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University of Nottingham
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The University of Nottingham is a public, co-educational institution of higher learning in the city of Nottingham, England. Nottingham, which has campuses in the United Kingdom and Asia, is the fifth largest university in the UK (as measured by numbers of students), and is a member of the Russell Group, Universitas 21, the Association of Commonwealth Universities, and the European University Association. It traces its origins to 1798, and became an independent university in 1948.
History
The University of Nottingham traces its origins to the founding of an adult education school in 1798.
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Encyclopedia
The University of Nottingham is a public, co-educational institution of higher learning in the city of Nottingham, England. Nottingham, which has campuses in the United Kingdom and Asia, is the fifth largest university in the UK (as measured by numbers of students), and is a member of the Russell Group, Universitas 21, the Association of Commonwealth Universities, and the European University Association. It traces its origins to 1798, and became an independent university in 1948.
History
The University of Nottingham traces its origins to the founding of an adult education school in 1798. The foundation stone of the original University College Nottingham on Shakespeare Street was laid in 1877, with a speech by former UK prime minister, William Ewart Gladstone. This building was formally opened in 1881 by Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany.
A large gift of land allowed University College Nottingham to move to a new campus in 1928. This development was supported by an endowment fund and public contributions. The transfer was made possible by the generosity of Sir Jesse Boot, who presented to the City of Nottingham in 1921. Boot, later named Lord Trent, hoped the move would solve the problems facing University College Nottingham in its restricted Shakespeare Street building. Boot stipulated that while part of the Highfields site, lying southwest of the city, be devoted to the University College Nottingham, the rest should provide a place of recreation for the residents of the city. In the 1920s, the University Boulevard was created, as well as and the landscaping of the lake and public park. Initially, University College Nottingham was accommodated within one major new building named Trent Building. Designed by Morley Horder, Trent Building’s construction was one of the largest building projects in the city of Nottingham in the 1920s. By 1934 the students of Nottingham had organised societies such as the Walking club. In 1948, University College Nottingham received its Royal Charter, which gave it the title of "university" and the power to confer degrees. The name changed from University College Nottingham to The University of Nottingham. Previously, the institution's students received their degrees from the University of London.
Over time, Nottingham has undergone steady expansion. In the 1940s, the Midlands Agricultural and Dairy College at Sutton Bonington merged with Nottingham; in 1970, the university established the UK's first medical school in the 20th century. In 1999, a new Jubilee Campus was opened on the former site of the Raleigh Bicycle Company, one mile (1.6 km) away from the University Park Campus. Nottingham then began to expand overseas, opening a campus in Malaysia and China in 1999 and 2004, respectively. In 2005, the King’s Meadow Campus opened near the University Park Campus.
Nottingham has used several logos throughout its history. Initially, Nottingham's coat of arms with the cross, book, and towers was used and is still used in books owned by the university’s various libraries. Later, Nottingham adopted a simpler logo, in which a stylised version of Nottingham Castle was surrounded by the text "The University of Nottingham". In 2001, Nottingham undertook a major rebranding exercise, including discontinuing this logo and replacing it with the current one (with the text to the right of the stylised castle).
Organisation
The chief officer of Nottingham is the Chancellor, elected by the University Court on the recommendation of the University Council. The chief academic and administrative officer of Nottingham is the vice-chancellor who is assisted by six pro-vice chancellors. Nottingham's governing body is the University Council, which has 35 members, mostly non-academic. Nottingham's academic authority is the Senate, consisting of senior academics of Nottingham and elected staff and student representatives. Nottingham's largest forum is the University Court, presided over by the chancellor. Nottingham's current Chancellor and President is Professor Fujia Yang; its Vice-Chancellor is Sir Colin Campbell. Sir Colin has announced his retirement beginning September 2008: his position will be filled by Professor David Greenway.
Campuses
UK campuses
University Park Campus, to the west of the Nottingham city centre, is the principal campus of Nottingham and has been regarded as one of the most attractive in the UK. Nottingham has several additional campuses, all of which share similar design features to the original, being "garden campuses" situated around a lake with extensive greenery (with the exception of Sutton Bonington campus, which predates the creation of University Park Campus).
Jubilee Campus, designed by Sir Michael Hopkins, was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1999 and is one mile (1.6 km) away from University Park. Following the purchase and demolition of the old Raleigh bicycle factory, Nottingham intends to undertake further expansion of the campus with buildings designed by Ken Shuttleworth.
