an astronaut
* John Akomfrah OBE - Film Director
* Adrian Carter - Architect, professor of architecture and Head of the Jørn Utzon Centre in Denmark

University of Plymouth, Enngland, UK

2011-01-11T09:38:00.000-08:00

The University of Plymouth is the largest university in the South West of England, with over 30,000 students and is 9th largest in the United Kingdom by total number of students (including the Open University). It has almost 3,000 staff (one of the largest employers in the southwest). The main campus is in the Devon city of Plymouth, but the university has campuses and affiliated colleges all over South West England.

History
The university was originally a Polytechnic College, with its constituent bodies being Plymouth Polytechnic, Rolle College, the Exeter School of Art and Design (which were, before April 1989, run by Devon County Council) and Seale-Hayne College (which before April 1989 was an independent charity). It was renamed Polytechnic South West in 1989 and remained as this until gaining university status in 1992 along with the other polytechnics. The new university absorbed the Plymouth School of Maritime Studies and Tavistock College.

In 2006 part of the remains of the World War II Portland Square air-raid shelter were rediscovered on the Plymouth campus. On the night of 22 April 1941, during the Blitz, a bomb fell here killing over 70 civilians, including a mother and her six children. The bomb blast was so violent that human remains were found in the tops of trees. Only three people escaped alive, all children. In 2006, an appeal was made to raise money for a public sculpture to honour those who lost their lives.

Professor Roland Levinsky was the University's vice-chancellor until his death on 1 January 2007, when he walked into live electrical cables brought down during a storm. He was temporarily replaced by Professor Mark Cleary (now VC of the University of Bradford), and then by Professor Steve Newstead. Professor Wendy Purcell became VC on 1 December 2007.

The University was selected by the Royal Statistical Society in October 2008 to home its Centre for Statistical Education.

Campus
When university status was gained in 1992, the university was based in various locations. Under then Vice-Chancellor Roland Levinsky, the university began a policy of centralising its campus activities in Plymouth. The Faculty of Arts based in Exmouth moved to the new Roland Levinsky arts building in August 2007, bringing subjects including Fine Art, History of Art, Photography and 3-D Design to Plymouth. Theatre & Performance, based in Exmouth also moved at this time. The Roland Levinsky Building was designed by architects Henning Larsen with Building Design Partnership. The building is clad with copper sheets in a seamed-cladding technique, is nine storeys high and has 13,000 square metres (140,000 sq ft) of floor space. The building contains two large lecture theatres, and the Jill Craigie Cinema, which is used by the film students to display their films and for showing of films to the public. There is also a public art gallery, which is where local artists groups, students and famous artists can have work displayed.

The Exmouth campus - Rolle College - housed the Faculty of Education and relocated to the new Rolle Building in August 2008. The decision was unpopular with students and the town of Exmouth itself, there were several protest marches and a campaign to keep the campus open.

An exception to the trend of centralising activities are the University's extensive activities in education for the health professions. In addition many of its students are taught at Further Education Colleges throughout Devon, Cornwall and Somerset, such as South Devon College. Dartington College of Arts has been cited as an example but was an independent college of higher education and not a further education college. A new building which opened in 2008 is shared between the Peninsula Medical School and the Faculty of Health and Social Work, highlighting some movement towards Plymouth.
Recently completed developments include Portland Square, a library extension, refurbished and new laboratory and teaching facilities in many of the campus buildings, halls of residence near the Business School and a new £16 million Peninsula Medical School headquarters at Derriford, in the north of the city.

Student accommodation
For first year students, halls of residence and cluster flats are approved by the university. About 60% of first year students can gain a room in these facilities.

The University Partnership Programme (UPP) supplies and manages the student halls of residence at the university. Cluster flat developments close to the university are owned and managed by Unite plc. Places are allocated exclusively to first year students.

The university provides an approved accommodation database. Approximately half of all first year students and virtually all second and third years choose their accommodation from the approved database. Special accommodation arrangements are made for students in some categories, such as postgraduate students and students with medical conditions.

Organisation and administration
Plymouth is a modern university that has undergone a great deal of development, including several new buildings.

Jointly with the University of Exeter and the National Health Service in the region, the University runs the recently founded Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry. A new £13 million building on the University of Plymouth's main campus provides teaching rooms, office space, a clinical skills laboratory and research facilities for the Plymouth-based activities of the School, along with the Faculty of Health and Social work.

Coat of arms
The Arms, Crest, Badge and Supporters forming the University’s Coat of Arms were granted on 10 April 2008, in Grant 173/189, by the College of Arms.

The books represent the University’s focus on learning and scholarship. The scattering of small stars, represent navigation, which has played a key role in the history of the city and the university. The scallop shells in gold, represents pilgrimage, a sign of the importance of the departure of the Pilgrim Fathers from a site near the Mayflower Steps in the Barbican aboard the Mayflower in 1620. A Pelican and a Golden Hind support the shield and reflect both the original and later, better known, name of Sir Francis Drake’s ship. The crest contains the Latin motto, "Indagate Fingite Invenite” which translates as "Explore Dream Discover" and is a quote from Mark Twain, reflecting the university's ambitions for its students and Plymouth's history of great seafarers.

The Letters Patent granting Arms to the University of Plymouth were presented by Eric Dancer, CBE, JP, Lord Lieutenant of Devon, in a ceremony at the University on 27 November 2008, in the presence of Henry Paston-Bedingfeld, York Herald of the College of Arms, the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Plymouth, Judge William Taylor, the Recorder of Plymouth, and Baroness Judith Wilcox.

In line with the university's modern, enterprising image, the Coat of Arms are rarely seen in use, other than at graduation. The university tends to use the modern globe logo on stationery and signs and are very keen to keep the Coat of Arms exclusive. The use of the arms is therefore restricted to graduations and other formal ceremonies, degree certificates and associated materials and the exclusive use by the Office of the Vice-Chancellor.

Academic profile
New Faculty and School structure
The University of Plymouth has revised its academic structure to fully reflect its enterprise vision. Key developments include: the creation of a dynamic new Business School dedicated to ethical, sustainable business skills, and supporting the economic regeneration of our city and region; bringing together complementary subjects in a new combined faculty of Science and Technology and creating the largest Marine Science and Engineering School in Europe. This new structure is reflected on the University website. Please check for updated information at www.plymouth.ac.uk/schools.

The University of Plymouth has a wide variety of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes which are currently taught at its main city campus in Plymouth. The University scores well in law, psychology, geographical sciences, computing (including digital media) and computer science, fine art and art history. The Planetary Collegium, the international centre for research in art, technology and consciousness is based at Plymouth, with nodes in Milan and Zurich.m

Faculty of Arts
This faculty is host to the School of Architecture, Design and Environment, School of Art & Media and the School of Humanities and Performing Arts. Arts subjects are usually held in the Roland Levinsky building and the Scott building, a 19th century building located next to Roland Levinsky which was modernized externally in 2008 to keep to the university's current design. The faculty offers degrees in Architecture, English, History, Art History, 3D Design, Music, Photography, Media Arts, Theatre & Performance and Dance Theatre. Advanced research in new media art is provided by the Planetary Collegium.

Faculty of Education
Home to the School of Early Years and Primary Education Studies, the School of Partnership, Enterprise and Professional Studies and the School of Secondary and Further Education Studies. As well as PGCE programmes, the school can offer degrees in Early Childhood Studies and Education Studies.

Faculty of Health
This faculty is home to the School of Applied Psychosocial Studies, the School of Health Professions and the School of Nursing and Midwifery. The school offers courses in Adult Nursing, Child Health Nursing, Dietetics, Paramedicine and Health and Social Care Studies.

Faculty of Science and Technology
Home to the School of Biomedical and Biological Sciences, the School of Computing and Mathematics, the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Studies, the School of Marine Sciences and Engineering, and the School of Psychology. The faculty offers courses in Animal Science, Applied Biosciences, Biological Sciences, Environmental Biology, Environmental Science, Human Biosciences, Human Biology with Psychology, Marine Biology, Wildlife Conservation, Psychology, Applied Psychology, Psychology with Sociology, Psychology with Criminology, Composite materials, Electronics, Robotics, Civil, Coastal & Structural Engineering, Building & Construction Engineering, and Mathematics and Statistics.

The University of Plymouth is particularly renowned for its courses in maritime business, marine engineering, marine biology and Earth, ocean & environmental sciences.

The University provides professional diving qualifications on a numbers of its courses, the only university in the country provide this. This is provided by the University's own diving centre based next to Queen Anne's Battery Marina, with its full time team of instructors and dedicated boats and equipment.

In October 2005, The Sun newspaper voted the University of Plymouth as having the most bizarre degree course in the country, the BSc (Hons) in Surf Science & Technology. Commonly known as "surfing", this course is actually centred on coastal/ocean sciences, surfing equipment/clothing design and surfing-related business, which has its popularity increased by the geographical location of the University.

Plymouth Business School
The faculty is home to the Plymouth Law School, the School of Management and the School of Tourism and Hospitality. Courses on offer include in the areas of: Accounting Banking and Finance, Business, Criminology and Criminal Justice Studies, Economics, Hospitality, International Relations, Law, Management and Leadership, Marketing, Politics, Public Services, Shipping and Logistics, Sports and Leisure Management, Tourism.

The University of Plymouth has strong links with the cruising industry; the Plymouth Business School, offers courses in the Maritime and Cruising sector. The school offers BSc (Hons) in Cruise Management, where students can opt to take a year out to work with P&O or Princess Cruises for a period of two, four month periods. The University is also globally renowned for its courses in international shipping and logistics.[citation needed]

Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry
The Peninsula Medical School, part of the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, was established in 2000, and operates as a partnership between the University of Plymouth and the University of Exeter.

University of Plymouth Colleges
The University of Plymouth Colleges (UPC) network is a partnership between the University of Plymouth and local colleges that brings degrees to local doorsteps. There are hundreds of higher education courses available. UPC also provides many opportunities for progression on to other qualifications. For example, someone who has spent two years studying for a foundation degree at their local college – and who has successfully passed their exams – can, if they wish, move on to the final year of a full honours degree at the University of Plymouth.

* Bicton College
* Bridgwater College
* City of Bristol College
* City College Plymouth
* Cornwall College
* East Devon College
* Exeter College
* Greenwich School of Management
* North Devon College
* Penwith College
* Somerset College of Arts and Technology (SCAT)
* South Devon College
* Truro College

UPC Associates include:

* Estover Community College
* Highlands College Jersey
* John Kitto Community College
* Strode College
* Weymouth College
* Plymouth Devon International College (PDIC)

From September 2010 University of Plymouth is the main sponsor of Marine Academy Plymouth

Reputation and rankings
On the basis of the results of the 2008 RAE Plymouth has leapt 15 places to join the top 50 universities, showing the greatest improvement in the UK in research performance since the last RAE, in 2001.. It is settled at 35th place in the 2007 publication; The Times table, which unlike The Guardian takes research performance into account, places it 55th and bills it as one of the top two modern universities in the UK. The Guardian 2011 Guide describes the University as "delivering a first class campus", as well as placing Plymouth in the "top 20" for Anatomy and Physiology 2, Art and Design 20, Electronic and Electrical Engineering 19, Mechanical Engineering 20, Mathematics 13, Music 18, Nursing 19, Sport Science 15 and Tourism Transport and Travel 11. In conjunction with the current restructuring, the university's aim is to become the enterprise university, pivotal in a city acknowledged as the enterprise capital of the south west.

Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry (PCMD), England

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Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry (PCMD) is a Medical and Dental school in England, run in partnership with the University of Exeter, the University of Plymouth and the NHS in Devon and Cornwall. The school has campuses at the University of Plymouth, the University of Exeter, the John Bull Building (Derriford Hospital and Tamar Science Park), the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital and the Royal Cornwall Hospital.

History
Peninsula Medical School was established on 1 August 2000 following a successful bid to the Government, as part of a national expansion of medical student numbers in the UK. The bid was creatively led by Professor Sir John Tooke, who was then working in a joint appointment between the University of Exeter and the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital. Professor Tooke was subsequently appointed as the school's first Dean, a post he held until Autumn 2009; his vision and drive have been recognised nationally by his appointment as Chair of the UK Committee of Heads of Medical Schools, and by the award of a Knighthood in the New Year Honours list for 2007. The school was opened as a part of the British Government's attempts to train more doctors, which also saw Brighton and Sussex Medical School, University of East Anglia Medical School, Hull York Medical School and Keele University Medical School open their doors.

Undergraduate Degree Programme
Peninsula Medical School’s Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (BM,BS) degree programme has been designed specifically to develop students to meet the challenges facing health care in the new century. The first intake of 130 undergraduate students commenced their studies on 30 September 2002. From September 2003, the annual intake rose to 167. In January 2006 Peninsula Medical School was awarded funding for a further expansion, and the UK and overseas places increased. The School's intake rose to 214 from September 2006 and 230 from September 10

The Key Elements are:

• The programme is centred around patient exposure for students, small group work and delivered in a supportive and research rich environment. Clinical skills training starts in the first week in the Clinical Skills Resource Centre.

• Science and clinical skills are integrated in the medical curriculum and student doctors learn in a variety of health care environments from acute hospital to general practice and other community settings; e.g. voluntary agencies, nursing homes or terminal care nursing facilities. Being community-wide. The School involves the students in health care provision in a wide range of community-based settings throughout Devon and Cornwall and thus provides a clinical educational experience more suited for the new NHS.

• Students are prepared for the future roles they will undertake in health care. They must be able to communicate, work well in teams, have the ability to make decisions, lead when appropriate and be effective under pressure. Particular emphasis os placed on training doctors to be part of a multi-professional team and to understand and appreciate the roles of other health care professionals.

• Students are taught to approach clinical problems holistically, appreciating personal and social dimensions as well as the biomedical basis of disease.

• Assessment methods at Peninsula Medical School encourage the development of clinical and patient skills and the in depth knowledge students will need to underpin their future career.

• The primary aim of the Peninsula Medical School is to ensure that students can perform their first clinical role with confidence and competence and have established a platform to successfully engage in a lifetime of learning.

Undergraduate Programme Structure
For the first two years of the undergraduate programme students are based at either the University of Exeter or the University of Plymouth. The learning emphasis is placed upon biomedical sciences, taught within the context of relevant clinical problems. From the first week of the programme students learn in various community-based clinical environments.

In years three and four, students spend the majority of their time in acute and community-based clinical placements and are based at one of the School's three main localities in Exeter, Truro or Plymouth.

During year five students are attached to clinical apprenticeships with general practitioners and consultants throughout Devon and Cornwall.

Research
Peninsula Medical School is a research-led institution, conducting international quality research in areas of major health priority and need. Research within the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry focuses on four main themes; Diabetes, Cardiovascular Risk and Ageing, Neuroscience (embracing both neurology and mental health), Health Services Research and Environment and Human Health.

In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) Peninsula Medical School submitted in two Units of Assessment: "Other Hospital Based Clinical Subjects" and "Health Services Research". In "Other Hospital Based Clinical Subjects", 65% of their submission was judged to be of international or world class quality. This ranked Peninsula Medical School's research 11th of 27 submissions from other UK Medical Schools. This placed their research in this category above many well established medical schools.

Their research in the "Health Services Research" category was also judged to be of high international standard, with 50% of Peninsula Medical School's submission judged as international or world class, ranking them 13th out of 24 submissions.

Oxford Brookes University

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Oxford Brookes University is a new university in Oxford, England. It was named to honour the school's founding principal, John Brookes. It has been ranked as the best new university (post 1992) by the Sunday Times University Guide. It provides one of the largest Online MBA programmes in the world (30th) as ranked by the Financial Times Listing.

History
Oxford Brookes has roots in Oxford that go back to 1865, when it was known as the Oxford School of Art, located in a single room on the ground floor of the Taylor Institution, St. Giles. In 1870 the School of Science was incorporated into the School of Art. In 1891, under the administration of the City Council's Technical Instruction Committee, it was renamed the Oxford City Technical School, incorporating the School of Art, and plans were made to relocate to the former Blue Coat School for Boys on St. Ebbes. In 1934 the School of Art and the Technical School were merged, and John Henry Brookes, Vice Principal of the Technical School, was appointed the first principal of the merged institution. Renamed "Oxford College of Technology" in 1956, its first residence hall was established in 1960 and the college relocated to Headington in 1963. In 1970, it became Oxford Polytechnic, and in 1992, following enactment of the Further and Higher Education Act was renamed Oxford Brookes University. In October 2003 Oxford Brookes university became the first university in the world to be awarded Fairtrade status. In 2007 Oxford Brookes came fifth in the new environmental league table of universities and received a first class rating for its environmental credentials.

Although not a part of Oxford University, it is among the eight external institutions whose members are eligible for long-term temporary membership in the Oxford Union.

Oxford Brookes is the eighth largest employer in Oxfordshire, providing 2,500 jobs across the University.

Schools
Oxford Brookes comprises eight schools:

* School of Arts and Humanities
* School of the Built Environment
* Business School
* School of Health and Social Care
* School of Life Sciences
* School of Social Sciences and Law
* School of Technology
* Westminster Institute of Education

Specialist study
The Centre for Development and Emergency Practice (CENDEP) in the School of the Built Environment was awarded the Queen's Anniversary Prize and is well known for its programme for humanitarian practitioners. CENDEP provides an academic setting for the study of cities, humanitarianism and refugees. Singer and activist Annie Lennox is patron of the Master's Course in Humanitarian and Development Practice.

In 2007, The MSc in Primate Conservation was awarded the highly-prestigious Queen's Anniversary Prize – a national honour recognising the outstanding contribution by the MSc programme team and the Department of Anthropology & Geography at Oxford Brookes.

Automotive engineering
The Oxford Brookes School of Technology is well known for its automotive and motorsports technology/engineering courses leading to undergraduate BSc(Hons), BEng(Hons) and MEng(Hons) degrees. Due to the close links between Oxford Brookes and several Formula 1 teams around Oxfordshire, the syllabus development for the undergraduate and post graduate courses are carried out in collaboration with F1 teams. Over the decade, the school has developed a niche for producing Formula 1 design and race engineers, who go on to build championship winning cars, participating in the FIA Formula 1 Championships. The school is also home and lead institution to Motorsport Knowledge Exchange which is a Government-funded small cooperative of institutions, involved in delivering motorsport education at a variety of different levels, from technician to post-graduate.

In 2007, Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso sponsored 12 Spanish masters degree students to study motorsport engineering at the university. Participants, in specific will study either an MSc in Motorsport Engineering or in race engine design with the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mathematical Sciences at Oxford Brookes. The university, which is based in the centre of the UK's "motorsport valley", boasts a teaching staff that includes Prof. Geoff Goddard, a former chief designer at Cosworth. Jamie Cole & Jose Gonzalez also studied for a Bachelors Degree in engineering at the School of Technology.

The School of Technology at Oxford Brookes is one of the three core universities in Faraday Advance, the partnership in advanced materials for transportation. Faraday Advance works to increase the impact of science on UK business competitiveness in the automotive, aerospace and transport sectors by developing future materials and technology for low-pollution, high-efficiency, cost-effective transport. The core partners in Faraday Advance are the University of Oxford, Oxford Brookes University and Cranfield University.

The Functional Food Centre at Oxford Brookes University
The Functional Food Centre at Oxford Brookes University is the UK's first Research Centre dedicated to Functional Foods. The Centre opened in early 2009 and builds on the services and expertise previously provided by the Nutrition and Food Research Group at Oxford Brookes. This group had been in existence since 1984 and renamed itself in 2009 to draw on the knowledge and expertise of its new staff. The Functional Food Centre is led by its Director - Professor Jeya Henry and is known internationally for its work on Glycaemic Index and is the largest testing centre in Europe. The centre also focuses its research on areas such as satiety, dietary interventions, female nutrition and aging.

Campuses
Oxford Brookes University has three main campuses.

Headington campus
The Headington campus is located in Headington, a residential area of Oxford, one mile from the city centre. It consists of the Gipsy Lane site, which is the main teaching site, the Marston Road site, being the school of Health and Social Care, and the Headington Hill site across the road from Gipsy Lane, where the Students' Union and main halls of residence are located. It has seven halls of residence: Crescent Hall, Cheney Student Village, Clive Booth Hall, Clive Booth Non-Ensuite (formerly Morrell Hall), Warneford Hall, Cotuit Hall, Paul Kent Hall.