The City Hospital Campus is located near Bestwood and houses staff and postgraduate students specialising in respiratory medicine, stroke medicine, oncology, physiotherapy, and public health. The campus will be expanded in 2009 to house a new institute of public health and a specialist centre for tobacco research.
Sutton Bonington Campus houses Nottingham's School of Biosciences and the new School of Veterinary Medicine and Science and is located about 20 kilometres (12 miles) to the south of the City of Nottingham, between the M1 motorway, Ratcliffe power station, and the Midland Main Line railway.
King’s Meadow Campus was established in 2005 on the former Carlton Studios site on Lenton Lane. This campus mainly accommodates the administrative functions of Nottingham but also the Department of Manuscripts and Special Collections. A functioning television studio remains at the site that Nottingham continues to rent to the film and television industry.
International campuses
The Malaysia campus is situated in Semenyih, a short distance from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's capital. The Ningbo, China campus is located in the city of Ningbo, in the Zhejiang province of China.
Academics
Faculties and Schools
Nottingham is divided into five faculties and multiple schools of study.
- Faculty of Arts
- Faculty of Engineering
- Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
- Faculty of Science
- Faculty of Social Sciences, Law, and Education
In 2006, Nottingham was named the UK's "University of the Year" by The Times Higher Education Supplement.
Research
Nottingham is a research led institution and was awareded two Nobel Prizes in 2003. Much of the pioneering work on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) was carried out at Nottingham, work for which Nottingham professor Sir Peter Mansfield received the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology in 2003. Nottingham remains a strong centre for research into MRI. Nottingham has contributed to a number of other significant scientific advances. Professor Frederick Kipping, Professor of Chemistry (1897-1936), made the discovery of silicone polymers at Nottingham (but failed to realise the commercial significance of what is now a multi-billion pound industry). Major developments in the in vitro culture of plants and micropropogation techniques were made by plant scientists at Nottingham, along with the first production of transgenic tomatoes by Professor Don Grierson in the 1980s. Other innovations at the university include cochlear implants for deaf children and the brace-for-impact position used in aircraft. Other facilities at Nottingham include the UK's 109th most powerful supercomputer.
Nottingham had 26 departments rated 5 or 5* (internationally excellent) in the UK Funding Councils' 2001 Research Assessment Exercise. Nottingham was among the top four UK universities in receiving research funding from private industry and commerce. In the 2005–2006 academic year, Nottingham's research funds totalled a record £122 million. Nottingham is a key partner in the UK Government's designation of the city of Nottingham as a "Science City". Furthermore, Nottingham's research excellence was confirmed in the recently published 2008 RAE, ranking 7th in the UK in terms of 'Research Power', according to research by the influential Research Fortnight
Graduate School
Nottingham's Graduate School was established in 1994, and operates a Graduate School Centre, which contains a social space, meeting rooms and a seminar room. The Graduate School was originally housed in the Biology Building but moved to the Trent Building in 2006. The school offers a wide range of short courses aimed to help the development of post graduate students including courses in information technology and communication skills.
Rankings and reputation
UK League Table Rankings
The university was named the Times Higher Education "University of the year" in 2006 and Times Higher Education Entrepreneurial University of the Year in 2008, and since British League table rankings began in 1992 has consistently ranked amongst Britains top ten leading universities, recently finishing 8th in the Sunday Times 10 year average ranking. Entry into Nottingham is extremely competitive, traditionally having one of the highest application per place ratios of any university in the country, and with new undergraduates averaging a UCAS tariff score well north of 400 (over AAA at A-Level), which firmly places them in the top 10 in the UK., Moreover, according to the last statistical analysis by the Times Higher Education Supplement, when statistics began in 1994, and until they were last compiled in 2000, Nottingham students averaged the 6th highest A-level grades in the UK. Nottingham is also a member of the elite 'Sutton Trust 13', a collection of the 13 highest ranking UK universities compiled by the educational charity The Sutton Trust, which aims to challenge educational inequality at top universities . Nottingham has experienced a rapid and successful climb up the pecking order of Great Britain's higher education system over the past two decades according to the influential The Times Good University Guide, going in less than twenty years "from being a solid civic university to a prime alternative to Oxbridge", as well as being 'the nearest Britain has to a truly global university'. The University has mirrored this success abroad with a rapid rise in international rankings, firmly establishing itself amongst the top 75 universities in the world and top 25 in Europe. The University is also "one of the most employer friendly universities in the world" according to Virgin Alternative Guide to British Universities, ranking amongst the top 20 most targeted universities in the world by leading employers in the THES world rankings, and in the 2008 Times High Fliers survey being named in the top 3 most targeted British universities by leading graduate recruiters.