Wheatley campus
The Wheatley campus is set near Wheatley in the Oxfordshire countryside, seven miles south-east of the city centre, and is where business, IT, mathematics and more recently engineering subjects are taught. It has one hall of residence: Lady Spencer Churchill Hall.

Harcourt Hill campus
The Harcourt Hill campus is situated on Harcourt Hill on Oxford's western perimeter, two and a half miles from the city centre. Education, Philosophy, Theology, Media and Communication, and many other subjects are taught here, in a landscaped setting overlooking the city. It has one hall of residence: Harcourt Hill Hall. A regular bus service links the campus to other campuses at Headington and Wheatley.

The campus was formerly the site of Westminster College, Oxford, the only independent Methodist higher education institution in Europe, which specialised in Teacher Training and Theology, and whose degree-level students were awarded their degrees by the University of Oxford upon successful completion of their course. The campus was purpose-built for the Westminster College's move from London to Oxford in the 1950s, and was leased to Brookes by the Methodist Church. Westminster College lives on in the Westminster Institute of Education of Oxford Brookes University, located at the Harcourt Hill campus.

Plans
Oxford Brookes is redeveloping its campuses in cooperation with Design Engine architects (architects of the British Embassy at Sana'a, Yemen and University Centre, Winchester). Plans include a new library and teaching building acting as a core for the Gipsy Lane Campus and extension to the Abercrombie building for the School of the Built Environment. These are two examples of an ambitious "masterplan" that promises to revamp the entire campus. However, the proposals were vigorously opposed by local residents in 2009 when presented to the local planning committee, with many undesirable aspects of the large student population in Oxford being discussed.

The new plans that were opposed by the local residents and the council in 2009 have now been approved.

Student Halls
There are currently 9 Student halls of which 4 of them are in Headington Campus, 1 in Harcourt Hill Campus, 1 in Wheatley Campus and 3 more halls around Headington. The halls are as follows:

Cheney Student Village
Next to Headington Campus. 750 en suite rooms, arranged in flats of five or six bedrooms with shared kitchen / living / dining rooms.

Clive Booth Hall, Ensuite
500 yards from Headington Campus. 792 en suite rooms arranged in flats of five or six bedrooms with shared kitchen / living / dining rooms.

Clive Booth Hall, Post Graduate Centre
500 yards from Headington Campus 249 en suite rooms arranged in flats of 3, 4, 5 or 6 with shared kitchens.

Clive Booth Hall, Non-Ensuite
500 yards from Headington Campus. 455 single study-bedrooms arranged in flats of five or six with shared kitchens and bathrooms.

Crescent Hall
1.75 miles from Headington Campus. 306 single study-bedrooms, each with a hand basin, arranged in flats of 6 or 7 with shared kitchens and bathrooms.

Harcourt Hill Hall
Harcourt Hill Campus 264 single study-bedrooms, with shared kitchens and bathrooms allocated to groups of 11.

Lady Spencer Churchill Hall
Wheatley Campus. 162 single study bedrooms accommodated in four blocks.

Paul Kent Hall
1.5 miles from Headington Campus 242 single study-bedrooms, most en suite, with shared kitchens allocated to groups of six to nine.

Warneford Hall
250 yards from Headington Campus. 249 single study-bedrooms, each with hand basin, with shared kitchens and showers allocated to groups of six (occasionally three or five).

Academic reputation
Oxford Brookes University has earned recognition for quality in architecture, art, economics, computer science, automotive/motorsports engineering, history, modern languages and publishing. The Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies is one of several programmes at Brookes that has expanded the university's reputation abroad.

The Department of Architecture is one of the largest in Britain and is consistently ranked in the top five schools in the UK. In the most recent 2008 survey by the Architect's Journal it was ranked fourth overall.

According to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, land and property programmes at Oxford Brookes University were placed second in the UK in The Times Good University Guide League Table for 2005. The Department of Real Estate and Construction was assessed by the Quality Assurance Agency in 1998 and was awarded the excellent mark of 23 out of 24.

Long regarded as a poor relation to its venerable neighbour, Oxford Brookes obtained a higher rating (5*) for its history department than Oxford University (5), in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise.

Oxford Brookes has been named as the leading modern university in the UK four years running from 1996 to 1999, and 7 times in the first 10 years of the Sunday Times annual ratings.

Football
Andrew Melville, ex Wales International captain and Fulham Football Club centre back is currently head coach for Oxford Brookes University Football Club 1st XI.

Rowing
Oxford Brookes Rowing Club currently has eight student and four alumni Olympic / World medalists at varying levels. The men's group contains eight Great Britain under-23 international athletes, and 15 athletes with Great Britain junior international experience. The club boasts 18 wins in 17 years at Henley Royal Regatta, most recently in 2009. The university boathouse is located at Cholsey, near Wallingford, a land-based rowing facility situated at the Centre for Sport at Headington Campus.

Boxing
Although Oxford Brookes Amateur Boxing club is under two years old, with full capacity at every training session.[citation needed]

Cricket
The University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes combine the best cricket players to make up the Oxford Universities Centre of Cricket Excellence (UCCE).

Basketball
Coached by former England captain Ken Walton, Brookes Men's 1st team has repeatedly reached the knock-out stages of the British Universities and Colleges(BUCS, formerly BUSA) and currently competes in Midlands Division 1A. They also compete in the England Basketball National League Division 3 South, finishing third in 2009/10 [1]. The University also puts out a Men's 2nd team which has competed in BUCS Midlands Division 2B for the last two seasons.

The Ladies' team also compete in BUCS, playing in Midlands Division 2A and reaching the Midlands Conference Cup final in 2009/2010. The 2010/11 season will see the team return to the Oxfordshire Women's Local League for the first time since 2007/2008.

Climbing/Outdoor Pursuits
Brookes is well known for its climbing wall and lead tower which combine the excitement of rock climbing with a safe indoor environment. There are weekend climbing trips in the UK throughout the year and overseas trips to the French Alps and the Pyrenees.

Hockey
Oxford Brookes Hockey Club is the largest sports club at Brookes and currently runs four men's and four women's teams in the BUSA leagues, as well as mixed teams that play locally at weekends. The men's first team plays in the Midlands Premier Division and are BUSA shield winners. The club has a full-time experienced coach who runs weekly training for all teams and additional fitness and skills sessions. Although the club does not play League Hockey at weekends, Brookes has close links with local clubs offering opportunities up to National League premier level, and many Brookes players take advantage of this.

Rugby League
September 2008 saw a giant leap forward for Student Rugby League in the area with the formation of the Oxford Brookes University Rugby League. The 1st team is also known as the Brookes Bull's, with the 2nd team being known as the Brookes Bandits. Their first season saw them winning the BUCS Rugby League South title as well as achieving this again in their second season. This has seen them promoted to the Midlands BUCS League where they will be playing much stronger competition. The Bulls have lost only one league games in two seasons of competition and feature a full men's international, England A International as well as well as numerous U21, U18 and Student international players. They are also a partner club of Barrow Raiders RLFC and a feeder club to Harlequins RL.

Rugby Union
Brookes Rugby shares ground and clubhouse facilities with Oxford Harlequins and Oxford Rugby Club. Students play competitive rugby with three men's and one women's team entered into the BUSA leagues. The men's first XV plays in the BUSA Premier League South B. The women's team won both the cup and league in the 2009/2010 season and were the highest ranked Brookes team, with an undefeated record.

Lacrosse
There are both a mens lacrosse and womens lacrosse team. The womens lacrosse team was established far earlier than the mens who's was started in 2009/2010.

Global partnership
Oxford Brookes University's partnership with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) allows ACCA students to earn a BSc (Hons) in Applied Accounting with the submission of a Research & Analysis project work while taking their ACCA examinations .

Tsinghua University will recognise the Oxford Brookes University BSc Applied Accounting degree, which has been successfully developed in conjunction with ACCA and which enables students who have completed two parts of the ACCA qualification to apply for the Oxford Brookes degree.

Munich Business School is the German partner institution of the university.

The University is also in partnership with the Budapest (Hungary) based institution of International Business School (Budapest) (Nemzetközi Üzleti Főiskola). IBS students can attend courses which, besides the Hungarian degree also provides OBU BA degrees in different subjects, such as Marketing, Communications, etc.

The University is also affiliated with Nilai University College in Malaysia. Affiliated subjects are computing, accounting & finance, business management, marketing management and hospitality management. All the subjects mentioned above are 3+0 programs.

Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK

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Loughborough University is a campus university located in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, in the East Midlands of England.

It has been a university since 1966, but the institution dates back to 1909, when the then Loughborough Technical Institute began with a focus on skills and knowledge which would be directly applicable in the wider world, a tradition which continues to this day, with the UNIEI funded Annual Survey on University Technology Transfer Activities finding Loughborough to be the most efficient technology transfer operation in the UK.

History
The University traces its roots back to 1909 when a Technical Institute was founded in the town centre. There followed a period of rapid expansion during which the Institute was renamed Loughborough College and the development of the present campus began.

In the early years, efforts were made to mimic the environment of an Oxbridge college (e.g. requiring students to wear gowns to lectures) whilst maintaining a strong practical counterbalance to academic learning. During World War I, the Institute served as an "instructional factory", training workers for the munitions industry.

The Loughborough colleges
Following the war, the Institute fragmented into four separate colleges:

* Loughborough Training College (teacher training)
* Loughborough College of Art (art and design)
* Loughborough College of Further Education (technical and vocational)
* Loughborough College of Technology (technology and science)

The last was to become the nucleus of the present university. Its rapid expansion from a small provincial college was due largely to the efforts of its Principal, Dr Herbert Schofield (1882–1963).

In 1966, the College of Advanced Technology as it had then become received university status. In 1977, the University broadened its range of studies by amalgamating with Loughborough College of Education (formerly the Training College). More recently, in August 1998, the University merged with Loughborough College of Art and Design (LCAD). Loughborough College is still a college of further education.

The influence of Herbert Schofield
Schofield became Principal in 1915 and continued to lead the College of Technology until 1950. Over his years as principal, the college changed almost beyond recognition. He purchased the estate of Burleigh Hall on the western outskirts of the town, which became the nucleus of the present 433 acre (1.75 km²) campus. He also oversaw the building of the Hazlerigg and Rutland halls of residence.

From college to university
In 1963, the Robbins Report on higher education recommended that all Colleges of Advanced Technology should be given the status of universities. Consequently, on 19 April 1966 Loughborough College of Technology was granted a Royal Charter and became Loughborough University of Technology.
University Centre of Cricket Excellence (UCCE) logo
Aeronautical & Automotive Engineering department

It gradually remodelled itself in the image of the plate glass universities of the period, which had also been created under Robbins.

Later history
In 1977, Loughborough Training College (now renamed Loughborough College of Education) was absorbed into the University. The Arts College was also amalgamated with the University in 1998. These additions have diluted the technological flavour of the institution, causing it to resemble more a traditional university with its mix of humanities, arts and sciences. Consequently in 1996, the University dropped the "of Technology" from its title, becoming "Loughborough University".

Reputation
The Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology, or CREST, runs the internationally recognised masters programme in Renewable Energy. The Department of Politics, History and International Relations, or PHIR as it is commonly known, is home to a number of world class experts in the area of European Politics and International Relations, including Professor Michael H. Smith, Professor David Allen, Professor Brian Hocking, and Mark Webber. PHIR scored a 5 in the latest Research Assessment Exercise, confirming its world class status.

Loughborough University has been awarded the Best Student Experience four years running (2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009) according to the Times Higher Education and was also named the 2008 Sunday Times "University of the Year."

The University has been chosen as a base by both the Great Britain team and the Japanese team for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Campus
The University's main campus is in the Leicestershire town of Loughborough and until 2003 it was developing a secondary campus at Peterborough. The Loughborough campus (once the estate of Burleigh Hall) covers an area of 433 acres (1.75 km²), and includes academic departments, halls of residence, the Students' Union, two gyms, gardens and playing fields. Of particular interest are the walled garden, the "garden of remembrance", the Hazlerigg-Rutland Hall fountain-courtyard and the Bastard Gates. In the central quadrangle of the campus stands a famous cedar, which has often appeared as a symbol for the University. Unfortunately a heavy snowfall in December 1990 led to the collapse of the upper canopy which gave the tree its distinctive shape.[citation needed] The recent acquisition by the University of Holywell Park from Advantica Technologies and a 23-acre (93,000 m2) parcel of land between New Ashby Road and Holywell Park from 3M Heath Care Limited has increased the size of the campus to 433 acres (1.75 km2).

Profile
The University has 24 academic departments and over 30 research institutes, divided between three faculties: Science, Engineering and Social Science & Humanities. It has approximately 17,500 students, 61% of whom are undergraduates and 32% are pursuing postgraduate courses and/or research. Its current Chancellor is Sir John Jennings, CBE, FRSE (the previous chancellor, Sir Denis Rooke, OM, CBE, retired from the position in summer 2003, having served for fourteen years), and its Vice-Chancellor is Professor Shirley Pearce. The previous Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir David Wallace CBE FRS DL, was appointed to the Mastership of Churchill College, Cambridge, in succession to Sir John Boyd KCMG. David Wallace was Vice Chancellor of Loughborough University between 1994 until December 2005.
Wolfson School of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering.

The University has won six Queen's Anniversary Prizes for Higher and Further Education for work with the aeronautical and automotive industries (1994); support for developing countries (1998); for a pioneering role in developing applications of modern optics and laser technologies (2000); for its world leading role in sports research, education and development (2002); for its world leading role in social policy in recognition of its outstanding and widely respected work in evaluating and helping develop social policy-related programmes, such as those for cared for children, social security policy, crime prevention, education initiatives and young carers (2006); and for recognition of its vehicle, road and driver safety research (2007).

In The Guardian 2007 league tables, Loughborough was ranked 9th. In the 2007 Times rankings it was 6th overall but fell to 12th position in the latest edition for 2008.

Loughborough University is regarded as the country's premier university for sports development, research and education.[citation needed] The University has the largest sports scholarship programme in the UK. There are currently over 250 international athletes studying and training there, and the 2010 International Rope Skipping Foundation's world championships were hosted in Loughborough university.

London South Bank University, London, UK

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London South Bank University (LSBU) is a university situated in central London. With over 25,000 students and 1,700 staff,[2] it is based in the London Borough of Southwark, near the South Bank of the River Thames, from which it takes its name. Founded from charitable donations in 1892 as Southwark's "Borough Polytechnic Institute", it absorbed several other local colleges in the 1970s and 1990s, and finally achieved university status in 1992. The current Vice-Chancellor is Martin Earwicker.

Overview
The university has four faculties covering Health and Social Care; Business; Arts and Human Sciences, and Engineering, Science and the Built Environment. Many courses hold national accreditation and can lead to entry into a wide selection of professions.

The University continues to serve its original purpose of educating in a very practical way. It takes the future employability of its students very seriously and works with employers and industry experts to ensure course content is highly relevant.

History
London South Bank University
London South Bank University Keyworth Centre

LSBU's history stretches back to the late 19th century. Even though it has undergone several name changes, becoming the Polytechnic of the South Bank in 1970, South Bank Polytechnic in 1987, South Bank University in 1992 and London South Bank University in 2003 and merged with a number of other educational institutions, its focus is still to provide excellence in professional education and training underpinned by relevant research.

It was born, as were a number of other Polytechnics, from the perceived need to fill a skills gap at the end of the nineteenth century. In June 1888, the South London Polytechnics Committee, which sat on the London School Board (whose members included the Lord Mayor of London, Lord Salisbury, Lord Rosebery and Sir Lyon Playfair) met at Mansion House to motion that they approved "of a Scheme for the establishment in South London of Polytechnic Institutes". Two years later in 1890 the former buildings of Joseph Lancaster's British & Foreign Schools Society were bought for £20,000 to form a new polytechnic. In May that year, the South London Polytechnics Institutes Act was passed, so that by June 1891 the governing structure and general aims were created for the future Borough Polytechnic. These aims were "the promotion of the industrial skills, general knowledge, health, and well-being of young men and women belonging to the poorer classes" and also for "instruction suitable for persons intending to emigrate". By January 1892, £78,000 had been raised for the new Battersea and Borough Polytechnics and W.M.Richardson had been chosen to be clerk to the Governing Body. Mr C. T. Millis was appointed as Headmaster and Miss Helen Smith appointed Lady Superintendent. Edric Bayley was appointed the first Chair of Governors.

On 30 September 1892, the Polytechnic opened as the Borough Polytechnic Institute, with a remit to educate the local community in a range of practical skills. The Polytechnic was given a seal based on the Bridge House emblem of the City of London and a motto taken from Ecclesiastes — "Do it with thy Might". A Gala event was held to mark the occasion, opened by Lord Rosebery which was widely reported in the press. One of the speeches made included the hope that "the Polytechnic would do its share towards perfecting many a valuable gem found in the slums of London". Such a comment came from the terrible social conditions found in Southwark at the time which were described as containing "Dirt, Damp, Dissipation and Destitution".

The Polytechnic had classes in art, science, language, literature and general knowledge as well as holding public lectures, musical entertainments, exhibitions, sporting facilities, clubs, a museum and a library.[citation needed] A weekly printed journal supplied news of events and societies sprang up in debating, literature, economics, photography, chess, draughts, antiquarianism and natural history. Popular courses included tanning, typography, metalwork, electrical engineering, baking, and boot & shoe manufacture. George Bernard Shaw, J. A. Hobson and Henry M. Stanley all lectured at the Polytechnic in the 1890s.

On 10 October 1894, the National School of Bakery and Confectionery (later the National Bakery School) was opened with 78 pupils. in 1897 the Polytechnic was let to sightseers who wished to see the Diamond Jubilee parade for Queen Victoria. In 1898, 15 houses on Kell Street were purchased, along with five workshops and laboratories, Victoria Gymnasium, and nine lecture theatres. Also in this year, the Polytechnic issued its first diplomas and in 1902 was once again let to sightseers who wished to see the Coronation parade of King Edward VII. In 1904, the first prospectus published and the Kell Street extension buildings and Stanley Gymnasium for women was opened. Through a generous donation from Edric Bayley, the Edric Hall was built in 1908, along with the Lancaster Street extension buildings which gave the Polytechnic its triangular campus site.

In 1911, the Governors commissioned a number of large paintings by members of the Bloomsbury Group to decorate a student room with the theme of "London on Holiday". These comprised:

* "Bathing" and "Football", Duncan Grant
* "The Zoo", Roger Fry
* "The Fair", Frederick Etchell
* "Toy Sailing Boats - The Round Pond", Bernard Adeney
* "Punch & Judy", Macdonald Gill
* "Paddling", Albert Rothenstein

In 1931, they were given to the Tate where they still remain.

During the First World War, the Polytechnic helped manufacture munitions and medical supplies for the war effort and ran special courses for the army. After the War the National Certificate system was taken up, engineering courses were offered to women and printing classes were dropped and run at Morley College. J.W. Bispham was elected the new Principal in 1922 when C.T. Millis retired and a major rebuilding scheme was undertaken including a new facade for the Borough Road building. Class number increased to 8,682 students by 1927 and on 20 February 1930 the Duke of York opened the Polytechnic's new buildings. In 1933, Dr D.H. Ingall took over as Principal and the sports ground at Turney Road Dulwich was obtained for the Polytechnic with a sports pavilion, later requisitioned by the Army in World War II for use by a barrage balloon and searchlight unit. In 1933 farriery was dropped as it was too difficult to bring horses into the building.

During the Second World War, the Borough Polytechnic Institute suffered badly from the Blitz. Southwark was bombed seven times and its population halved by the end of the War. From 1940 to 1941, the Polytechnic was bombed five times and large amounts of its building stock were destroyed. The Institute provided a hundred meals a day to the homeless of Southwark during this period and boys and girls from the Polytechnic's Trade and Technical Schools were evacuated to Exeter.

From 1945 to 1954, David Bomberg taught art at the Polytechnic forming the Borough Group artists. In 1956, the Polytechnic was designated a Regional College of Technology and Dr J.E. Garside was installed as the new Principal until 1965, when Mr Vivian Pereira-Mendoza took over. Further extensions to the buildings were made during the 1960s with the opening of the National College Wing in 1962 and the extension buildings and Tower Block in 1969, which were opened by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

In 1970, the Brixton School of Building (founded in 1904 and known as the London County Council School of Building until 1943), the City of Westminster College (founded in 1918 as St George's Institute and renamed in 1959) and the National College of Heating, Ventilating, Refrigeration and Fan Engineering (founded in 1947) all merged into the Polytechnic to become the Polytechnic of the South Bank. It adopted a new coat of arms designed to include two Thames barges set above a pentagon surrounded by five other pentagons. The next year Margaret Thatcher attended an inauguration and presentation ceremony at the newly titled polytechnic. In 1975, the extensive London Road building was opened. In 1976, parts of an Annex of Rachel MacMillan College of Education merged with the Polytechnic along with the Battersea College of Education and Battersea Training College of Domestic Science.

In 1978, Dr John Beishon stood down as the Polytechnic's Director, to be replaced by Mrs Pauline Perry, later Baroness Perry of Southwark. In 1985, Southbank Technopark was opened and in 1987 the Polytechnic changed its name again to become South Bank Polytechnic. In the same year, the British Youth Opera (BYO) was founded and made a home at the Polytechnic's Southwark campus. In 1990, the Polytechnic was accredited for Research Degrees and in 1991 the Central Catering College at Waterloo and the South West London College were merged with it.

In 1992, the Polytechnic was given university status and changed its name to South Bank University holding its graduation ceremonies at Southwark Cathedral. That year also saw the new university celebrate its centenary and was given the marketing slogan, "the University without Ivory Towers". Dr Nobuhiro Iijima was given the first honorary degree by the University and an exhibition entitled "Bomberg and his Students" was opened at the Gillian Jason Gallery.

In 1993, Prof Gerald Bernbaum was appointed Vice-Chancellor. Redwood College of Health Studies and Great Ormond Street School of Nursing merged with the University in 1995. In 2001, Prof Deian Hopkin became Vice-Chancellor. On 1 September 2003, the University underwent its most recent name change to become London South Bank University (LSBU) and opened the Keyworth Centre, a modern teaching facilty.

Campus
The main campus is in the Borough of Southwark, immediately north of the Elephant and Castle. London's South Bank is further away at Waterloo. To the north of the campus is Borough Road, where the main entrance is situated, to the west is London Road and to the east is Southwark Bridge Road. At the northwest corner is St George's Circus.

There are two smaller campuses in east London: at Whipps Cross Hospital in the London Borough of Waltham Forest (LSBU at Whipps Cross), and at Havering (LSBU at Havering), diagonally opposite the Harold Wood railway station.

Organisation and academic life
The university has four faculties covering Health and Social Care; Business; Arts and Human Sciences, and Engineering, Science and the Built Environment. Many courses hold national accreditation and can lead to entry into a wide selection of professions.

The end of 2009 saw it open K2, a major new building that is highly sustainable and features the Centre for Efficient and Renewable Energy in Buildings (CEREB).

The university continues to serve its original purpose of educating in a very practical way. It takes the future employability of its students very seriously and works with employers and industry experts to ensure course content is highly relevant. The institution's celebrated teacher, the British painter David Bomberg taught painting and drawing at the Borough Polytechnic between 1945 and 1954. The university's hall of residence, David Bomberg House, carries his name. Major paintings by Bomberg were acquired by the Tate Gallery only after his death.

Today, LSBU is a unique university with strong ties with its local community. It upholds its aim of providing fair and equal access to a university education to all those who have the potential to succeed or benefit from it. In 2010, it again holds its position of being ranked 6th in the UK for graduate starting salaries. LSBU has the most KTP activity of any London university and is currently ranked third in the UK for the number of Knowledge Transfer Programmes it runs. In total, its currently managing funds for its projects in excess of £6.2 million. The university is engaged in a 15-year development programme to enhance its campuses and to provide world class facilities for its students and staff. The University is almost at the end of a programme to invest nearly £50m in landmark projects at its Southwark campus.

With over 23,500 students, LSBU is one of the largest universities in London with students drawn from across the globe, throughout the UK and the local community.[citation needed] The university's main campus is situated close to many of London's major landmarks and tourist attractions on the South Bank.

Partnerships are of great importance to the University. LSBU works in partnership with many institutions in the UK, Europe, Africa, the Americas and Asia. It currently works closely with a number of Chinese Higher Education Institutions, including Beijing Institute of Technology, Hunan University, Beijing University of Posts & Telecommunications, Northwestern Polytechnical University, National Academy of Education Administration etc. The collaborative educational programmes both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels have been running successfully over ten years with the Chinese partners.

LSBU is the first and only university sponsored by the Office of Chinese Language Council International (Hanban) to establish a Confucius Institute for Traditional Chinese Medicine in London. Its four-year bachelor-integrated master's course on Traditional Chinese Medicine – Acupuncture had its first cohort of students in October 2008.

Students
A third of the university's UK students are from the London Borough of Southwark, a third from the rest of Greater London and the remaining third from the rest of the UK. The university serves over 3,000 EU and other international students, from more than 120 different countries. 56% of the student population are from ethnic minorities and a large proportion of the students are classified as mature (21 or over when they start their course).

Degree days
The University uses the local St George's Cathedral for its graduation ceremonies, with receptions afterwards in the grounds of the Imperial War Museum. Ede and Ravenscroft acts as the supplier for the ceremonial dresses and photographer. Southwark Cathedral is used for honorary degree day ceremonies, often with a reception at the Glaziers Hall next to London Bridge.

Rankings and reputation
A survey published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency in 2010 showed London South Bank to have the highest rate of graduate unemployment. On the other hand, London South Bank University has ranked 6th in the UK for graduate starting salaries, ahead of many universities of Russell Group, such as University of Cambridge, University of Warwick, University of Bristol, and University of Edinburgh‎. The Guardian's league table of teaching excellence ranks the University 114th out of 118 British institutions. The Sunday Times' league table, measuring a number of different factors including teaching quality, research quality and employment rates, ranks the University 115th out of 122. After being placed bottom in the Independent's 2008 guide, the University said that league tables did not demonstrate the value which thousands of graduates had gained from their study there

London Metropolitan University, London, UK

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London Metropolitan University, situatedd in London, England, was formed on 1 August 2002 by the amalgamation of the University of North London (est.1896) and the London Guildhall University (est.1848). The University has campuses in the City of London and in the London Borough of Islington.

The University operates its own archives, libraries and museum. The Women's Library houses the archives of the Fawcett Society, and other material on the history of feminism. The other collections are the TUC Library, the Irish Studies Collection and The Frederick Parker Collection.

History
London Metropolitan University was formed on 1 August 2002 by the merger of London Guildhall University with the University of North London. The change of name of the merged University was approved by the Privy Council. In October 2006, the University opened a new Science Centre, part of a £30m investment in its science department at the North campus close to Holloway Road in North London, the facility includes a "Super Lab" claimed to be one of Europe's most advanced science teaching facilities with 280 workstations equipped with digital audio visual interactive equipment. The President Emeritus, who holds the academic title of Professor, is Sir Roderick Floud.

London Guildhall University
In 1848 Charles Blomfield, the Bishop of London, called upon the clergy to establish evening classes to improve the moral, intellectual and spiritual condition of young men in London. In response, the bishop Charles Mackenzie, who instituted the Metropolitan Evening Classes for Young Men in Crosby Hall, Bishopsgate, London, with student fees at one shilling per session. Subjects on the original curriculum included Greek, Latin, Hebrew, English, History, Mathematics, Drawing and Natural Philosophy. This fledgling college came under royal patronage following the visit of Prince Albert to the classes in 1851. In 1860 the classes moved to Sussex Hall, the former Livery Hall of the Bricklayers' Company, in Leadenhall Street. By this time, some 800 students were enrolled annually.

In 1861 the classes were reconstituted and named the City of London College. Over the next twenty years, the College was one of the pioneers in the introduction of commercial and technical subjects. The college built new premises in White Street at a cost of £16,000 (contributions were received from Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales) and were opened in 1881. In 1891 the college joined Birkbeck Institute and the Northampton Institute to form the City Polytechnic by a Charity Commissioners' scheme to facilitate funding for these institutions by the City Parochial Foundation, and to enable the three institutions to work cooperatively. However this attempted federation did not function in practice, as each institution continued to operate more or less independently. The City Polytechnic concept was dissolved in 1906 and the City of London College came under the supervision of London County Council.

In December 1940 the college's building was destroyed by a German air raid. City of London College subsequently moved into premises at 84 Moorgate in 1944. In 1948, the City of London College celebrated its centenary with a service of thanksgiving addressed by the Archbishop of Canterbury at St Paul's Cathedral. In 1970 the college merged with Sir John Cass College to form the City of London Polytechnic. From 1992 to July 2002, the institution was known as London Guildhall University.

University of North London
Founded as the Northern Polytechnic Institute in 1896, it merged in 1971 with the North Western Polytechnic which was established in 1929, to become the Polytechnic of North London. Until the passing of the Education Reform Act 1988, the Polytechnic was under the control of the Inner London Education Authority — part of the then Greater London Council and awarded the degrees of the former Council for National Academic Awards. Under the Further and Higher Education Act 1992, the institution, a pioneer of widening participation and access to higher education, was granted University status and the right to award its own degrees. Following the merger with London Guildhall University, London Metropolitan University became the largest unitary university in Greater London.

Campuses
The City campus is the site of the former London Guildhall University, near Aldgate East, Tower Hill and Liverpool Street tube stations.

There are buildings located at Minories, Jewry Street,Central House, Moorgate, Whitechapel High Street, Calcutta House, Commercial Road and Goulston Street. There is a gymnasium for the use of staff and students at the Whitechapel High St. building, although there are also several private gymnasiums nearby.

It is at the intersection of the City of London financial district and the old East end (Jack the Ripper tours frequently pass by the University's buildings). Spitalfields market is close by, offering a variety of bars, coffee shops, and restaurants, as well as market stalls.

North campus
The North campus is the site of the former University of North London on Holloway Road, near Holloway Road and Highbury & Islington tube stations.

The Campus began life in 1896 as the Northern Polytechnic Institute. By 1900, student numbers had doubled and later the Institute's evening degrees were recognised by the University of London.

In the early 1970s, the Northern Polytechnic merged with the North Western Polytechnic, which was established in 1929, to become the Polytechnic of North London. In 1992 the Polytechnic became the University of North London.

Profile
London Metropolitan University is the largest "single university" in London, serving more than 28,525 students and with buildings spread throughout the centre of London. The University offers 485 degree courses and has the largest choice of courses in London.[10][14][15][16][17] The University has around 7,000 overseas students from more than 155 different countries.[6] In 2005/06, London Metropolitan University was ranked third most popular university in United Kingdom for international students[18]
Academic reputation

In the past, London Metropolitan refused to participate in newspaper league tables, believing that the UK Government should be the formal assessor of universities, rather than (private) newspapers. The new management reversed this policy, appearing in the 2011 national rankings (published in 2010) which placed London Metropolitan at 115th (Times University Guide) and 118th (Guardian University Guide) place.

In the 2006 Institutional Audit, the Quality Assurance Agency expressed "broad confidence" in the soundness of the University's management of the quality of its academic programmes and the academic standards of its awards.

In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, London Metropolitan was ranked equal 107th out of 132 institutions by the Times Higher Education's RAE league table.
Academic departments

London Metropolitan University currently consists of the following faculties and schools:

* Faculty of Applied Social Sciences
* Faculty of Architecture and Spatial Design
* Sir John Cass Faculty of Art, Media and Design

* London Metropolitan Polymer Centre

* London Metropolitan Business School
* Faculty of Computing
* Faculty of Life Sciences

* School of Psychology
* School of Human Sciences

* Faculty of Humanities, Arts, Languages and Education

* School of Humanities, Arts and Languages
* School of Education

* Faculty of Law, Governance and International Relations

Scholarships
Every year London Metropolitan University invests over £700,000 in its scholarship programme to help academically excellent students as well as students with outstanding achievements in various sports disciplines fund their education. London Metropolitan University offers a Merit Scholarship Programme and gives £1000 for all international students who achieve 'A' grades marks whilst studying any bachelor degree course at the University. London Metropolitan University also offers some scholarships in sports, such as Hockey, Tennis and Basketball.

The University also offers postgraduate scholarships, a range of full tuition scholarships, including some scholarships with free accommodation.

London Metropolitan University offers scholarships in conjunction with:

* BBC World Service
* International Student House
* Canon Collins Trust
* Mahatma Gandhi Foundation
* Murtala Mohammad
* Benazir Bhutto

Study abroad programmes

The London Metropolitan University has several student exchange programmes with academic institutions in the US and Europe, with financial support for those who participate through the Erasmus program.

University of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England

2010-12-28T09:04:00.000-08:00

The University of Huddersfield sits just off the town centre in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England.

The University of Huddersfield has over 23,000 students currently. A steady programme of investment means that students have access to state-of-the-art equipment and facilities.

The Opinion panel Research Survey ranked the University of Huddersfield joint first of all Yorkshire Universities for excellent staff and teaching in 2007.

A strong record of graduate employment at the University of Huddersfield is a result of the focus on employability through practical and vocational teaching. It is one of the top ten providers of 'sandwich courses' in the UK, with students undertaking a year of paid employment in Industry or Commerce, usually as the 3rd year of their degree.

History
The University traces its roots back to a Science and Mechanic Institute founded in 1825[3]. Some ninteenth-century students earned qualifications as external students of the University of London.

Significant dates
1799 - 1882 - The life of Frederic Schwann
1841 - 1844 - Young Men's Mental Improvement Society
1844 - 1884 - Mechanics' Institution Formed
1846 - 1883 - Female Educational Institute Formed
1883 - 1883 - New Technical School Holds Exhibition
1884 - 1896 - Technical School and Mechanics' Institution
1896 - 1958 - Technical School and Mechanic's Institute becomes the Technical College
1958 - 1970 - Technical College becomes College of Technology
1970 - 1992 - College of Technology becomes Huddersfield Polytechnic

The University is a founding member of the Northern Consortium and a member of the Yorkshire Universities. The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Bob Cryan, has previously sat as Chair of this regional Higher Education association.

Chancellor
Professor Sir Patrick Stewart replaced Sir Ernest Hall as the University’s Chancellor in November 2003. Taking a keen interest in the University’s life and future, Professor Sir Patrick Stewart attends graduation ceremonies each year and opened the University’s new Student Centre on campus in November 2007. When his schedule has permitted, he has also taught Drama Master Classes to students studying at the University.

Organisation
The University is organised into the following academic schools:

* Applied Sciences
* Art, Design and Architecture
* Computing and Engineering
* Education and Professional Development
* Business
* Human and Health Sciences
* Music, Humanities and Media

Research
Huddersfield has research strengths in the areas of History, Music, Social Work, Engineering and Chemistry – this was demonstrated by the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) results in these areas. The University recognises the importance of research alongside its teaching programme and has plans to continue to increase research activity across all its Schools. A wide range of flexible research degree options are available at the University.

Innovation
New Business School
The University is focussed on strengthening and enhancing its research facility. With this focus in mind, the institution has invested nearly £1.4 million in information provision in 2008/09. A further £2.75 million was invested in computing resources.

During 2008/09 there has been further significant investment in facilities and equipment, including:

* A bold new Creative Arts Building was opened in September 2008, featuring a recital hall, cutting edge electro-acoustic research studio, new art and design studios and live recording facilities.
* A £228,000 Nanoform 250 Ultragrind machining centre is currently being used to investigate nano-material removal and to support research activity within the Centre for Precision Technologies in the School of Computing and Engineering.
* A £160,000 single crystal x-ray diffractometer which uses x-rays to provide the three dimensional structure of chemical compounds. This is being used by researchers in the University’s Chemistry Department.
* A new Business School building , which represents an investment of over £16 million was opened in September 2010. The building will provide improved facilities including a mock court room and ‘The Street’ – a contemporary social space overlooking a central courtyard. The building has been designed to be energy efficient, incorporating state-of-the-art energy saving technology.

Campuses
Queensgate Campus
The University of Huddersfield's main campus, the Queensgate Campus can be found south-east of Huddersfield's town centre. Over £70 million has been invested in the campus and its resources over the last 10 years, including:

* Following £1million of renovation work, the Student Centre was formally opened in November 2007 by the Chancellor, Sir Patrick Stewart. The Centre enables students to access a range of support services – computing, library, careers, welfare support – in a single location. The four subject floors of the Library were subsequently refurbished during 2008 and 2009.
* A £4million Students' Union building was opened in 2005 and offers a variety of social, leisure and retail facilities.
* New drama facilities were opened in the refurbished Milton building in 2005.
* A Creative Arts Building was completed in 2008, the building houses a recital hall, electro-acoustic research studio, new art and design studios and live recording facilities. Her Majesty The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh visited the University in May 2007 to unveil the foundation stone of the new Creative Arts Building.
* A new £16 million Business School is the latest completed structure on campus. It opened to students in September 2010.

University Campus Oldham
University Campus Oldham, located in Oldham, Greater Manchester, was opened in May 2005.

The University Campus offers a range of full and part-time courses that lead to qualifications at degree, diploma, foundation degree and postgraduate level.

In November 2008, University of Huddersfield Chancellor,Professor Patrick Stewart officially opened the doors to a £5.5 million development to accommodate the growing body of students. The development provides specialist equipment and facilities for students on a range of courses including Construction, Performance, Technical Theatre, Digital Journalism, Architectural Technology and Interior Design.

Also benefiting from the investment are Multimedia Design, Games Art and Digital Arts Practice students who now have the use of two computer suites with 40 iMacs and 10 high-end PC graphic workstations, all utilising the latest design and modelling software such as Adobe Master Suite, 3D Studio Max 2009 and Pixologic Zbrush 3.1.

The first graduation ceremony was held at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Oldham in November 2006.

University Campus Oldham presented actress Sarah Lancashire with the award of Honorary Doctor of Letters at the University Campus’s awards ceremony in June 2009. An Honorary Doctorate of Civil Laws was also awarded to Paul Walsh, Diageo Group Chief Executive, at the 2007 awards ceremony. Honorary awards are given by the University to celebrate local people, their achievements and the contributions they make to the town and its community.

University Campus Barnsley
University Campus Barnsley, located in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, was opened in 2005. The Campus offers facilities for subjects such as music, art and design, journalism and media production. IT facilities include a wireless system throughout the building, video conferencing, web casting equipment and a suite of industry standard digital studios. £5.5 million has been invested with the help of the Higher Education Funding Council for England, Yorkshire Forward and Objective 1.
University Campus Barnsley

The University of Huddersfield has a very strong environmental focus and University Campus Barnsley continues this tradition. It is a total recycling facility, able to recycle all the resources that students use.

The first graduation ceremony was held at Barnsley Town Hall in November 2006, the Chancellor, Patrick Stewart, was in attendance and Darren Gough was presented with

International Study Centre
The International Study Centre (ISC) at the University of Huddersfield offers degree preparation courses for international students. The programmes are run by Study Group. The ISC is located on the University’s main Queensgate campus. Students can mix with others and also have access to the Library and other specialist IT facilities.

University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, England

2010-12-28T08:50:00.000-08:00

The University of Hertfordshire is a university based largely in Hatfield, in the county of Hertfordshire, England, from which the university takes its name. It has more than 24,500 students. In the 2008 RAE the university was ranked 58th out of 138 UK institutions, and over 85 per cent of the submitted research was judged to be of international quality in terms of originality, significance and rigour.

History
In 1951, the de Havilland company gave land in Hatfield adjoining the A1 to Hertfordshire County Council for educational use in perpetuity; the Council used this to build and operate Hatfield Technical College, which trained aerospace engineers for Hatfield's then-dominant aerospace industry. In 1967 it became an early polytechnic, The Hatfield Polytechnic. With the passage of the Further and Higher Education Act, 1992, the institution gained university status.

Campuses
There are four campuses of University of Hertfordshire.

* College Lane Campus.
* Bywaters Campus.
* De Havilland Campus, also a Saracens training ground[5] and business campus
* St Albans Campus, also a law campus

The main site of the university remains the College Lane campus, which houses the original Hatfield Technical College building, though the site has had many new buildings added since. Notable among these is the Learning Resources Centre, a combined library and computer centre. Computer Science, Engineering, Natural Sciences, and Health & Human Sciences are all based on this campus, as are a substantial collection of halls of residence and student houses, and the University of Hertfordshire Students' Union.

de Havilland campus is situated within 15 minutes walk of College Lane, and is built on a former BAe site. The Business School and the faculty of Humanities and Education are based here, along with another LRC. The Law School is based in St Albans, near to the law courts. There were formerly campuses in Watford (Wall Hall) and Hertford (Balls Park), but these were closed when the de Havilland campus opened. A fourth site in Bayfordbury houses the university's observatory and the biology plus geography field stations. The University has particular research strengths in History, Computer Science, Astrophysics and especially Engineering given the university's history in training Aerospace Engineers as a polytechnic.