UK Cumulative average Rankings
Sunday Times 10 year average ranking (8th)
World Ranking of Universities (9th in UK)
Daily Telegraph Ranking of Rankings (6th)
UK University Rankings | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996 | 1995 | 1994 | 1993 |
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| Times Good University Guide | 16th | 19th | 14th | 12th | 14th | 13th | 9th | 11th | 12th | 12th | 11th | 11th | 13th | 8th | 8th= | 6th | 23rd= |
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| Guardian University Guide | 19th | 19th | 11th | 11th | 15th | 10th | 8th | 9th | | | | | | | | | |
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| Sunday Times University Guide | | 13th | 15th | 12th | 11th | 9th | 10th | 9th | 8th | 10th | 8th | 8th | | | | | |
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| Daily Telegraph | | | 14th= | | | | 6th | 9th | | | | | | | | | |
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| FT | | | | | | | 9th | 9th | 11th | 7th | 16th | | | | | | |
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| Independent - Complete University Guide | 16th | 14th | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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World | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 |
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| THES — QS World University Rankings | 70th | 85th | 97rd
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| Academic Ranking of World Universities | 81st | 79th | 83rd |
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World rankings
Enrolment and student life
According to the latest statistics compiled by the Higher Education Statistics Agency, Nottingham is the UK's fifth largest university based on total student enrollment. Nottingham has more than 6,000 international undergraduate and postgraduate students from more than 130 countries.
Students' Union
The University of Nottingham Students' Union is heavily involved with providing student activities at the university and has more than 150 student societies affiliated with it. A further 72 clubs are affiliated to the Students' Union’s Athletic Union. Nottingham participates yearly in the Varsity Series, a number of sporting events between the students and staff of the university and traditional rivals Nottingham Trent University. In 2008 the Students' Union won the Participation Award at the NUS Awards for significantly increasing the participation levels of student members.
The student magazine Impact is published regularly in term time. A range of student theatre takes place at Nottingham’s New Theatre. The Students’ Union also operates a student run, professional sound and lighting company, , who provide services for many events such as: Summer parties, Fresher’s Address, Graduation and Society Ball's and many other events, both within the University and to external clients.
The Union boasts Europe's largest and most successful student-run RAG organisation 'Karnival' (or Karni), which raised almost £688,500 in 2007 for a host of good causes. The University Radio Station is the URN/Student Radio for Nottingham which has won more awards than any other at the Student Radio Awards, including Station of the Year in 2008.
The Student's Union also organise a number of activities and events involving students and staff with the local community. Student Community Action sees more than 600 students each year volunteering in local schools and community organisations, as well as a wide range of other projects throughout the city of Nottingham. Nottingham's Active Communities initiative coordinated with the Student's Union to set up the Crocus Cafe in nearby Lenton. This cafe provides a meeting place for both students and local residents where they can sit over a Fair Trade cup of coffee and organic, vegetarian food.
Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE)
The SIFE team from the University of Nottingham have won the SIFE United Kingdom National Competition for four consecutive years, making them the most successful UK SIFE team to date. Based at the Nottingham University Business School, SIFE Nottingham are the 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 national champions. They have competed at SIFE World Cups in Toronto, Paris, New York and Singapore, ranking them as one of the leading SIFE teams in the world.
Campus 14
Campus 14 is a bar crawl of the 12 hall bars on the University Park campus and the two Student Union bars (Mooch and The Venue), in which each student must drink a pint, double or two shots. Campus 14 is a well-known campus tradition, despite having been officially banned by the University in 2001. Some variants of Campus 14 included a swim across the university lake at the end; however it is unknown whether this has been attempted recently.