The University of Hertfordshire Students' Union (UHSU) hosts frequent events at the College Lane campus. These formerly took place in the Union's Hutton Hall or the peculiarly shaped building commonly known as the "Elehouse", named due to its original architecture being similar to the elephant house at London Zoo. 'The Forum', a new student social space offering an entertainment venue, bars, shops, and cafés, opened in October 2009.

The University of Hertfordshire is also home to HIBT, part of the Navitas group, providing a direct pathway for international students to the university, on campus. to the University.

Faculties
Hertfordshire was described as "the flagship of the former polys" by the Independent in 2002. As a polytechnic, it was strong in aerospace engineering and computer science. More recently, it has built up its strengths in other areas such as pharmacology, history, geography and astrophysics. Entry requirements have been rising in recent years. The university has five faculties:

* Business School
* Faculty of Science, Technology and Creative Arts (formerly 'Creative and Cultural Industries' and 'Engineering and Information Sciences')
* Faculty of Health and Human Sciences
* Humanities, Law and Education
* Computer Science is accredited by the British Computer Society (BCS)

(Schools of Study)

Recent developments
The university has invested £ 200 million over the last ten years in developing facilities on the two main campuses, including the new de Havilland campus in Hatfield (opened 2003/2004), the Learning Resources Centre on the College Lane campus, the Hertfordshire Sports Village, new teaching laboratories in most Schools, including a state-of-the-art medical simulation centre called HICESC (Hertfordshire Intensive Care & Emergency Simulation Centre), and most recently the Forum, opening in academic year 2009/10.

Paramedic Science
Hertfordshire was one of the first universities in the country to develop a Paramedic Science degree. They are now also providing a Critical Care Paramedic course and an Emergency Care Practitioner course[citation needed]. The university still provides BSc (Hons), BSc, FdSc, and Diploma level Paramedic courses[citation needed]. The University's 4 year Paramedic Science course also features a period of elective study which can be undertaken anywhere in the world, and a sandwich year working for the Ambulance Service. The university is also among the first four universities in the country to offer the Postgraduate Diploma in Physician Assistant studies, and the first in the UK to offer the option of an MSc in the field.

Racing team
The University of Hertfordshire has one of the most successful Formula Student teams in the world. UH Racing have competed in many countries and have won many awards. The UH Racing cars can accelerate from 0-60 mph in less than 3 seconds and pull over 2g in the corners. Students from the Engineering degrees can join the team, with students from the Sports Science, Marketing, Art and Business Schools playing a vital role. There are over 400 universities that race at Formula Student events worldwide, with UH finishing in the top 10 consistently.

Awards
Queen's Award for Industry

On 1 July 2004, the University of Hertfordshire was presented with the Queen's Award for Enterprise: International Trade in recognition of outstanding achievement. The University received a special message of congratulations from the Queen, and the Vice-Chancellor and International Office staff also attended a special reception at Buckingham Palace.

A Centre for Excellence

In 2004 the University of Hertfordshire was awarded £4.5M by the Higher Education Funding Council for England to establish a Centre for Excellence in blended learning. This award enables the university to establish its profile as a leading institution combining established ways of learning and teaching with the opportunities offered by technology to ensure students have the best possible learning experience.

Fair Trade University
In March 2005, University of Hertfordshire was officially certified as a Fair trade university.

National Teaching Fellowships

Seven members of staff have achieved lifelong Fellowship awards as outstanding teachers, as part of the National Teaching Fellowship Scheme introduced in 2000 by the Higher Education Funding Council for England and the Department for Employment and Learning in Northern Ireland.

e-Tutor of the Year

One of the engineering staff at the University of Hertfordshire, Mark Russell successfully entered the e-Tutor of the Year in an annual national competition, launched in 2002 by the Higher Education Academy and the Times Higher Education Supplement.

Rankings
Of the 2010 league tables published so far the University of Hertfordshire was ranked 41st overall in The Complete University Guide, published by The Independent, which is a 4 place rise from the previous year. 15th in the Engineering schools, which is a 9 place rise from the previous year and 60th by The Guardian, which is a 37 place rise from the previous year.

Hertfordshire is also the only British new university (former polytechnic) to be ranked in the top 503 universities in the world by Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Academic Ranking of World Universities, being ranked equally with 100 other universities in the 402-503 range (after the first hundred the rankings are divided into large blocks to reflect the more approximate nature of the lower rankings).

Professional accreditation
* Royal Aeronautical Society
* Institution of Mechanical Engineers
* Engineering Council
* Institution of Electrical Engineers
* Institute of Mathematics and its Applications
* College of Radiographers
* Health Professions Council
* General Social Care Council
* Nursing and Midwifery Council
* British Psychological Society
* Institute of Health Care Development
* Law Society
* Institute of Biomedical Science
* Society of Sports Therapists
* Arts Therapists Board
* CFA Institute
* Chartered Institute of Marketing
* Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
* Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators
* British Wittgenstein Society
* Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain
* British Association of Sport and Exercise Science

University symbols
Academic dress
The University of Hertfordshire prescribes academic dress for its members. Both dress and undress are prescribed, though only dress is used in practice - for example, at the graduation ceremonies, held in St Albans Cathedral.

The academic dress of bachelors of the university is a black stuff gown, with facings and long open sleeves gathered to a point at the elbow with a button. The master's gown is similar, but with spade sleeves. With these, on formal occasions such as graduations, is worn a hood of grey or white silk and stuff. In dress, grey hoods are worn by holders of diplomas below bachelor's level, and white hoods by bachelors. Masters add a border of purple silk. Because of the university's emphasis on interdisciplinary studies, there is no distinction between the academic dress of the various faculties.

In dress, holders of initial doctorates wear red gowns with purple facings; higher doctorates have purple gowns with white facings. In undress all doctors wear master's gowns. The university is unusual among former polytechnics in also prescribing academic dress for undergraduates - the black stuff bachelor's gown with no hood - although, again, this is not used in practice.

Coat of arms
The University's coat of arms was granted in 1992. The shield is charged with an oak tree taken from the coat of arms of the former Hatfield Rural District, the constellation Perseus and a representation of the letter "H" recalling the emblem of the former Hatfield Polytechnic. The crest, a Phoenix, represents the University's origin in the aviation industry. The two harts supporting the shield represent the County of Hertfordshire. A scroll bears the motto "Seek Knowledge Throughout Life".

Ceremonial mace
The ceremonial mace was produced in 1999 by craftsman Martyn Pugh. Its design symbolises the University's origins, expertise and associations. Its shape is inspired by the shape of an aeroplane wing symbolising the university's origin in the aviation industry. The head of the mace is engraved with zodiac symbols representing the university's contribution to astronomy and also contains the DNA double helix representing the biological sciences and microprocessor chips representing information and communications technology

Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

2010-12-28T08:38:00.000-08:00

Heriot-Watt University is a university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The name commemorates George Heriot, the 16th century financier to King James, and James Watt, the great 18th century inventor and engineer.

Originating as the School of Arts of Edinburgh in 1821, Heriot-Watt is the eighth-oldest higher education institution in the United Kingdom. Women were welcomed as early as 1869, 20 years ahead of other institutions. It received its university charter in 1966.

Originally based in the centre of Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt University now has four campuses. The main campus is located in Riccarton in the Currie area on the outskirts of the city. Satellite campuses are located in Galashiels in the Borders (Scottish Borders Campus, formerly the Scottish College of Textiles), Stromness (Orkney campus) and most recently in Dubai Academic City (Heriot-Watt University Dubai campus). Moreover, the Orkney Campus in Stromness is home to The International Centre for Island Technology (ICIT) which is part of Heriot-Watt University's Institute of Petroleum Engineering. There is also a wide network of over 60 Approved Learning Partners, in over 30 countries, such as Tomsk Polytechnic University in Tomsk.

The Annual Statistics publication (2006/07) shows that the University has a total population of 17,700 students, full-time, part-time and distance and supported learning around the world. Of these 10,700 are on international programmes, including the MBA programme and those studying through one of 60 Approved Learning Partners worldwide. Heriot-Watt has around 7,000 on-campus students in Scotland, more than a quarter of whom are from outside the UK. This international focus creates a very cosmopolitan environment; approximately 10,000 students from 150 countries worldwide are currently studying on international programmes.

History
The institution that became Heriot-Watt University began with a conversation between the Edinburgh businessmen Leonard Horner and Robert Bryson about the lack of technical education for the working classes. This led to the opening of the School of Arts of Edinburgh "for the Education of Mechanics in Such Branches of Physical Science as are of Practical Application in their several trades", in October 1821.

In 1852 the name of the school was changed to the Watt Institution and School of Arts, in memory of the engineer and inventor James Watt. In 1869 women were permitted to attend classes, mainly due to the campaigning of Mary Burton, making Heriot-Watt a pioneer in equal opportunities in education.

During the 1870s a new building on Chambers Street was constructed, causing the institution severe financial difficulties that were resolved by an association with George Heriot's Hospital for needy orphans. In 1885 the name was changed to Heriot-Watt College; the name Heriot deriving from the jeweller, financier and philanthropist George Heriot.
A view of the loch in the Edinburgh campus.

The college continued to expand throughout the 20th century, developing a reputation in the fields of science and engineering, and became a university in 1966, following the recommendations of the Robbins Report.

In 1969 the former Gibson-Craig estate at Riccarton, 7 miles (11 km) to the south-west of Edinburgh, was gifted to the University and was purchased for one penny. Between 1971 and 1992 the University moved to a purpose-built campus on this site; however, being situated within a city green-belt, buildings on the campus cannot be greater than four floors in height. The Campus occupies 380 acres (1.5 km2) of what was mature meadow and woodland to the west of Edinburgh, just six minutes from Edinburgh airport, and some 20 minutes from the city centre by car.

The Edinburgh Business School, a component of Heriot-Watt, boasts one of the world's largest Masters of Business Administration programs, offered on-campus or around the world by distance education, and assessed by rigorous subject exams. A Doctor of Business Administration program, along similar lines but also containing a major research component, has recently been introduced.

In 2005, the university announced plans to open a campus in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. In 2006 (end of 2005), the new 40,000 sq ft (3,700 m2). campus opened in Academic City, Dubai. Heriot-Watt University Dubai offers Bachelor of Arts degrees in Business, Accounting, Finance and Management as well as a Master's degree in Information Technology. Engineering degrees (especially Petroleum Engineering) are likely to be introduced in the near future.

Heriot-Watt University's Dubai Campus is a purpose-built modern campus of over 40,000 square feet (3,700 m2) in Dubai Academic City formally opened in March 2006. The campus offers a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses which reflect the University's Scottish Schools and Institutes as well as student exchanges and campus transfers.

On February 1, 2006, the neuroscientist Baroness Susan Greenfield became Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University.

The Watt Club recently celebrated its 150th Anniversary, making it the oldest alumni association in the UK.

In 2008, Heriot-Watt University appears in the list of the QS World University Rankings for the first time.

The university approved construction of a Postgraduate Centre in 2005, building commenced in Summer 2007, and was to be completed in the summer of 2008 at an estimated cost of £6.8 million. The building opened in summer 2009 and includes a lecture theatre, three seminar rooms, cafe and meeting rooms. Some of the centre's funding came from Cairn Energy, who donated £1.4 million to the university and will also appoint a Programme Coordinator for Innovation and Enterprise within the Centre and create a new Chair, the Cairn Professor of Petroleum Engineering.

Students Association
The University’s Student Association (HWUSA), also part of the National Union of Students (NUS), represents almost 8000 students through the Executive Committee which is currently led by President Simon Eltringham and Senior Vice President Murray Hope and Vice President of the Scottish Borders Campus, Caoimhe Sweeney, there are also 4 non-sabbatical ordinary executive members: Michael Bottom, Paul Charlton, Paul Murphy and Michael Ross. The purpose of a students association is to represent the rights and needs of students and campaign on their behalf. Recent successful campaigns include obtaining academic feedback on exams and coursework and organising an accommodation fair. HWUSA also takes an active role in national events such as the demonstrations against the introduction of top up fees, increasing the current costs of education in England, which took place in London, and campaigning to end the graduate endowment fee in Scotland. Also part of HWUSA are the Advice and Support Centre, which provides financial, academic and personal support and recently created International Committee, to represent the 30% international population at Heriot-Watt.

Sports Union
Heriot-Watt University Sports Union has its 30 year anniversary in 2006–2007. It has 32 clubs that compete in the British Universities Sports Association (BUSA) leagues on a Wednesday and in many Scottish National leagues on Saturdays and Sundays. There have been many athletes that have progressed through the ranks to represent their country at the Scottish Universities level and on the National and International Stage.

In recent years, many of the sports clubs have enjoyed success in the BUSA leagues, including the Hockey Club after both the Men's and Women's 1st XI reached the knock out stages of the competition. The football club is one of the sports unions most popular and best supported clubs with many members. They also boast a very successful history (most notably winning the top division of BUSA for 5 years in a row). The annual varsity match against Edinburgh is the highlight fixture of the year.

Media
* The Journal is a very recent addition to the student media scene at the university. It is an independent publication, established in 2007 by three students at the University of Edinburgh, and also distributes to the three other higher education institutions in the city - Napier University, Queen Margaret University and the Edinburgh College of Art. It is the largest such publication in Scotland, with a print run of 14,000 copies and is produced by students from across the city.

Schools
* School of Engineering and Physical Sciences
o Chemical Engineering
o Chemistry
o Physics
o Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering
o Mechanical Engineering
o Combined Studies
* School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences
o Actuarial Mathematics & Statistics
o Computer Science
o Mathematics
* School of the Built Environment
o Architectural Engineering
o Civil Engineering
o Construction Management & Surveying
o Facilities Management
o Urban Studies
* School of Life Sciences
o Applied Psychology
o Biological Science
o Brewing and Distilling
o Food Science
o Sport and Exercise Science
* School of Management and Languages
o Accountancy & Finance
o Economics
o Languages
o Law
o Management
* School of Textiles and Design
* Edinburgh Business School
* Institute of Petroleum Engineering

Notable alumni
See also Category:Alumni of Heriot-Watt University
"Watt a Clever Cow" Heriot-Watt's contribution to the Edinburgh CowParade.

* Adam Crozier, Chief Executive of the Royal Mail, and former Chief Executive of the English Football Association.
* Bernie Grant, Britain's first Afro-Caribbean MP.
* Professor Peter Grant, Head of the School of Engineering and Electronics, University of Edinburgh, Winner of the Institution of Electrical Engineers Faraday Medal 2004 (BSc, 1966)
* Archy Kirkwood, Baron Kirkwood of Kirkhope PC KBE (BSc Pharmacy 1971)
* Brian Monteith, Independent MSP
* Christina Cruickshank Miller BSc, PhD, DSc, FH-WC: born 29 August 1899; elected FRSE 7 March 1949; died 16 July 2001. One of the first five women elected to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. First female chemist elected to the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
* James Nasmyth, engineer and inventor of the steam hammer (one of the first students of the Edinburgh School of Arts) (1808–90)
* Hallvard Næss, developer of IRAP RMS
* Stuart Purdy, Group Chief Executive of the Hibernian Insurance Group, Dublin, Ireland and previously Managing Director of [Aviva India]. Former President of Heriot-Watt University Students' Association elected in 1983 and a former member of the Court and Senate. (BA Government and Modern History 1985)
* Richard Tait, creator of Cranium (board game) (BSc Computer Science 1986)
* Jim Telfer, Director of Rugby, Scottish Rugby Union plc (BSc Applied Chemistry 1963, DUniv 1998)
* Irvine Welsh, writer, author of Trainspotting (MBA 1991)
* Gary Younge, journalist and writer
* Jock Clear, Formula One engineer (BEng Mechanical Engineering 1987)[25]
* Fiona Watson 1968 - 2003 a political affairs officer working in Sérgio Vieira de Mello's office who was killed along with other members of UN staff in the Canal Hotel bombing in Iraq, on the afternoon of August 19, 2003.
* Murray Wilson, BSc Hons, Offshore Engineering, 1982. United Nations Humanitarian and Conflict Manager.
* Robin Liddell, Professional Race Car Driver (Bachelor of Arts in Economics).
* Nandeep Bamrah, MBA Graduate at age 17. (MBA 2005).[26]
* Graham Watson, Liberal Democrat MEP and leader of the Liberal Democrats in Europe
* Ross Jamison, Former Formula BMW Racing champion.

University of Heidelberg

2010-12-16T09:01:00.000-08:00

The Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (Ruperto Carola, Heidelberg University, or simply Heidelberg) is a public research university located in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386, it is the oldest university in Germany and was the fourth university established in the Holy Roman Empire. A coeducational institution since 1899, today Heidelberg consists of twelve faculties and offers degree programs at undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral levels in some 100 disciplines. It is a German Excellence University, as well as a founding member of the League of European Research Universities, the Coimbra Group, and the European University Association.

Rupert I, Elector Palatine established the university when Heidelberg was the capital of the Palatinate. Consequently, it served as a center for theologians and law experts from throughout the Holy Roman Empire. Matriculation rates declined with the Thirty Years' War, and the university did not overcome its fiscal and intellectual crises until the early 19th century. Subsequently, the institution once again became a hub for independent thinkers, and developed into a "stronghold of humanism", and a center of democratic thinking. At this time, Heidelberg served as a role model for the implementation of graduate schools at American universities. However, the university lost many of its dissident professors and was marked a NSDAP university during the Nazi era (between 1933 and 1945). It later underwent an extensive denazification after World War II—Heidelberg serving as one of the main scenes of the left-wing student protests in Germany in the 1970s.

Modern scientific psychiatry; psychopharmacology; psychiatric genetics; environmental physics; and modern sociology were introduced as scientific disciplines by Heidelberg faculty. Associated with 30 Nobel Prize laureates, the university continues to emphasize research. It is consistently ranked among Europe's top overall universities, and is an international education venue for doctoral students, with approximately 1,000 doctorates successfully completed every year, and with more than one third of the doctoral students coming from abroad. International students from some 130 countries account for more than 20 percent of the entire student body. Heidelberg comprises two major campuses: one in Heidelberg's Old Town and another in the Neuenheimer Feld quarter on the outskirts of the city. The university's noted alumni include eleven domestic and foreign Heads of State or Heads of Government.

History

Founding
Rupert I founded the University of Heidelberg in 1386

Around 1400, the city of Heidelberg had approximately 3,000 inhabitants, but the Great Schism in 1378, which split European Christendom into two hostile groups made it possible for this relatively small city to get its own university.

The Great Schism was initiated by the election of two popes after the death of Pope Gregory XI in the same year. One successor resided in Avignon (elected by the French) and the other in Rome (elected by the Italian cardinals). The German secular and spiritual leaders voiced their support for the successor in Rome, which had far-reaching consequences for the German students and teachers in Paris: they lost their stipends and had to leave.

Rupert I recognized the opportunity and initiated talks with the Curia, which ultimately lead to the creation of the Papal Bull for the Foundation of a university. After having received on October 23, 1385 the permission from pope Urban VI to create a school of general studies (Latin: studium generale), the final decision to found the university was taken on June 26, 1386 at the behest of Rupert I, Count Palatine of the Rhine. As specified in the papal charter, the university was modelled after University of Paris and included four faculties: philosophy, theology, jurisprudence, and medicine.

On October 18, 1386, a special Pontifical High Mass in the Heiliggeistkirche commemorated the opening of the doors of the university. On October 19, 1386, the first lecture was held, making Heidelberg the oldest university in Germany. In november 1386, Marsilius of Inghen was elected first rector of the university. As a motto for the seal, he chose semper apertus—i.e., "the book of learning is always open."

The university grew up quickly and in March 1390, 185 students were enrolled at the university

Early development
A solemn holy Mass was offered in the Heiliggeistkirche in 1386 to commemorate and bless the establishment of the University (photo ca. 1900).

Between 1414 and 1418, theology and jurisprudence professors of the university took part in the Council of Constance and acted as counselors for Louis III, who attended this council as representative of the emperor and chief magistrate of the realm. This resulted in establishing a good reputation for the university and its professors.

Due to the influence of Marsilius, the university initially teached the nominalism or via moderna. In 1412, both realism and the teachings of John Wycliffe were forbidden at the university, but later around 1454, the university decided that the realism or via antique would also be taught, thus introducing two parallel ways (ambae viae).

The transition from scholastic to humanistic culture was effected by the chancellor and bishop Johann von Dalberg in the late 15th century. Humanism was represented at the University of Heidelberg particularly by the founder of the older German Humanistic School Rudolph Agricola, Conrad Celtes, Jakob Wimpfeling, and Johann Reuchlin. Æneas Silvius Piccolomini was chancellor of the university in his capacity of provost of Worms, and later always favored it with his friendship and good-will as Pope Pius II. In 1482, Pope Sixtus IV permitted laymen and married men to be appointed professors in the ordinary of medicine through a papal dispensation. In 1553, Pope Julius III sanctioned the allotment of ecclesiastical benefice to secular professors.

Martin Luther's disputation at Heidelberg in April 1518 made a lasting impact, and his adherents among the masters and scholars soon became leading Reformationists in Southwest Germany. With the Palatinate's turn to the Reformed faith, Otto Henry, Elector Palatine, converted the university into a calvinsitic institution. In 1563, the Heidelberg Catechism was created under collaboration of members of the university's divinity school. As the 16th century was passing, the late humanism stepped beside Calvinism as a predominant school of thought; and figures like Paul Schede, Jan Gruter, Martin Opitz, and Matthäus Merian taught at the university. It attracted scholars from all over the continent and developed into a cultural and academic center.[19] However, with the beginning of the Thirty Years' War in 1618, the intellectual and fiscal wealth of the university declined. In 1622, the then-world-famous Bibliotheca Palatina (the library of the university) was stolen from the University Cathedral and taken to Rome. The reconstruction efforts thereafter were defeated by the troops of King Louis XIV, who destroyed Heidelberg in 1693 almost completely.
The Old University from 1735 is today the seat of the Rector and the University Senate

As a consequence of the late Counter-Reformation, the university lost its Protestant character, and was channeled by Jesuits. In 1735, the Old University was constructed at University Square, then known as Domus Wilhelmina. Through the efforts of the Jesuits a preparatory seminary was established, the Seminarium ad Carolum Borromæum, whose pupils were also registered in the university. After the suppression of the Jesuit Order, most of the schools they had conducted passed into the hands of the French Congregation of Lazarists in 1773. They deteriorated from that time forward, and the university itself continued to lose in prestige until the reign of the last elector Charles Theodore, Elector Palatine, who established new chairs for all the faculties, founded scientific institutes such as the Electoral Academy of Science, and transferred the school of political economy from Kaiserslautern to Heidelberg, where it was combined with the university as the faculty of political economy. He also founded an observatory in the neighboring city of Mannheim, where Jesuit Christian Meyer labored as director. In connection with the commemoration of the four hundredth anniversary of the university, a revised statute book, which several of the professors had been commissioned to prepare, was approved by the elector. The financial affairs of the university, its receipts and expenditures, were put in order. At that period, the number of students varied from 300-400; in the jubilee year, 133 matriculated. As a consequence of the disturbances caused by the French Revolution, and particularly because of the Treaty of Lunéville, the university lost all its property on the left bank of the Rhine, so that its complete dissolution was expected.

19th and early 20th century

It was not until 1803 that this decline stopped. In this year, the university was reestablished as a state-owned institution by Karl Friedrich, Grand Duke of Baden, to whom the part of the Palatinate situated on the right bank of the Rhine was allotted. Since then, the university bears his name together with the name of Ruprecht I. Karl Friedrich divided the university into five faculties and placed himself at its head as rector, as did also his successors. During this decade Romanticism found expression in Heidelberg through Clemens Brentano, Achim von Arnim, Ludwig Tieck, Joseph Görres, and Joseph von Eichendorff, and there went forth a revival of the German Middle Ages in speech, poetry, and art.

The German Students Association exerted great influence, which was at first patriotic and later political. After Romanticism had eventually died out, Heidelberg became a center of Liberalism and the movement in favor of German national unity. The historians Friedrich Christoph Schlosser and Georg Gottfried Gervinus were the guides of the nation in political history. The modern scientific schools of medicine and natural science, particularly astronomy, were models in point of construction and equipment, and the University of Heidelberg was especially noted for its influential law school. The university as a whole became the role model for the transformation of American liberal arts colleges into research universities, in particular for the then-newly established Johns Hopkins University. Heidelberg’s professors were important supporters of the Vormärz revolution and many of them were members of the first freely elected German parliament, the Frankfurt Parliament of 1848. During the late 19th century, the university housed a very liberal and open-minded spirit, which was deliberately fostered by Max Weber, Ernst Troeltsch and a circle of colleagues around them.

In the Weimar Republic, the university was widely recognized as a center of democratic thinking, coined by professors like Karl Jaspers, Gustav Radbruch, Martin Dibelius and Alfred Weber. Unfortunately, there were also dark forces working within the university: Nazi physicist Philipp Lenard was head of the physical institute during that time. Following the assassination of Walther Rathenau, he refused to half mast the national flag on the institute, thereby provoking its storming by communist students.

Nazi era and Federal Republic

With the advent of the Third Reich in 1933, the university supported the Nazis like all other German universities at the time. It dismissed a large number of staff and students for political and racist reasons. Many dissident fellows had to emigrate and most Jewish and Communist professors that did not leave Germany were deported. At least two professors directly fell victim to Nazi terror. On 17 May 1933, members of the university faculty and students took part in book burnings at Universitätsplatz ("University Square") and Heidelberg was eventually infamous as a NSDAP university. The inscription above the main entrance of the New University was changed from "The Living Spirit" to "The German Spirit", and many professors paid homage to the new motto. The university was involved in Nazi eugenics: forced sterilizations were carried out at the women's clinic and the psychatric clinic then directed by Carl Schneider was involved in Action T4 Euthanasia program.[26][27]

After the end of World War II, the university underwent an extensive denazification.

Since Heidelberg was spared from destruction during WWII, the reconstruction of the university was realized rather quickly. With the foundation of the Collegium Academicum, the University of Heidelberg became the home of Germany's first and, until today, only self-governed student hall. Newly laid statutes obliged the university to "The Living Spirit of Truth, Justice and Humanity".

During the 1960s and 1970s, the university grew dramatically in size. At this time, it developed into one of the main scenes of the left-wing student protests in Germany. In 1975, a massive police force arrested the entire student parliament AStA. Shortly thereafter, the building of the Collegium Academicum, a progressive college in immediate vicinity to the universities main grounds, was stormed by over 700 police officers and closed once and for all. On the outskirts of the city, in the Neuenheimer Feld area, a large campus for medicine and natural sciences was constructed.

Today, about 28,000 students are enrolled for studies at the University of Heidelberg. There are 4,196 full time faculty, including 476 university professors. In 2007, the university was appointed University of Excellence within the scope of an initiative started by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the German Research Foundation in order to enhance the German university system by establishing a small network of exceptionally well-funded universities, which are expected to generate a strong international appeal

Campuses
Heidelberg is a city with approximately 140,000 inhabitants. It is situated in the Rhine Neckar Triangle, a European metropolitan area with approximately 2.4 million people living there, comprising the neighboring cities of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, and a number of smaller towns in the perimeter. Heidelberg is known as the cradle of Romanticism, and its old town and castle are among the most frequented tourist destinations in Germany. Its pedestrian zone is a shopping and night life magnet for the surrounding area and beyond. Heidelberg is about 40 minutes by train away from Frankfurt International Airport. The University of Heidelberg’s facilities are, generally speaking, separated in two parts. The faculties and institutes of humanities and social sciences are embedded in the Old Town Campus. The sciences faculties and the medical school, including three large university hospitals, are located on the New Campus in the Neuenheimer Feld on the outskirts of Heidelberg.

Old Town Campus
The so-called New University is regarded as the center of the Old Town Campus. It is situated at the Universitätsplatz (University Square) in the pedestrian zone, in direct vicinity to the University Library and to the main administration buildings. The New University was officially opened in 1931. Its erection was largely financed by donations of wealthy American families, such as the Goldman, Sachs, Morgan, Chrysler and Ford families, as well as other families, in line with a fundraising campaign of Jacob Gould Schurman, an alumnus of the University of Heidelberg and former U.S. Ambassador to Germany. It houses the new assembly hall, the largest lecture halls, and a number of smaller seminar rooms, mostly used by faculties of humanities and social sciences. Education in humanities and social sciences takes place to a great extent in the respective faculty buildings which are spread all over the ancient part of town, though, they are mostly a maximum of ten minutes walk away from University Square. The faculties maintain own extensive libraries and work spaces for their respective students. Seminars and tutorials are usually held in the faculty buildings.

New Campus
The New Campus is located in the Neuenheimer Feld district. It is now the largest part of the university, and the largest campus for natural sciences and life science in Germany. Almost all science faculties and institutes, the medical school, University Hospital Heidelberg, and the science branch of the University Library are situated on the New Campus. Most of the dormitories and the athletic facilities of the university can be found there as well. Several independent research institutes, such as the German Cancer Research Center and two of the Max-Planck-Institutes have settled there. The New Campus is also the seat of several biomedical spin-off companies. The old part of town can be reached by tram and bus in about 10 minutes. The Neuenheimer Feld campus has extensive parking lots for faculty and student vehicles for long term and short term parking, as well as visitors and patients of the various university hospitals. The Faculty of Physics and Astronomy is not located on either campus, but on the Philosophers' Walk, separated from the Old Town by the River Neckar, and some 2 km (1.2 mi) away from the New Campus. It also maintains observatory facilities on the Königstuhl Mountain.

Bergheim Campus
The Bergheim Campus is located in the former Ludolf Krehl clinic (named after Ludolf von Krehl) in the inner-city suburb of Heidelberg-Bergheim. Since March 2009 it has housed the institutes economics, political science, and sociology (together the Heidelberg University Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences) that formerly resided at the Old Town campus. The Bergheim campus offers one lecture theatre, several seminar rooms, the most modern of the university libraries, and a cafe (rather than the full cafeteria present in the other campuses).

University College Falmouth, Cornwall, UK

2010-12-03T20:26:00.000-08:00

University College Falmouth is a British university college in Falmouth, Cornwall. Founded in 1902, it had previously been the Falmouth School of Art and then Falmouth College of Arts until it received degree-awarding powers (and the right to use the title "University College") in March 2005. In April 2008, University College Falmouth merged with Dartington College of Arts, adding a range of Performance courses to its portfolio. This merger had been the subject of dispute by some supporters of Dartington.

The College is located on three different campuses across Cornwall and Devon. The main campus, "Tremough Campus", is in Penryn.

The College is a partner in the Combined Universities in Cornwall initiative.

History
University College Falmouth was founded as Falmouth School of Art in 1902, in response to the diminution of scientific activities in Cornwall that was brought about by the decline of the Cornish mining industry.
[edit] Falmouth School of Art
Entrance to the original Falmouth School of Art building in Arwenack Avenue

In 1902, Falmouth School of Art was a wholly private venture and offered classes such as Freehand Drawing, Model Drawing, Painting from Still Life, Drawing from the Antique, Drawing in Light & Shade, and Memory Drawing of Plant Form. Students were charged between four and ten shillings per session for the privilege, and were offered the opportunity to enter for Board of Education exams.

In 1938, the Local Education Authority (LEA) took over the administration of the institution.

In the 1940s, courses became the responsibility of the Head of Truro School of Art, Stanley Wright was appointed Principal, the School was recognized by the Ministry of Education and began to plan ambitious expansion. At this time there were six full-time members of teaching staff responsible for 21 full-time students, 55 part-time day students and 104 part-time evening students. Students were offered the option of studying either "Art" or "Craft". Art, by definition, covered fine Art, drawing and painting, museum study, and modelling and casting in clay. "Craft" included Leather, Weaving, Bookbinding, Block Printing and Wood Inlay.

In the 1950s, the College relocated from Arwenack Avenue to Kerris Vean in Woodlane (built in 1875), Jack Chalker was appointed Principal and courses for the Ministry of Education’s Intermediate and National Diploma in Design Examinations were offered for the first time. Studios for sculpture and printed textiles were constructed in the grounds. The School now occupied a unique site in the former Fox-Rosehill sub-tropical gardens (which rivalled many others of great renown, such as Glendurgan and Trebah), Michael Finn was appointed Principal, the School began a commercial design course for vocational students as well as a junior design course for school children, and the National Advisory Council for Art Education (NACAE) was established.

In the 1960s, the NACAE published its first report, Peter Lanyon and Terry Frost were appointed as visiting lecturers, a further storey was added to the textiles and sculpture workshops for use as a printmaking studio, and alterations to Kerris Vean presented opportunities for the study of photography. The question for Falmouth at this time was whether an art school with only 120 students, situated in a remote and economically disadvantaged part of the country, could compete for recognition with much larger institutions, against a national backdrop of changing approaches to art education. The LEA and leading artists such as Dame Barbara Hepworth, Bryan Wynter and Patrick Heron were both generous with, and energetic in, their support of the School.

The next dilemma for the School was whether it should seek the NACAE’s authorization to offer the new Diploma in Art & Design (equivalent to a degree), and at that point, it decided to focus on full-time Intermediate and National Diploma students, and relinquish both its commercial design course and some part-time classes. With the purchase of Woodlane’s Rosehill House (built by Robert Were Fox in 1820) in the offing, it had seemed certain that the School would successfully achieve the recognition that it so earnestly sought, but having underestimated the NACAE’s basic requirements for general accommodation, studio space and staffing, and having failed to convince the Council that such a small institution could survive, it was with regret that the School received the news that the NACAE had refused its application. Undaunted, the search for additional land commenced.

Encouragement came to try again from Dame Barbara Hepworth, Bernard Leach, Patrick Heron and Bryan Wynter in 1964. In 1965, the momentous day arrived when the NACAE overturned its earlier verdict, following a reassessment of the School by the Chairman and Vice Chancellor of the NACAE, and the Principal of the Royal College of Art (RCA). The School was now recognized as a centre for the Diploma in Art & Design, with Painting as a main course. Recognition for sculpture was to follow shortly. There were now 40 full-time students at the School, with a remit to expand to at least 100 students, but such expansion could only come about with a major building programme and the purchase of yet more land.

In the mid-1960s, additional studios and technical workshops were added to the School’s estate, and the LEA acquired Rosehill House on its behalf. Of great architectural merit, this building became the centre for Complementary Studies with History of Art, and the Library. Additional land was then purchased at the southernmost boundary of the Woodlane site to enable the enlargement of the painting studios and to provide a cinema, canteen, common room and games room.

At this time, the School offered a pre-diploma (the precursor of our modern-day Foundation programme), a Diploma in Art & Design (DipAD) which superseded the National Design Diploma (NDD), and entrance examinations for postgraduate art and design institutions such as the RCA and the Slade. Design became an important aspect of the School’s curricula, with Patrick Heron teaching two-dimensional design, and Dame Barbara Hepworth and Bernard Leach teaching three-dimensional design. Photography appeared in the College’s academic portfolio for the first time in 1963. The number of teaching staff at the School had risen from six in the 1940s to 25 in the 1960s.

In the 1970s, the School acquired an hotel opposite the Woodlane site and converted it into an hostel for 21 students, John Barnicoat was appointed Principal, and the School was recognized by the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) as a centre for a three-year programme of study leading to the award of a BA(Hons) degree in Fine Art. In 1976, Tom Cross was appointed Principal and the School continued to develop its resources by improving its sculpture studios and creating a new studio for ceramic sculpture. A purpose-built facility for photography and film was added, the library was enlarged, and the acquisition of a further student hostel in Woodlane, at Lamorva House, enabled the School to offer accommodation to 57 students. In addition, the original Arwenack Art School was handed back to the School to serve its introductory Foundation course as a centre for three-dimensional studies.

In the 1980s, BA(Hons) Fine Art was the principal academic course. A two-year BTEC General Art & Design course was added to the School’s portfolio and additional facilities for printmaking, photography, textiles and fashion were then created in buildings adjacent to the School in Woodlane. At this point, the School had a population of approximately 200 students on both HE and FE courses.

Reorganisation of art education in Cornwall
By 1984, the School was under threat of closure from the National Advisory Board (NAB) on the grounds that its Fine Art degree course "was academically and geographically isolated". The National Advisory Body (NAB) was set up to 'rationalise' fine art provision in Britain in line with prime minister Margaret Thatcher's belief that art education should return to its 19th-century role of providing designers for industry.

The Chairman and Vice Chairman of the School's Board of Governors, the acting Principal, Ian Carrick, the acting deputy for the Principal, Charles Hancock and Patrick Heron, quickly implemented the School’s only available strategy for survival and galvanized the support of local MPs, renowned artists, former students and friends of the School. The response received was overwhelming and an extraordinary number of individuals wrote to the NAB in support of the School from both within the County and outside it.

Research conducted by NAB itself found that graduates from Fine Art courses headed the league tables for gaining employment in arts related fields after finishing their degrees. The NAB subsequently withdrew its threat of closure and agreed that it would turn its attention to reviewing Cornwall's art and design provision in its entirety instead.

Historically there had been no overall LEA policy for art and design education in Cornwall beyond an accepted notion that Fine Art should be taught at Falmouth School of Art and "applied" Art at Cornwall College, and it had been observed on several occasions that this anomaly presented the greatest impediment to the development of a real centre of excellence for art and design education in Cornwall.

As a result, a joint working party involving senior specialist staff from both institutions was formed by the LEA to consider the future development of art and design in the County.

In 1978, Cornwall College, a predominantly FE orientated institution, had formed a Faculty of Art & Design. It offered full-time, three- and four-year vocational courses in Graphic Design, Technical Illustration, Display & Exhibition Design, and Ceramics to 150 students, leading to the award of South West Region Diplomas in Design and Licentiateship to the Chartered Society of Designers. In the early 1980s, these courses were converted to BTEC National Diploma (ND) and Higher National Diploma (HND) courses. A one-year Foundation Design course was also in operation and in 1982, the CNAA validated the Faculty’s Postgraduate Diploma in Radio Journalism.

By 1986, the student population of this Faculty had risen to around 500 Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs). The Faculty had significantly outgrown its resources at Cornwall College’s main campus and there were no residential facilities for the increasing number of students that it recruited nationally.

In 1987, it was agreed by Cornwall County Council, and endorsed by the Secretary of State for Education, that Falmouth School of Art and Cornwall College's Faculty of Art & Design would merge to become Falmouth School of Art & Design. This new institution would be located at the Woodlane Campus in Falmouth.

The portfolio of courses to be offered by the new institution to the combined population of 636 full-time students included: BA(Hons) Fine Art, BA(Hons) Scientific & Technical Graphics, PgDip Radio Journalism, BTEC ND and HND Graphic Design, BTEC ND and HND Technical Illustration, BTEC HND Ceramics, BTEC ND Design, BTEC ND General Art & Design and a Foundation course.

In the same year, the first phase of new building work to provide accommodation for BA(Hons) Scientific & Technical Graphics commenced at Woodlane, the newly-formed Board of Governors for Falmouth School of Art & Design appointed Professor Alan Livingston as Principal, and a structure comprising eight Study Areas led by Principal Lecturers was agreed.

As a result of the Education Reform Act 1988, the School became an independent Higher Education Corporation in April 1989.

Falmouth College of Arts
The 1990s witnessed the rapid development of the College's academic portfolio. Falmouth School of Art & Design became Falmouth College of Arts to signify its recognition of media as an arts subject. From 1992 the College's awards were accredited by the University of Plymouth. By 1996 the student population included 906 full-time and 60 part-time undergraduates, 38 full-time and 68 part-time postgraduates, and 290 FE students.

In 1998–99, the College was the only HE institution in the UK to be awarded 24 out of 24 for its teaching of art and design at undergraduate and postgraduate level by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA). The College also acquired its second campus at Tremough, an 18th Century, grade II listed country house and 70-acre (280,000 m2) estate in the nearby town of Penryn.

University College Falmouth
The College's new Design Centre opened at Tremough in the Autumn of 2003 as part of a £50 million development of the Tremough Campus under the Combined Universities in Cornwall initiative, including social facilities, additional teaching accommodation and a Learning Resource Centre.

Under the auspices of the CUC, the University of Exeter's operations in Cornwall transferred to Tremough in 2004, as this campus has been designated the "Hub" of the CUC (with Cornwall's FE Colleges forming the "Rim").

In April 2008, University College Falmouth merged with Dartington College of Arts, adding a range of Performance courses to its portfolio.