Student accommodation
Nottingham's accommodation provides more than 6,000 rooms, owned by the university or provided by external developers, all close to the campuses and ranging from modern self-catering flats to traditional halls of residence. Catered halls of residence provide a more "home from home" service. Fifteen halls, housing about 4,000 students across the University Park, Jubilee, and Sutton Bonington campuses, are owned and managed by Nottingham. Three meals a day are provided as part of the accommodation fee with a varied menu catering for various dietary requirements. Nottingham's accommodation features rooms on each campus that are accessible to students with disabilities, including larger rooms for extra storage or work space, adapted bathrooms and facilities for those with hearing impairments.
Lakeside Arts Centre
At the south entrance to the main campus, amongst the family-friendly surroundings of Highfields Park, lies the , the University of Nottingham's unique public arts facility and performance space.
Since adding the Civic Trust Award Winning D. H. Lawrence Pavilion to its existing portfolio of the Djanogly Art Gallery and Djanogly Recital Hall in autumn 2001, Lakeside has established itself as a successful multi-arts centre in the East Midlands, attracting almost half a million visitors in its first 3 years.
It is best known for offering easy access to a year-round programme of high quality, diverse exhibitions, music, theatre, dance, comedy and literature performances, including in the past an in-house production of Krapp's Last Tape, as well as the chance to participate in out-of-school workshop activities for children and young people. Its programme is complemented by two cafés and picturesque parkland, orginally purchased and developed by industrialist Sir Jesse Boot.
Beyond the 225 capacity theatre space, the Lawrence Pavillion houses a range of cultural facilities, including a series of craft cabinets selling original works, the Weston gallery which displays the prized and unique manuscript collection from the University of Nottingham, the Wallner gallery which exists as a platform for local and regional artists, and a series of visual arts, performance and hospitality spaces specifically designed to be flexible enough for a variety of needs.
As the culmination of the Lakeside's specialist resources it will soon host Empty Bed Blues, an in-house production presented jointly with and set to premiere in March of this year. Based on a trip made by D. H. Lawrence to America in 1929, it charts his complicated relationship with a wealthy young American Couple as he attempts to find funding for an edition of Lady Chatterley's Lover. It is written by local Nottingham playwright Stephen Lowe.
Other facilities include the Djanogly art gallery, recital hall, and theatre, which in the past have hosted recordings and broadcasting by BBC Radio 3, the NOTT Dance and NOW festivals, and a series of critically acclaimed contemporary art exhibitions, such as the current display 'The American Scene: Prints from Hopper to Pollock' offered in partnership with The British Museum.
Controversies
Nottingham attracted controversy in 2001 when it accepted £3.8 million from British American Tobacco for the creation of a centre of corporate social responsibility. This donation caused Professor Richard Smith, editor of the British Medical Journal to resign from his post as professor at Nottingham. The tobacco company funds were donated to establish an International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility at Nottingham University Business School, which in 2007, was ranked 1st in the UK, 4th in Europe, and 28th in the world in the Master of Business Administration (MBA) rankings compiled by the Aspen Institute, whose biennial table highlights full-time MBA programmes that integrate ethical, social, and environmental issues. Despite predictions that medical research income and cancer studies would be affected adversely in the long-term at Nottingham, funding for cancer research has been robust in recent years, with significant public-private projects on breast and lung cancer in the laboratory of Professor John Robertson, as well as a successful bid in 2008 to establish a UK centre for Tobacco Control Studies under the leadership of Professor John Britton.
As a distributed university, the parity of course structure and equivalence between the various Nottingham campuses has raised some controversy, particularly over the MBA held at the Malaysian Campus.
Anti-terror raids
On 14 May 2008 Hicham Yezza and Rizwaan Sabir were arrested at the University Park Campus and detained for six days under the Terrorism Act 2000. They were both released without charge after six days, but Yezza was re-arrested on un-related immigration matters and detained for 31 days. He is currently on bail.
Notable alumni
One of the most celebrated alumnus of Nottingham is the novelist D. H. Lawrence. Nottingham has particularly strong links with Malaysia. Two Malaysian kings, as well as several Malaysian government ministers are graduates. Other prominent alumni include 2003 Nobel laureate Sir Clive Granger, 12 current members of the UK Parliament and numerous executives on the boards of top multi-national corporations.
See also
Bibliography
- Fawcett, Peter and Neil Jackson (1998). Campus critique: the architecture of the University of Nottingham. Nottingham: University of Nottingham.
- Tolley, B.H. (2001). The history of the University of Nottingham. Nottingham: Nottingham University Press.
External links
Video clips
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