Undergraduate Courses at University College Falmouth include: BA(Hons) Advertising, Creative Events Management, Fine Art, Illustration, Marine & Natural History Photography, Photography, Press Photography, Contemporary Crafts, Fashion Design, Graphic Design, Interior Design, Performance Sportswear Design, Textile Design, 3D Design, Broadcasting, Digital Animation, English with Creative Writing, English with Media Studies, Film, Journalism, Public Relations, Dance: Choreography, Dance: Performance, Music, Music: Composition, Music: Performance, Creative Music Technology, Popular Music, Theatre Design and Production, Theatre: Directing, Theatre: Performance, Theatre: Screen and Media, Theatre: Writing and Music Theatre.

Postgraduate Courses include: MA Art & Environment, Creative Advertising, Curatorial Practice, Education: Creative and Academic Practices in Higher Education, Fine Art: Contemporary Practice, Illustration: Authorial Practice, International Journalism, Multimedia Broadcast Journalism, Performance Writing, Photography, Professional Writing, and Television Production.

Campuses
Woodlane Campus
Woodlane Campus is situated less than half a mile from the original Falmouth School of Art and is close to the two Foundation Studies studios. Woodlane is home to BA(Hons)Fashion Design, Fine Art, Graphic Design, Illustration, Journalism, Performance Sportswear Design and Public Relations, and provides facilities for MA Creative Advertising and MA Illustration: Authorial Practice. Since, 2002, the original school of art building has provided dedicated studios for MA Fine Art: Contemporary Practice.

Tremough Campus
Tremough Campus is used and managed jointly by University College Falmouth and the University of Exeter in Cornwall. Tremough is the hub of the Combined Universities in Cornwall project. Over £105 million of European and other funding has been invested in Phase One and Two of Tremough's development. Further development of this site by 2012 will include a new multi-million pound purpose built Performance Centre, further student accommodation and sports facilities and AIR, the Academy for Innovation and Research.

Dartington Campus
Students studying Art, Dance, Music, Theatre and Writing will be based at this campus until Dartington relocates its courses to Falmouth in October 2010.

Academic ranking
In August 2007, University College Falmouth entered The Sunday Times University Guide for the first time, ranked 57 in a league table of 124 universities and colleges in the UK. Falmouth's entry was the highest for a university college.

More than four in five undergraduate students (81 per cent) are awarded a first or a 2:1. This statistic made University College Falmouth the 5th highest-ranked University in the country for awarding first and 2:1 degrees behind Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol and St Andrews.

Student Union
The Student Union, "FXU", is the representative body of the students of University College Falmouth and Exeter University, Cornwall Campus, on the combined campuses of Tremough, Woodlane and Dartington. FXU organises events for students throughout the year such, facilitates community action and volunteering, provides opportunity for sporting involvement and offers student welfare advice.

Notable alumni
Further information: Category:Alumni of University College Falmouth

* Luisa Baldini, newsreader and presenter
* Sophie Benzing, newsreader and presenter
* Julia Botfield, newsreader
* Tacita Dean, artist
* Sarindar Dhaliwal, artist
* Lorna Dunkley, TV presenter
* John Dyer (painter)
* Liz Fuller, actress
* Gunnar Garfors, CEO and president
* Hew Locke, artist
* Sophie Long, news presenter
* Paul McGowan (artist)
* Hugh O'Donnell (artist), artist
* Keith Salmon, artist
* David Tremlett, artist
* Seb West, artist
* Gerard Woodward, novelist and poet

College of Law of England and Wales (CoL), England

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The College of Law of England and Wales (CoL) is a private educational institution in England and a registered charity which provides legal education for students and professionals.

History
The Law Society of England and Wales created the College of Law by merging its own School of Law and the tutorial firm Gibson and Weldon in 1962.

Creation of the CPE: 1975
In 1975, the College of Law submitted proposals which changed the face of legal education, recommending a 36-week Final Examination course for aspiring solicitors and a Common Professional Examination (CPE) or law conversion course for non-law graduates. It became a major provider of – and examining body for – the CPE (now known as the Graduate Diploma in Law).

New study modes: 1981
In the 1980s, the Law Society asked the College to produce a scheme for additional tuition in accounts for articled clerks (now trainee solicitors), combining distance learning with one-day’s attendance at lectures. The course became compulsory for those taking the Final Examination, which meant the College was able to develop distance learning study on other courses over the coming years.

Development of the LPC and BVC: 1993-1999
The skills-based Legal Practice Course replaced the Final Examination, giving students a more vocational education. Student numbers grew to around 4,500 a year by the mid 1990s. A few years later, the College severed its links with the Law Society and, when the Council for Legal Education lost its monopoly, was able to run the new Bar Vocational Course for aspiring barristers.

Pro bono and international links: 2000-2003
The College of Law pioneered the establishment of pro bono clinics, with students undertaking legal advice work for free under the guidance of practitioners. It also forged international links, introducing young European lawyers to the English legal system for the British Council.

Firm-specific LPCs: 2003-present
The College restructured its Legal Practice Courses to give students more choice and won a contract to develop firm-specific LPC programmes for three top magic circle firms - Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance and Linklaters.

In 2006 the College became the first independent institution to be granted degree awarding powers by the Privy Council, leading to development of its Bachelor and Master of Law degree programmes. The London Moorgate centre was also opened – currently the UK’s largest corporate-specific law school.

Juris Doctor (JD) programme
In March 2010 the College announced that they would become the first legal education provider in the UK to offer direct access to the New York Bar for non-law graduates.

Campuses
* Birmingham (Great Hampton Street)
* Bristol (From September 2010)
* Chester (Christleton Hall)
* Guildford (Braboeuf Manor) in Surrey
* London
o Bloomsbury
o Moorgate
* York (Bishopthorpe Road)
* Manchester (New York Street)

Courses offered
A large variety of courses are offered, mainly including:

* the Graduate Diploma in Law (otherwise known as the Common Professional Examination, or the "Law Conversion Course")
* the Bar Vocational Course (the professional qualification for barristers)
* the Legal Practice Course (the professional qualification for solicitors)
* Bachelor of Laws (LLB)
* Master of Laws (LLM)

The College is the largest postgraduate legal education provider in Europe with 5,300 students in 2005,[verification needed] and is also a major provider of Continuing Professional Development courses for solicitors and barristers.

The Open University's courses in Law (including the LLB by distance learning) are offered "in association with" the College of Law.

As of May 2006 the College became the first private institution to receive the power to award degrees, allowing it to award the degree of LLB to those of its students who complete both the Graduate Diploma in Law and either the Legal Practice Course or the Bar Vocational Course.

The College is a "recognised body", an institution which has its own degree awarding powers under British law. It is in the top 100 of UK charities ranked by expenditure.

Notable alumni
This section does not cite any references or sources.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2010)

Athletes
* Jonny Searle, British Olympic rower
* Sarah Winckless, British Olympic rower

Judges
* Lord Falconer of Thoroton, former Lord Chancellor of Great Britain
* Lord Widgery, judge and former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales
* District Judge John Clegg

Musicians
* Margaret Fiedler, London-based American musician

Politicians
* Cherie Booth, Queen's Counsel and wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair
* Francis Maude, Conservative Member of Parliament for Horsham
* Gordon Borrie, Baron Borrie, Labour life peer
* Hazel Blears, Labour Member of Parliament for Salford
* Sajjad Karim, Member of the European Parliament for North West England
* Sir Peter Viggers, Conservative Member of Parliament for Gosport.

Writers
* Guy Stair Sainty, author on royal genealogy and heraldry

Pepperdine University, USA

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Pepperdine University is an independent, private, medium-sized university affiliated with the Churches of Christ. The university's 830-acre (3.4 km2) campus overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Malibu, California, United States, is the location for Seaver College, the School of Law, the Graduate School of Education and Psychology, the Graziadio School of Business and Management, and the School of Public Policy. Courses are taught in Malibu, at six graduate campuses in southern California, and at international campuses in Germany, England, Italy, China, Switzerland, and Argentina.

History
Early years
In February 1937, against the backdrop of the Great Depression, George Pepperdine founded the University as a Christian liberal arts college in the city of Los Angeles. On September 21, 1937, 167 new students from 22 different states and two other countries entered classes on a newly built campus on 34 acres (140,000 m2) at West 79th Street and South Vermont Avenue in the Vermont Knolls neighborhood of South Central Los Angeles , referred to later as the Vermont Avenue campus. By April 6, 1938, George Pepperdine College was fully accredited by the Northwest Association.

Pepperdine had built a fortune founding and developing the Western Auto Supply Company, which he started with a $5 investment, but his prosperity led to his greater ambition to discover "how humanity can be helped most with the means entrusted to [his] care. [He] consider it wrong to build up a great fortune and use it selfishly." Mr. Pepperdine voiced his twofold objective for the college that bore his name, "First, we want to provide first-class, fully accredited academic training in the liberal arts ... Secondly, we are especially dedicated to a greater goal—that of building in the student a Christ-like life, a love for the church, and a passion for the souls of mankind."

Move to Malibu
By the 1960s, the young college faced serious problems. The area around the Vermont Avenue campus developed issues with crime and urban decay; tensions also arose due to the Civil Rights Movement and attempts to circumvent it such as California Proposition 14, which challenged federal fair housing laws. The situation exploded in the 1965 Watts Riots. In 1969 activists in the Watts area threatened to burn down the campus; however, they were talked out of it after all-night negotiations by then-President M. Norvel Young. In addition, the Vermont Avenue campus was running out of room to expand.

In 1967, the school put forth a multi-campus idea that would move the undergraduate campus to an alternative location; a committee formed and looked at numerous locations, including sites in Valencia, Orange County, Ventura County and Westlake Village. Pepperdine favored the Westlake Village location until the Adamson-Rindge family, who owned hundreds of acres in Malibu, offered 138 acres (0.56 km2) of Malibu land; despite concerns over building costs on the mountainous site, the school decided to move forward based on its prime location and potential for raising donation. On April 13, 1971, the university broke ground to commence construction and in September 1972 the Malibu campus opened for student enrollment.

(The old Pepperdine University campus was sold to Crenshaw Christian Center, whose Pastor, Frederick K.C. Price, then oversaw construction of the "FaithDome," the largest domed-church in the United States, seating over 10,000).

School of Law
Pepperdine gained university status in 1971 when the School of Law was added and the business and education departments became separate schools. In the 1980s, Pepperdine rose to prominence as one of the United States' leading centers of conservative politics, attracting many conservative-leaning professors from nearby UCLA and USC. Prominent conservatives on the Pepperdine faculty have included Bruce Herschensohn, Ben Stein, Kenneth Starr, Arthur Laffer, Douglas Kmiec, and Daniel Pipes.

Brushfires
In 1993 and 1996, massive brushfires threatened the campus with destruction, but firefighters succeeded in protecting almost all structures. On October 21, 2007, fast-moving wildfires forced campus residents to relocate and shelter in the Firestone Field house and Cafeteria, plus evacuations of local homes and businesses.[5] Similarly, another November 2007 fire in Corral Canyon, accidentally set off by a group of Los Angeles youths, caused an evacuation of the Drescher Campus. However, most students were off-campus for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Campus
The main campus is located among several ridges that overlook the Pacific Ocean and the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, California. The main campus entrance road ascends a steep, well-groomed grassy slope past a huge stylized cross, known as the Phillips Theme Tower, symbolizing the university's dedication to its original Christian mission. Most buildings were constructed in a typical 1980s-style reinterpretation of classic Californian and Mediterranean architecture (red tile roofs, white stuccoed walls, large tinted windows). There are views of the Pacific Ocean, Catalina Island, Palos Verdes Peninsula, Long Beach and the westside of Los Angeles from numerous points. Graduations take place at Alumni Park, a broad expanse of lawn overlooking Pacific Coast Highway and the Pacific Ocean. The main academic plaza for undergraduate programs of Seaver College lies just above Alumni Park and includes Stauffer Chapel, Tyler Campus Center, Payson Library, and the Ahmanson Fine Arts Center. Undergraduate housing and athletic facilities sit to the north/northwest of the academic complex. The Law School exists even higher above these areas. The central campus is surrounded by a loop road consisting of Seaver Drive, Huntsinger Circle, and John Tyler Drive. Banowsky Boulevard separates Alumni Park from the main academic complex and is named in honor of William S. Banowsky, the 4th president of Pepperdine.

Spur roads to the east of the central part of campus lead to faculty housing. To the northwest, Via Pacifica winds uphill to the Drescher Graduate Campus, completed in 2003 and home to the School of Public Policy, the Villa Graziadio conference center, as well as the fulltime programs of the Graziadio School of Business and Management and the Graduate School of Education and Psychology. Housing for graduate students, undergraduate honors students, and faculty are also located here.

Graduate campuses
The Graziadio School of Business and Management and the Graduate School of Education and Psychology are headquartered in West Los Angeles at the Howard Hughes Center next to Interstate 405. These two schools also offer programs at graduate campuses in Encino, Irvine, Santa Clara, and Westlake Village. International programs of the University's various schools take place in London, Heidelberg, Florence, Buenos Aires, Paris, Madrid, Lausanne, Johannesburg, Tegucigalpa, Brisbane, Chiang Mai, Hong Kong and Tokyo.

Academics
Houses adjacent to the Malibu campus.
University rankings (overall) USNWR National University 53
WM National University 56

Frank R. Seaver College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences
Seaver College is named for Mr. and Mrs. Frank R. Seaver, the principal benefactors of Pepperdine's Malibu Campus. The college offers undergraduates a liberal arts education, and each candidate for a Bachelor's Degree must complete a series of general education courses crossing disciplinary lines. Seaver College students attend classes at the Malibu main campus and study abroad courses are offered at our permanent international campuses in Germany, England, China, Italy, Switzerland, and Buenos Aires. Rick Marrs is the current dean.

Seaver College comprises 8 divisions and offers 38 majors (listed below), as well as 36 minors:

Business Division: Accounting, Business Administration, International Business

Communication Division: Advertising, Communication, Integrated Marketing Communication, Journalism, Public Relations, Telecommunications

Fine Arts Division: Art, Art History, Music, Theatre Arts, Theatre and Television

Humanities and Teacher Education Division: Creative Writing, English, Film Studies, History, Liberal Arts, Philosophy

International Studies and Languages Division: French, German, International Studies, Spanish

Natural Science Division: Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science/Mathematics, Mathematics, Mathematics Education, Natural Science (3/2 Engineering), Nutritional Science, Physics, Sports Medicine

Religion Division: Religion
The Religion Division offers undergraduate and graduate education in ministry, administers a Center for Faith and Learning and an Office of Church Relations, and publishes Leaven: A Journal of Christian Ministry.

Social Science Division: Economics, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology

In addition, the college offers the following graduate degrees: Master of Arts in American studies, Master of Arts in Communication, Master of Science in Communication, Master of Arts in Religion, Master of Divinity, and Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Screen & Television. Seaver students can also earn both single-subject and multiple-subject teaching credentials.

Seaver College students attend classes at the Malibu main campus. Study abroad courses are offered at the University's permanent international campuses in Heidelberg, Germany; London, England; Florence, Italy; Lausanne, Switzerland; Shanghai, China; and Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Graziadio School of Business and Management
Pepperdine University's George L. Graziadio School of Business and Management enrolls approximately 2,000 students in its full-time and part-time degree programs. The school was founded in 1969, and has since graduated over 30,000 alumni. Dr. Linda Livingstone has served as Dean since 2002.

In 2010, US News ranked Pepperdine's business school tied with Santa Clara University at 82 in America. It ranked its part-time program 9th best in California.

School of Law
The Pepperdine University School of Law is located adjacent to the Seaver College Campus, and enrolls about 670 students who come from all parts of the country. It is fully approved by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools. The School of Law recently has attained membership in the prestigious Order of the Coif. Pepperdine's Straus Institute of Dispute Resolution is consistently ranked as the number one dispute resolution program in the country, offering LL.M., master's and certificate programs. Some of its other newer degree offerings include the juris doctor/master of divinity in conjunction with Pepperdine's Seaver College. Other joint degree programs include the JD/MBA, JD/MPP, and JD/MDR. The school offers both a summer session and a fall semester in London, England. Thomas G. Bost is the interim dean.
An example of Pepperdine's Mediterranean architecture, The Keck Science Center

The school placed 52nd among the nation's "Top 100" law schools by the 2011 U.S. News and World Report rankings and is the third highest ranked law school in Southern California. It is known for its entertainment law, and also its dispute resolution program, which is currently ranked No. 1 in the nation.

Graduate School of Education and Psychology
With a focus on collaborative learning, leadership and academic excellence, the Pepperdine University Graduate School of Education and Psychology (GSEP) offers both masters and doctorate programs in education, educational technology, education administration, leadership, organizational change, organizational leadership, school counseling, psychology, and clinical psychology. Margaret Weber is the current dean.

School of Public Policy
Approximately 120 graduate students are enrolled in the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy, which offers a two-year masters of public policy degree. Not simply the study of government, public policy is the study of how governments, non-profits, and even individuals and businesses address problems of public concern. Students specialize in economics, international relations, American politics, or local/regional policy in addition to their core studies and are required to complete a policy-related internship.

Joint degree programs include the MPP/Juris Doctor degree in conjunction with the School of Law, the MPP/Masters of Dispute Resolution degree in conjunction with the School of Law's number one ranked Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution and the MPP/MBA degree in conjunction with the Graziadio School of Business and Management.

Notable figures scheduled to lecture and join an advisory committee are: James A. Baker III (former Secretary of State), William J. Bennett, Edwin Fuelner (President, Heritage Foundation), Steve Forbes (CEO and Chairman, Forbes, Inc.), Larry Kudlow, Edwin Meese III (75th Attorney General of the United States), and Michael Novak.

Notable faculty at the School of Public Policy include: Ted McAllister, James Q. Wilson, James Prieger (Senior Economic Advisor, FCC), Joel Fox, Angela Hawken, Gordon Lloyd and Robert Kaufman.

Notable graduates include at least one former member of the Bush Administration: Eryn Witcher, Director of Television.

The current dean of the Public Policy School is James R. Wilburn.

Presidents
* Batsell Baxter (1937–39)
* Hugh M. Tiner (1939–57)
* M. Norvel Young (1957–71)
* William S. Banowsky (1971–78)
* Howard A. White (1978–85)
* David Davenport (1985–2000)
* Andrew K. Benton (2000–Present)

Athletics
Pepperdine University participates in the West Coast Conference, a conference made up exclusively of religiously affiliated schools in which it is the only member that is not Roman Catholic. Appropriate for its location adjacent to the Pacific Ocean, Pepperdine's teams are known as the Waves.

Pepperdine University was recently ranked by the Sears Cup as having the most successful athletic program for non-football Division I schools. (Stanford was ranked the most successful Division I athletic program with football.) Pepperdine University sponsors fourteen NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletics teams: baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, tennis, volleyball and water polo teams for men; and basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, swimming, tennis and volleyball for women. There are also a number of intercollegiate sports clubs such as men's soccer, men's and women's lacrosse, surf team, Ultimate Frisbee and men's rugby.

NCAA Division I Team Championships:

* Baseball (1992)
* Men's Golf (1997)
* Men's Tennis (2006)
* Men's Volleyball (1978, 1985, 1986, 1992, 2005)
* Water Polo (1997)

NCAA Division I Individual Titles:

* Robbie Weiss (1988 Tennis - Singles)
* Carlos Di Laura & Kelly Jones (1985 Tennis - Doubles)
* Jerome Jones & Kelly Jones (1984 Tennis - Doubles)

Notable alumni
Academia
* Bobby Sood (B.S., 2004) - Founder of MtvIndia.Co
* Michael Shermer (B.S., 1976) - Founder of The Skeptics Society
* Christopher Chetsanga (1965), Professor at University of Zimbabwe that discovered two DNA repair enzymes
* Robert Landeros (1978) - Professor of Management at Western Michigan University[19]-
* Robert Warrior - Professor and Director of American Indian Studies at the University of Illinois
* Laura Skandera Trombley (M.A., 1983) - President of Pitzer College
* Paul L. Edmiston (B.S., 1993) - Associate Professor of Chemistry at The College of Wooster
* E. Andrew Stenhouse (Ed.D., 1999) - Associate Professor of Leadership Studies at Vanguard University of Southern California
* Lynn Clemons (M.A., 1981) - Assistant Professor of Organizational Leadership at Mercer University
* Mark LeBar (M.B.A., 1988) - Associate Professor of Philosophy at Ohio University
* Harmon M. Hosch (M.A., 1968) - Professor and Associate Dean, College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at El Paso
* Scott A. Quatro (B.A., 1990) - Associate Professor of Management at Covenant College
* R. Brandon Pratt (B.S., 1998) - Assistant Professor of Biology at California State University, Bakersfield
* Keith Sheldon (B.A., 1974) - Professor of business/marketing, California State University, Chico
* Dwayne D. Simmons (B.S., 1980) - Professor of Physiological Science at UCLA
* Philip Molebash (B.S., 1993) - Assistant Professor of Educational Technology at the University of Utah
* Victoria Pynchon (Master of Law, 2006) - Writer, lecturer, mediator, adjunct law professor at Pepperdine University School of Law
* Bryan Vila (B.S., 1972; M.P.A., 1974) - Professor of Criminal Justice at Washington State University, Spokane
* Janet Kerr (J.D., 1975; S.L., 1978) - Professor of Law at Pepperdine University
* Steven Dimse (B.S., 1980) - Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Miami
* James M. McGoldrick, Jr. (B.A., 1966) - Professor of Law at Pepperdine University
* Paul Egertson (B.A., 1955) - Senior Lecturer and Adjunct Professor of Religion at California Lutheran University
* Sharon K. Deberry( MBA. 1970)Senior Instructor and Nursing Professor at WVOC, American Career College
* Jeff Nessler (B.S., 1997) - Assistant Professor of Kinesiology at California State University San Marcos
* Daniel Roe Darnell (M.A. 1977) - Chancellor at Yosemite Community College District
* Toby Smith (B.S., 1996) - Clinical Assistant Professor of Geriatrics at University of Hawaii, John A. Burns School of Medicine

Business
* Neil Clark Warren (1956) - Chairman and Co-Founder of eHarmony.com
* Robert E. Dudley (Ph. D., 1975) - President and CEO, Anagen, Inc
* James Edinski (1983) President of Salt on Demand, Inc.
* Adam Firestone (J.D., 1993) - CEO, Firestone Vineyard
* Kim Fields Freeman (1990) - President, Victory Entertainment[citation needed]
* Carl Lambert (1978) - President, Lambert Investments
* John Lewis (business) (1983) - President, Eugene Lewis & Assoc.
* Rod Menzies (MBA, 1988) - entrepreneur[24]
* Robert S. Moore (1984) - Vice Chairman, Paramount Pictures
* Joe Rokus (1976) - Chairman, Reid Plastics
* Aaron Phillips (2002) - Founding Partner, Phillips & Sullivan
* John R. Hall (B.A. 1997; MBA, 2002) - CEO, Greenwood & Hall
* Teri Rokus (J.D., 1976) - Vice President, Reid Plastics
* Tara Lawrence (B.A., 2004) - Founder/President, Hats Off For Cancer, Inc.
* Linda Ruffin (1987) - President, Opportunities Plus
* Rick J. Caruso (J.D., 1983) - CEO of Caruso Affiliated, former President of the Los Angeles Police Commission
* Robert Tchenguiz (LL.B., 1982) - London-based Property Tycoon
* Brett Clouser (B.A. 2008) - Founder, The Monument of our Hearts activist fashion design company, also a contestant on Survivor: Samoa
* Skye Hoppus - Fashion designer, Founder of Childish Clothing.

Entertainment
* Meagan Winings- Miss Nebraska USA, 2009
* Karl Brauer - Editor-in-Chief, edmunds.com
* Todd Matthew Burns - American film producer
* Chace Crawford - Actor, Gossip Girl (TV series)
* Kim Fields (1995) - actress, U.S. TV sitcoms The Facts of Life and Living Single
* Kimberly Forsyth - Miss Arkansas USA 2006
* Madison Hildebrand - Star of Bravo Channel's "Million Dollar Listing"
* Darby Hinton - Actor, Daniel Boone
* Adam Housley - Fox News Channel Los Angeles correspondent, former Milwaukee Brewers and Detroit Tigers baseball player
* Ashley Jones - American actress
* Montell Jordan - R&B recording artist famous for his hit 1990s single, "This is How We Do It"
* Tahj Mowry - Television actor best known for his role on the WB's Smart Guy
* Tia Mowry - Television actress best known for her role on ABC and The WB's Sister, Sister and the CW's The Game
* Tamera Mowry - Television actress best known for her role on ABC's Sister, Sister and Lifetime Television's Strong Medicine
* Porntip Nakhirunkanok - Miss Universe 1988
* Brandy Norwood - R&B artist and actress
* Eric Christian Olsen - American actor
* Nayo Abidoye - Nigerian R&B artist
* George Rowe (B.A., 1992; J.D., 1995) - Rocketown Records Christian recording artist
* George Schlatter - Emmy-winning American television producer and director, best known for Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
* Matt "Money" Smith - Southern California sports radio personality
* Clayton Snyder - Actor, on sitcom Lizzie McGuire
* Bill Weir - Co-anchor of ABC News Nightline
* Les Baxter - Soundtrack and exotica composer
* Kelly Hu - Miss Teen USA 1985 and Actress
* CJ Bakke - Music Producer and founder of Supernova Bluefire
* Cami Edwards - Cast member, Laguna Beach'
* Brittany Dawn Brannon - Miss Teen America 2007

Media
* Stanley Cloud (1968) - Washington Bureau Chief of Time Magazine, author of "A Question of Honor: The Kosciuszko Squadron: Forgotten Heroes of World War II"
* Patty McConahay (B.A., 1976) - Television newscaster and talk show host
* Jack Mulkey (B.A., 1974) - Copy Desk Chief, South Bay Daily Breeze (Los Angeles)
* Scott Ostler (1970) - Sports columnist, San Francisco Chronicle
* David Ottalini (M.A., 1975) - CNN news producer, 1980–2003; Media relations officer, University of Maryland, 2003–present
* Chris Preimesberger (B.A., 1975) - Editor/Columnist, eWEEK, and sports correspondent, The Associated Press; IT blogger
* Bob Rose (B.A., 1975) - Media Relations Chief, Oakland A's
* Bridget Waldman (2003) - News Producer KLAS-TV CBS, Emmy winner 2005
* Adam Housley (B.A. 1994) -National Correspondent Fox News Channel, Emmy Winner
* Alyce Alston (M.B.A.) - President, Health & Wellness, Home & Garden, The Reader's Digest Association, Ltd.
* Natasha Stenbock (B.A., 1999) - KFMB-TV weather anchor (2005–present) and one time The Dating Game contestant 1999.
* Anna Song (B.A., 1999) - KATU investigative reporter, weekend anchor (1999–present), 2007 Emmy for Human Interest News Series, 2007 Regional Edward R. Murrow award for investigative reporting.
* Jane Lee (B.A., 2009) - Oakland A's beat writer, MLB.com

Politics and Government
* Dr. Khalid Abdul Muhammad Ph.D.,Black Activist, (born Harold Moore Jr.; January 12, 1948–February 17, 2001)
* Steven Baldwin (B.A., 1979) - Council for National Policy Executive Director
* Stephen P. Beeler (M.A., 1974) - Best Selling Author, The Firestone Syndrome
* Andre Birotte Jr. (J.D., 1991) - Inspector General for the Los Angeles Police Commission
* Rod Blagojevich (J.D., 1983) - Former Governor of Illinois, 2003–2009
* Henry Burns, (M.A.) - Member of the Louisiana House of Representatives since January 14, 2008
* Mark J. Caruso (B.S., 1979) (J.D., 1982)--State Representative, New Mexico Legislature 1991-1995
* Talis Colberg (J.D., 1983) - Attorney General, State of Alaska
* Colleen P. Graffy - Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy
* James Hahn (J.D., 1975) - Los Angeles Mayor, 2001–2005
* Janice Hahn - Los Angeles City Councilwoman, 15th District
* Theodore Kanavas - Wisconsin State Senator, 33rd District
* Joel Kleefisch, 1993, Wisconsin State Assembly
* Jami Miscik (1980) - Director of the Office of International Affairs, CIA
* Hon. Eileen C. Moore (J.D., 1978) - Associate Justice, California Court of Appeal, Fourth District
* Bernard C. Parks - Los Angeles City Councilman, 8th District, former Los Angeles Police Chief
* Todd Russell Platts (J.D., 1991) - U.S. Congressman from Pennsylvania, 2001–Present
* Amb. Pierre-Richard Prosper (J.D., 1989) - United States Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues
* Robin Sax {J.D., 1997}- Author, legal analyst, victim advocate, former prosecutor for Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office
* Michelle Park Steel - Board Member, California Board of Equalization, 2006–Present
* Gregory D. Totten (J.D., 1982) - District Attorney of Ventura County

Sports
* Alex Acker (2005) - Professional basketball player (2005–06; 2008-09 Detroit Pistons, Los Angeles Clippers)
* Brandon Armstrong (2001) - Former professional basketball player (2001–04; New Jersey Nets)
* Dain Blanton (1994) - 2000 Olympic Gold Medalist in Beach Volleyball
* Paul Carroll (2009) - Australian Men's National Volleyball Team
* Doug Christie (1992) - Retired professional basketball player (1992–2007; Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks, Toronto Raptors, Sacramento Kings, Orlando Magic, Dallas Mavericks & Los Angeles Clippers)
* Ricardo Brown,(1980) - Former professional basketball player drafted in 1979 by Houston Rockets; returned in 1980 for his Senior year; Southern California Player of the Year in 1979; Played professional basketball in the Philippine Basketball Association (1983–1990); Rookie of the Year in the PBA in 1983; Most Valuable Player in PBA in 1985; member of PBA Hall of Fame (2009); member of Pepperdine University Hall of Fame (1995); currently Principal of Ross Middle School (Ross Academy) in ABC Unified School District in Artesia, California.
* Bob Ctvrtlik (1985) - 1988 Olympic Gold Medal Volleyball Team Member, Member of International Olympic Committee
* Richard Cho - General Manager of Portland Trail Blazers.
* Yakhouba Diawara (2005) - Power Forward for the Miami Heat
* Barry Enright (2007) - Pitcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
* Jim Everett, Former NFL QB. Received his MBA from Pepperdine.
* Mike Fetters - Former professional baseball player (1989–2004; California Angels, Milwaukee Brewers, Oakland Athletics, Baltimore Orioles, Los Angeles Dodgers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Arizona Diamondbacks & Minnesota Twins)
* Greg Genske - sports agent
* Brad Gilbert (1982) - Former professional tour tennis player; prominent coach, of Andre Agassi's, Andy Murray
* Jason Gore (2000) - Professional golfer
* Dan Haller (2001) - National Player of the Year; shot opening round 77 at Franklin Invitational & took 4th. Also a world renowned architect.
* Dan Haren - Professional baseball player; 2007 A.L. All Star Starting Pitcher (Arizona Diamondbacks)
* Ginger Helgeson-Nielsen - Former professional tennis player who holds the all-time match winning percentage at Pepperdine
* Adam Housley (1994) - Former professional minor league baseball player. Drafted by the Montreal Expos
* Katherine Hull (2003) - Professional golfer
* Dennis Johnson (1976) - Former professional basketball player (1977–90; Seattle Supersonics, Phoenix Suns & Boston Celtics)
* Chad Kreuter - Former professional baseball player (1988–2003; Texas Rangers, Detroit Tigers, Seattle Mariners, Chicago White Sox, Anaheim Angels, Kansas City Royals & Los Angeles Dodgers)
* Martin Laurendeau - Former professional tour tennis player
* Mike Leach - Texas Tech head football coach 2000-2009
* Marcos "Marquinhos" Antônio Abdalla Leite - Basketball player; FIBA World Championship: 1970 runner-up & 1978 bronze; Olympian 1972, 1980 & 1984; Former teams: Fluminense Football Club, Synudyne, Bradesco, Emerson Color, and EC Sírio
* Noah Lowry - Professional baseball player (San Francisco Giants)
* Carlos Luevano (B.A., 1977) -- Former professional baseball player, played in the U.S. minor leagues and the Mexican League, 1978-80.
* Glenn Michibata - Former professional tour tennis player
* Merrill Moses (2000) - Water polo goalie for USA National Team (2008 Olympic Silver Medalist)
* David Newhan - Professional baseball player (Houston Astros)
* Will Ohman - Professional baseball player (Los Angeles Dodgers)
* Rob Picciolo - Former professional baseball player (1977–1985; Oakland Athletics, Milwaukee Brewers & California Angels)
* Steve Rodriguez, major league infielder for the Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers, and a player and head coach for the Waves baseball team.
* Sean Rooney (2004) - USA Men's National Volleyball Team (2008 Gold Medalist)
* Dane Sardinha - Professional Baseball Player (Detroit Tigers).
* Duke Sardinha - Professional Baseball Player (Colorado Rockies).
* Terry Schroeder (1981) - Water Polo Olympian 1988, 1992 & 1996[citation needed], Olympic Water Polo Head Coach 2008 (Silver Medal)
* Mike Scott - Former professional baseball player (1979–1991; New York Mets & Houston Astros) & winner of the 1986 NL Cy Young Award
* Jesse Smith USA Mens Water Polo Olympic Team 2000, 2004, 2008. (2008 Olympic Silver Medalist)
* Andy Stankiewicz - Former professional baseball player (1992–98; New York Yankees, Houston Astros, Montreal Expos & Arizona Diamondbacks)
* Andrew Sznajder - Former professional tour tennis player
* Derek Wallace - Former professional baseball player (1996–99; New York Mets & Kansas City Royals)
* Robbie Weiss - Former professional tennis player
* Randy Wolf - Professional baseball player
* Danny Worth - Professional baseball player (Detroit Tigers)
* Jennifer Lacy - Female Professional Basketball Player Phoenix Mercury & Atlanta Dream

Rankings and reputation
The Princeton Review ranked Pepperdine on the list of colleges with "Dorms Like Palaces" in 2004 and 2007 and #1 under "Most Beautiful Campus" in 2006 and 2007. Pepperdine also appeared on other lists including "Students Pray on a Regular Basis," and "High Quality of Life." Because of its Christian affiliation, some contend that the student body breeds a religious and politically conservative atmosphere. Princeton Review also ranked Pepperdine University #13 in its list "Alternative Lifestyles not an Alternative". In 2007 Pepperdine was named as "One of the Top Producing Colleges and Universities" by the Peace Corps of America. The 2005 edition of the Fiske Guide to Colleges has also noted Pepperdine as being one of the nation's largest conservative colleges. U.S. News & World Report has ranked Pepperdine as the 53rd best national university for undergraduate education.

The School of Law placed 52nd among the nation's "Top 100" law schools by the 2011 U.S. News and World Report rankings and is the third highest ranked law school in Southern California. It is known for its entertainment law, and also its dispute resolution program, which is currently ranked No. 1 in the nation.

In 2010, US News ranked Pepperdine's business school tied with Santa Clara University at 82 in America. It ranked its part-time program 9th best in California. Forbes magazine has ranked the Graziadio School's Fully-Employed MBA programs in the world's Top 20 based on ROI. In 2008, the magazine In Tune for music educators named Pepperdine one of the 38 best music schools in the United States. In 2009, the Sustainable Endowments Institute awarded Pepperdine a "C" for its sustainability efforts in the annual College Sustainability Report Card.

The Nickelodeon series, Zoey 101 was shot on Pepperdine's Malibu campus. Pepperdine signs were covered with trendy, purple signs reading "Pacific Coast Academy", the name of the boarding school attended by the students on the show.

Syracuse University

2010-12-03T19:44:00.000-08:00

Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College. Following several years of debate over relocating the college to Syracuse, the university was founded independent of the college in 1870. Since 1920, the university has identified itself as nonsectarian, although it still maintains an affiliation with the United Methodist Church. Syracuse was elected to the Association of American Universities in 1966.

The campus is located in the University Hill neighborhood of Syracuse, east and southeast of downtown, on one of the larger hills. Its large campus features an eclectic mix of buildings, ranging from nineteenth-century Romanesque structures to contemporary buildings. SU is organized into 13 schools and colleges, with nationally-recognized programs in information studies and library science, architecture, communications, business administration, public administration, and engineering.

Syracuse University athletic teams, known as the Orange, participate in 20 intercollegiate sports. SU is a member of the Big East Conference for all NCAA Division I athletics, except for the women's ice hockey, the rowing crew, and the men's lacrosse teams. The men's lacrosse team will start playing in the newly formed Big East Conference starting in 2010. SU is also a member of the Eastern College Athletic Conference.

History

Founding

The Genesee Wesleyan Seminary was founded in 1832 by the Genesee Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Lima, New York, south of Rochester. In 1850, it was resolved to enlarge the institution from a seminary into a college, or to connect a college with the seminary, becoming Genesee College. However, the location was soon thought by many to be insufficiently central. Its difficulties were compounded by the next set of technological changes: the railroad that displaced the Erie Canal as the region's economic engine bypassed Lima completely. The trustees of the struggling college then decided to seek a locale whose economic and transportation advantages could provide a better base of support. The college began looking for a new home at the same time that Syracuse, ninety miles to the east, was engaged in a search to bring a university to the city, having failed to convince Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White to locate Cornell University there rather than in Ithaca. White pressed that the university should locate on the hill in Syracuse (the current location of Syracuse University) due to the city's attractive transportation hub, which would ease the recruitment of faculty, students, and other persons of note. However, as a young carpenter working in Syracuse, Cornell had been robbed of his wages, not once but twice and thereafter considered Syracuse a Sodom and Gomorrah insisting that the university be located in Ithaca on his large farm on East Hill, overlooking the town and Cayuga Lake.

Meanwhile, there were several years of dispute between the Methodist ministers, Lima, and contending cities across the state, over proposals to move Genesee College to Syracuse. At the time, the ministers wanted a share of the funds from the Morrill Land Grant Act for Genesee College. Eventually, they agreed to a quid-pro quo donation of $25,000 from Ezra Cornell in exchange for their support. Cornell insisted the bargain be written into the bill and Cornell became New York State's Land Grant University while Genesee College used the funds from Cornell to help fund their move to Syracuse. While libraries, students, faculty, and two secret societies all relocated to Syracuse, at its founding on March 24, 1870, the state of New York granted the University its charter independent of Genesee College. Bishop Jesse Truesdell Peck was elected the first president of the Board of Trustees. George F. Comstock, a member of the new University's Board of Trustees, had offered the school 50 acres (200,000 m2) of farmland on a hillside to the southeast of the city center. Comstock intended Syracuse University and the hill to develop as an integrated whole; a contemporary account described the latter as "a beautiful town ... springing up on the hillside and a community of refined and cultivated membership ... established near the spot which will soon be the center of a great and beneficent educational institution."

Expansion
Coeducation at Syracuse traced its roots to the early days of the Genesee College where suffragists like Frances Willard and Belva Lockwood began to distinguish themselves nationally. However, the progressive "co-ed" policies initiated at Genesee would soon find controversy at the new university in Syracuse. Colleges and universities admitted few women students in the 1870s. Administrators and faculty argued women had inferior minds and could not master mathematics and the classics. Dr. Erastus Otis Haven, Syracuse University chancellor and former president of the University of Michigan and Northwestern University, maintained that women should receive the advantages of higher education. He enrolled his daughter, Frances, at SU, where she was initiated in the newly formed Gamma Phi Beta sorority.

Hendricks Chapel
In the late 1880s the University resumed construction on the south side of University Place. Holden Observatory (1887) was followed by two Romanesque Revival buildings – von Ranke Library (1889), now Tolley Administration Building, and Crouse College (1889). Together with the Hall of Languages, these first buildings formed the basis for the "Old Row," a grouping which, along with its companion Lawn, established one of Syracuse's most enduring images. The emphatically linear organization of these buildings along the brow of the hill follows a tradition of American campus planning which dates to the construction of the "Yale Row" in the 1790s. At Syracuse, the Old Row continued to provide the framework for growth well into the twentieth century.

From its founding until through early 1920s, the University grew rapidly. It offered programs in the physical sciences and modern languages, and in 1873, Syracuse added one of the first architecture programs in the U.S. In 1874, Syracuse created the nation's first bachelor of fine arts degree, and in 1876, the school offered its first post-graduate courses in the College of Arts and Sciences. SU created its first doctoral program in 1911. SU's school of journalism, now the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, was established at Syracuse in 1934.

The growth of Syracuse University from a small liberal arts college into a major comprehensive university were due to the efforts of two iconic men, Chancellor James Day and John Archbold. James Roscoe Day was serving the Calvary Church in New York City where he befriended Archbold. Together, the two dynamic figures would oversee the first of two great periods of campus renewal in Syracuse's history.

John Dustin Archbold was a capitalist, philanthropist, and President of the Board of Trustees at Syracuse University. He was known as John D. Rockefeller’s right hand man and successor at the Standard Oil Company. He was a close friend of Syracuse University Chancellor James R. Day, and gave almost $6 million to the University over his lifetime. Said a journalist in 1917:

Mr. Archbold’s ... is the president of the board of trustees of Syracuse University, an institution which has prospered so remarkably since his connection with it that its student roll has increased from hundreds to over 4,000, including 1,500 young women, placing it in the ranks of the foremost institutions of learning in the United States.

In addition to keeping the university financially solvent during its early years, he also contributed funds for eight buildings, including the full cost of Archbold Stadium (opened 1907, demolished 1978), Sims Hall (men's dormitory, 1907), the Archbold Gymnasium (1909, nearly destroyed by fire in 1947, but still in use), and the oval athletic field.

Modern
After World War II, Syracuse University began to transform into a major research institution. Enrollment increased in the four years after the war due to the G.I. Bill, which paid tuition, room, board, and a small allowance for veterans returning from World War II. In 1946, SU admitted 9,464 freshmen, nearly four times greater than the previous incoming class. Branch campuses were established in Endicott, NY and Utica, NY.

The velocity with which the university sped through its change into a major research institution was astounding. By the end of the 1950s, Syracuse ranked twelfth nationally in terms of the amount of its sponsored research, and it had over four hundred professors and graduate students engaging in that investigation.

From the early 1950s through the 1960s, Syracuse University added programs and staff that continued the transformation of the school into a research university. In 1954, Arthur Phillips was recruited from MIT and started the first pathogen-free animal research laboratory. The lab focused on studying medical problems using animal models. In 1956, the School of Social Work was founded which eventually incorporated into the College of Human Ecology. Syracuse's College of Engineering also founded the nation's second oldest computer engineering and bioengineering programs. In 1962, Samuel Irving Newhouse, Sr. donated $15 million to begin construction of a school of communications, eventually known as the SI Newhouse School of Public Communications. In 1966, Syracuse University was admitted to the Association of American Universities, an organization of leading research universities devoted to maintaining a strong system of academic research and education.

Degrees
SU offers undergraduate degrees in over 200 majors in the 9 undergraduate schools and colleges. Bachelor's degrees are offered through the Syracuse University School of Architecture, the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Education, the College of Human Ecology, the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science, the School of Information Studies, Martin J. Whitman School of Management, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, and the College of Visual and Performing Arts. Also offered are Master's and doctoral degrees from the Graduate School and from specialized programs in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, College of Law, among others. Additionally, SU offers 24 Certificates of Advanced Study Programs for specialized programs for education, counseling, and other academic areas.

The university has offered multiple international study programs since 1911. SU Abroad, formerly known as the Division of International Programs Abroad (DIPA), currently offers joint programs with universities in over 40 countries. The university operates seven international centers, called SU Abroad Centers, that offer structured programs in a variety of academic disciplines. The centers are located Beijing, Florence, Italy, Hong Kong, London, UK, Madrid, Spain, Strasbourg, France and Santiago, Chile.

Newcastle University, UK

2010-12-03T19:32:00.000-08:00

Newcastle University is a major research-intensive university located in Newcastle upon Tyne in the north-east of England. It was established as a School of Medicine and Surgery in 1834 and became the University of Newcastle upon Tyne by an Act of Parliament in August 1963. Newcastle University is a member of the Russell Group, an association of research-intensive UK universities. The University has one of the largest EU research portfolios in the UK. The post-nominal letters of graduates commonly have N'cle attached to indicate the institution.

History
The University has its origins in the School of Medicine and Surgery which was established in Newcastle upon Tyne in October 1834, providing basic lectures and practical demonstrations to around 26 students. In June 1851, following a dispute amongst the teaching staff, the School was split into two rival institutions: the majority forming the Newcastle College of Medicine, with the others establishing themselves as the Newcastle upon Tyne College of Medicine and Practical Science. By 1852 the majority college was formally linked to the University of Durham and its teaching certificates were recognised by the University of London for graduation in medicine. The two colleges amalgamated in 1857 and renamed the University of Durham College of Medicine in 1870.

Attempts to realise a place for the teaching of sciences in the city were finally met with the foundation of the College of Physical Science in 1871. The college offered instruction in mathematics, physics, chemistry and geology to meet the growing needs of the mining industry, becoming the Durham College of Physical Science in 1883 and then renamed after William George Armstrong as Armstrong College in 1904. Both these separate and independent institutions later became part of the University of Durham, whose 1908 Act formally recognised that the University consisted of two Divisions, Durham and Newcastle, on two different sites. By 1908, the Newcastle Division was teaching a full range of subjects in the Faculties of Medicine, Arts, and Science, which also included agriculture and engineering.

Throughout the early 20th century, the medical and science colleges vastly outpaced the growth of their Durham counterparts and a Royal Commission in 1934 recommended the merger of the two colleges to form King's College, Durham. Growth of the Newcastle Division of the federal Durham University led to tensions within the structure and on 1 August 1963 an Act of Parliament separated the two, creating the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Campus
King's Walk, giving access to the Union Building (left) and the arches of the Fine Art Building, leading into the Quadrangle.
A map of the main campus and surrounding area (from OpenStreetMap and is incomplete).

The university occupies a campus site close to Haymarket in central Newcastle upon Tyne. It is located to the northwest of the city centre between the open spaces of Leazes Park and the Town Moor.

The Armstrong building is the oldest building on the campus and is the site of the original Armstrong College. The building was constructed in three stages; the north east wing was completed first at a cost of £18,000 and opened by HRH Princess Louise on 5 November 1888. The south-east wing, which includes the Jubilee Tower, and south-west wings were opened in 1894. The Jubilee Tower was built with surplus funds raised from an Exhibition to mark Queen Victoria's Jubliee in 1887. The north-west front, forming the main entrance, was completed in 1906 and features two stone figures to represent science and the arts. Much of the later construction work was financed by Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell, the metallurgist and former Lord Mayor of Newcastle, after whom the main tower is named. In 1906 it was opened by King Edward VII.

The building contains the King's Hall, which serves as the university's chief hall for ceremonial purposes where Congregation ceremonies are held. It can contain 500 seats. King Edward VII gave permission to call the Great Hall, King's Hall. Graduation photographs are often taken in the University Quadrangle, next to the Armstrong building. In 1949 the Quadrangle was turned into a formal garden in memory of members of Newcastle University who gave their lives in the two World Wars.

The Bruce Building is a former brewery, constructed between 1896 and 1900 on the site of the Hotspur Hotel, as the new premises of Newcastle Breweries Limited.

The Devonshire Building, opened in 2004, incorporates in an energy efficient design photovoltaic cells which help to power the motorised shades which control the temperature of the building and geothermal heating coils. Its architects won awards in the Hadrian awards and the RICS Building of the Year Award 2004. The university won a Green Gown award for its construction.

Plans for additions and improvements to the campus were made public in March 2008 and completed in 2010 at a cost of £200 million. They include a redevelopment of the south-east (Haymarket) façade with a five-storey King's Gate building and sculpture as well as new student accommodation. Two additional buildings for the school of medicine were also built.[19]

In addition to the city centre campus there are buildings such as the Dove Marine Laboratory located on Cullercoats Bay. The University also has two branches in Asia; in Malaysia and Singapore.

Newcastle University Library has received the Charter Mark five times in a row.[20] It consists of three main facilities. The Robinson Library is the main University library. It is named after Philip Robinson, a bookseller in the city following a bequest in the will of his widow Marjorie in 1989. A major refurbishment was completed in 2009. The Walton Library specialises in services for Biomedical Sciences in the Medical School. It is named after Lord Walton of Detchant, former Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Professor of Neurology. The library has a relationship with the Northern region of the NHS allowing their staff to use the library for research and study. The Law Library specialises in resources relating to law. Some schools within the University, such as the School of Modern Languages, also have their own smaller libraries with smaller highly-specialised collections.

Bridgewater College, Virginia, United States

2010-11-09T04:26:00.000-08:00

Bridgewater College, is a private, coeducational, four-year liberal-arts college historically affiliated with the Church of the Brethren. The college is located in Bridgewater, Virginia, a town in Rockingham County, Virginia, United States. Established in 1880, Bridgewater College is the first co-educational four-year college in Virginia.

Nestled in the scenic and historic Shenandoah Valley, Bridgewater's 190-acre (0.77 km2) campus features buildings with a modified Georgian architectural style. The college enrolls just over 1,600 students (60% female, 40% male) with guaranteed on-campus housing. Bridgewater College is one of six charter member colleges affiliated with Brethren Colleges Abroad (BCA).

Bridgewater is an NCAA Division III school competing in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. The college fields varsity teams in ten men's and twelve women's sports. In 2001, the Bridgewater College football team finished the season as national runner-up after a 30-27 loss to Mount Union in the Stagg Bowl NCAA Division III National Football Championship.

Past and present
Bridgewater College was established in 1880 as Spring Creek Normal and Collegiate Institute by Daniel Christian Flory, an alumnus of the University of Virginia and a young progressive leader in the Church of the Brethren. Nine years later, the school was named Bridgewater College and chartered by the Commonwealth of Virginia to grant undergraduate degrees. Bridgewater conferred its first Bachelor of Arts degree on June 1, 1891, becoming the first of the colleges having historic associations with the Church of the Brethren to grant degrees.

Organized as a residential college, the founders believed that students living together over a four-year period would learn from one another as well as the faculty. Students would be exposed to varied views and opinions, different cultures, and have opportunities to develop deeper understandings beyond their own. The founders also surmised that successive student bodies would develop self-perpetuating traditions, and that would be educational in itself.

Two major influences, the University of Virginia and the Church of the Brethren, have shaped Bridgewater College as an educational institution and created its personality. Its historic association with the Church of the Brethren, modified Georgian architecture, Honor Code, and seal depicting truth, beauty, goodness, and harmony bear testimony to the strength of these two shaping influences.

Bridgewater College became the first private, senior co-educational liberal arts college in Virginia and one of the few accredited colleges of its type in the South. The emphasis on ethical and spiritual values in educational programs is a result of Bridgewater’s heritage and institutional idealism. The importance placed on these values can be seen through course offerings and convocation programs that encourage personal integrity and strong social consciousness.

Today, Bridgewater College enrolls over 1,604 men and women. Electing to keep its enrollment small, Bridgewater continues to maintain a faculty-student ratio of 1:14 and offers the Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees. Bridgewater is a charter member of Brethren Colleges Abroad (BCA). Through BCA, select students have the opportunity to spend all or part of their junior year at one of 15 campuses in 15 countries. These countries include Australia, Belgium, China, Cuba, Ecuador, England, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, and Wales.

Campus
Bridgewater College is located in the Shenandoah Valley, a scenic and historic region in Virginia. The Allegheny Mountains to the west and the Blue Ridge chain to the east are both visible from the campus. Old Stone and Mossy Creek Presbyterian churches and the Cross Keys and Piedmont Civil War battlefields are just a few miles from the campus. Many houses in the town of Bridgewater are 140 years or older. The Bridgewater campus comprises 300 acres (1.2 km2), and the educational activities are focused on the primary campus of 40 acres (160,000 m2) on which are located Bridgewater’s complex of buildings of different periods and styles of architecture.

Athletics
Bridgewater College is a Division III member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and follows guidelines and policies set forth by this governing body. The teams are members of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC), which has 14 member institutions.

Bridgewater College sponsors 20 varsity programs, which include baseball, basketball, Men's cross country, football, golf, soccer, tennis, indoor track, and outdoor track for men, and basketball, cross country, field hockey, lacrosse, riding, softball, soccer, tennis, indoor track, outdoor track, volleyball and swimming for women. Additionally, the athletic program supports cheerleading, a dance team and pep band, which perform at home football and basketball games.

The Equestrian team has consistently been one of the top teams in the Zone 4 Region 2 of the IHSA, having won the title in 2006. The team won the ODAC championship in 2007 as well under highly respected coach, Sarah Irvine who won the Coach of the Year title. Numerous riders have placed and won at the Regional, Zone, and National show.

The Bridgewater College Football team won 5 consecutive ODAC Championships from 2001–2005, under Head Coach Michael Clark. In 2001, the team made the school's first ever national championship game by playing in the NCAA Division III national championship, the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl.

Events and tradition
Annual events at Bridgewater College celebrate tradition, community, alumni, and culture. Founder's Day observance at Bridgewater commemorates the April 3, 1854, birth of Daniel Christian Flory, who began Spring Creek Normal School, later Bridgewater College in 1889, at the young age of 26. In 2008, civil rights activist Andrew Jackson Young, Jr. was honored in the Carter Center for Worship and Music to celebrate the 128th anniversary of the college. President Philip C. Stone awarded Young an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, honoris causa, in recognition for his devoted service to mankind and his country.

Other annual events include the Spring Fest Carnival and the May Day Dance held at the end of the year.

There are also a few longstanding traditions held independent of the college by members of the student body. Since 1965, students of the college gather before the week of final exams in April for a camping trip in Augusta County, Virginia in the George Washington National Forest. It has been rumored that past attendees included alumnus and college President, Dr. Philip Stone, and other faculty members who are also Bridgewater alumni. The event is widely known among students as "Flagpole," although the name and destination are the focus of legend among the student body.

The week before graduation is known Senior Week at the college. During this week Seniors spend time together for the last time before graduation with many organized events. Oracle at the Oak was a tradition originally carried out by the Senior class during the early-to-mid 1900s underneath an Oak tree on campus. Students met to pledge their dedication not only to the school, but to each other in an honor of community and friendship. After the damaged Oak tree was removed from campus grounds, the tradition subsided. However, the Class of 2008 recently re-kindled this tradition with the help of the Bridgewater Alumni Association. The end of Senior week is marked with the Senior Ball, a formal event taking place at Spotswood Country Club, in Harrisonburg, VA.

Christendom College, Virginia, United States

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Christendom College is a small Catholic liberal arts college in Front Royal, Virginia, United States, which is located in the Shenandoah Valley.

Educational Mission
Christendom College is a Catholic coeducational college institutionally committed to the Magisterium, or "teaching authority," of the Roman Catholic Church.

The College provides a Catholic liberal arts education. The stated mission of Christendom College, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels, is "to restore all things in Christ".

The College's Vision Statement reads in part:

The only rightful purpose of education is to learn the truth and to live by it. The purpose of Catholic education is therefore to learn and to live by the truth revealed by Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, "the Way, the Truth and the Life," as preserved in the deposit of faith and authentically interpreted in the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church, founded by Christ, of which the Pope is the visible head. That central body of divine truth illumines all other truth and shows us its essential unity in every area of thought and life. Only an education which integrates the truths of the Catholic Faith throughout the curriculum is a fully Catholic education.

History
Christendom College was founded by Dr. Warren H. Carroll in 1977 in Triangle, Virginia, with only $50,000. The original campus was an abandoned elementary school in Triangle, housing a total of only 26 students[1] and five faculty. The founding faculty consisted of Dr. Carroll, Dr. William Marshner (then Mr.), Dr. Jeffrey A. Mirus, Dr. Kristin (née Popik) Burns, and Mr. Raymund P. O'Herron.

In 1979, the College acquired its new campus in Front Royal, Virginia, overlooking the Shenandoah River. It still occupies this site today.

Academic degrees
Christendom College has two schools offering graduate and undergraduate degrees.

Undergraduate students combine a liberal arts core-curriculum with eventual upper-level courses in their major field (or fields) of study.

Graduates can choose from three theological concentrations: Systematic Theology, Moral Theology, and Catechetics

Undergraduate College
Dr. Patrick Keats, Dean

All graduates of the undergraduate college are awarded the bachelor of arts degree. The fields of study are:

* Theology
* Political Science and Economics
* Philosophy
* History
* Classical and Early Christian Studies
* English Language and Literature
* Mathematics and Science (minor only)
* Music (minor only)

Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College

Dr. Kristin Burns, Dean

* Master of Sacred Theology

Rome Program
Each undergraduate has the option of going to Rome in his or her junior year as part of the college's Rome Program. The college offers this program at a loss. The Program includes a continuation of the College's core curriculum program for juniors (PHIL 301 Medieval Philosophy and THEO 301 Moral Theology during the Fall; PHIL 302 Modern Philosophy and THEO 302 Apologetics in the spring), as well as courses in Italian, Roman Art & Architecture, and a general catch all course that highlights Rome as a center of culture. The Program also includes a week's pilgrimage to Assisi and Florence.

College Presidents
* Dr. Warren Carroll
* Damian Fedoryka
* Dr. Timothy T. O’Donnell (current)

Campus
Residence halls
Men's Dormitories:

* St. Benedict Hall
* St. Joseph Hall
* St. Francis Hall
* St. Pius Hall
* St. Augustine Hall
* John Henry Cardinal Newman Apartments (Also known as "Guardian Angel")

Women's Dormitories:

* St. Edmund Campion Hall
* Blessed Margaret Hall
* St. Theresa Hall
* St. Catherine of Siena Hall

Academic buildings
* St. Thomas Aquinas Hall
* Aula Magna Mariae (Chapel Crypt)
* St. Lawrence Commons
* St. John the Evangelist Library

Other buildings
* Crusader Gymnasium
* Regina Coeli Hall
* Madonna Hall (aka the CWOD)
* John Paul the Great Student Center

Bluefield College, Virginia, USA

2010-11-09T04:19:00.000-08:00

Bluefield College is a small Christian liberal arts college in Bluefield, Virginia, in Tazewell County, Virginia. It offers 22 majors, and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The 82-acre (330,000 m2) campus is about 150 ft (46 m) from the state line between Virginia and West Virginia.

History
Bluefield College was founded in 1922 by the Baptist General Association of Virginia (BGAV), after residents of Bluefield offered to donate land and start-up funds. R.A. Landsdell became the first president in 1920, and the current administration building is named Landsdell Hall in his honor. At its founding, Bluefield was a two-year junior college. Future Nobel Prize winner John F. Nash took mathematics courses at the relatively new college while in high school. In his autobiography for the Nobel Foundation, he writes

I should mention that during my last year in the Bluefield schools that my parents had arranged for me to take supplementary math. courses at Bluefield College, which was then a 2-year institution operated by Southern Baptists. I didn't get official advanced standing at Carnegie because of my extra studies but I had advanced knowledge and ability and didn't need to learn much from the first math. courses at Carnegie.

Under Charles L. Harman, president from 1946-1971, the college built Easley Library, the dormitory Rish Hall, Harman Chapel, and a geodesic dome as the gymnasium.

In 1975, Bluefield reinvented itself as a four-year college, and during the 1989-1996 presidency of Roy A. Dobyns, student enrollment doubled to more than 800 students. In 1998, under the leadership of President Daniel G. MacMillan, the college cut tuition by over 20% and refocused its student recruitment on the local area.

In 2007, the current president, David W. Olive, was inaugurated. Shortly thereafter, the college raised tuition by about 20%, and announced a new strategic plan.

Degree Completion Program
Bluefield College has regional offices for its adult undergraduate degree completion programs in Roanoke, Virginia and Richmond, Virginia. Three majors are offered through this program.

Athletics
Participation in sports is popular at Bluefield, and in intercollegiate athletics, the college has six men's and six women's teams. Bluefield Basketball has been nationally ranked in 2007 and 2008, beginning the preseason poll at No. 15 Nationally. Bluefield, at the conclusion of the 2008-2009 season was ranked 7th, with an undefeated schedule in the AAC, but lost the AAC Championship game at King by 1 point. Bluefield Baseball has also been a growing program there and have had successful winning seasons the past years. In 2007 they were the NCCAA Regional Champs. 2006-2008 Athletes make up about 60% at Bluefield.

On June 4 Bluefield College announced the return of a football program. Bluefield College had not had a football program since the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond (BTSR)

2010-11-09T04:13:00.000-08:00

Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond (BTSR) is a free-standing seminary in Richmond, Virginia. It was founded in March 1989 by Virginia Baptists related to the Southern Baptist Alliance (now the Alliance of Baptists) and Baptist General Association of Virginia. In the late 1980’s, as the situation began to change in Southern Baptist Convention during the conservative resurgence/fundamentalist takeover, others in the region joined them in seeing the need for alternative options for theological education among Baptists. BTSR is also affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Accredited by the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada, BTSR offers Masters of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees.

BTSR is part of the Richmond Theological Consortium, along with two other theological schools: Union Theological Seminary-Presbyterian School of Christian Education and the School of Theology at Virginia Union University. Students at each school may cross-register for electives at the others.