Northumbria University

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Northumbria University
Established: 1969 (as Newcastle Polytechnic)
Type: Public
Chancellor: Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington
Vice-Chancellor: Professor Kel Fidler[1]
Students: 29,850[2]
Undergraduates: 22,825[2]
Postgraduates: 6,805[2]
Other students: 220 FE[2]
Location: Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, UK
Campus: Urban and Suburban
Website: http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/

Northumbria University is a modern university located in Newcastle upon Tyne in North East England.

Contents

[edit] Schools

Northumbria offers approximately 500 study programmes through nine Schools:

  • Applied Sciences
  • Arts and Social Sciences
  • Built Environment
  • Design
  • Health, Community and Education
  • Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences
  • Law
  • Newcastle Business School
  • Psychology and Sports Sciences

[edit] Campuses

[edit] Location

The University has two campuses. The main campus, located in the City of Newcastle upon Tyne, is known as the City Campus. With the construction of a new building for degree courses such as business the City Campus has been spilt in two. It now has City Campus East and City Campus West.

A secondary campus is located a few miles outside of Newcastle, on Coach Lane, and is known as the Coach Lane Campus. The Coach Lane Campus is home to School of Health, Community and Education Studies only, all others schools are located at the City Campus. A free Shuttle Bus runs between the two campuses at hourly intervals during University opening times and also runs until approximately 10.00 p.m. in the evenings Monday to Friday.

[edit] Development

The University is currently involved in a £100+ million development project to improve and expand its city campus. This includes a new state-of-the-art seven acre site to be known as City Campus East, adjacent to the main campus, which will house the Schools of Law, Design and the Newcastle Business School. This expansion opened on time in September 2007.

The development project suffered a setback when, on 9 April 2007, a building that was to be student flats burned to the ground during the night. The nearby School of Design also suffered minor heat damage before the blaze was brought under control.[3]

Improvements to the City Campus West are also ongoing, and include a new footbridge[4] linking the East and West Campuses across the central motorway, pedestrianisation and greening of the integrated teaching environment. This footbridge was officially opened early in 2008.

The next stage of the redevelopment of City Campus West is a new vehicular access route to the north of the campus from Sandyford Road. Demolition of Northumberland Annexe is now complete and work will shortly commence on a state of the art Sports Centre containing a swimming pool. The long term plan is for Northumberland Road to be pedestrianised. Sutherland Building is earmarked to be the home of Administrative Departments using the space vacated when the School of Law moved to City Campus East.

The City Campus East development as of May 3, 2006.

City Campus East as of July 6, 2006 looking across the central motorway.

[edit] History

Northumbria University has its origins in three regional colleges: Rutherford College of Technology, the College of Art & Industrial Design and the Municipal College of Commerce. An amalgamation of these three institutions formed the Newcastle Polytechnic in 1969, which became the major regional centre for the training of teachers with the incorporation of the City College of Education in 1974, and the Northern Counties College of Education in 1976.

Northumbria was inaugurated as a university in 1992. There was much discussion over the potential name of the new University and one potential name was the City University of Newcastle upon Tyne. However, concerns over confusion with the nearby University of Newcastle upon Tyne and also over the new name's initials saw it dropped before it was used.[citation needed] Newcastle Polytechnic was thus upgraded under the name University of Northumbria at Newcastle, with the 'at Newcastle' added to so that its students knew which city they were in.

The trading name was simplified to Northumbria University in 2002.

[edit] Notable alumni

[edit] Students' Union

The Students' Union provides representation for all students studying at the University. It provides a range of student activities such as Northumbria Student Community Action(NSCA), One Planet(in conjunction with student services), Raise and Give(RAG), Give It A Go and Skills sessions. The building itself contains several venues for students to socialise in a safe environment, chiefly at Bar One, The Venue and Reds. It hosts a range of club nights, including:- 'Grenade,'the popular drum and base night,'Get Y' Skates On, which caters for the alternative types and the most popular night, 'Wiggle' which often offers themed nights and a wide variety of mainstream music.

The monthly student newspaper is called The NUws Bulletin, which includes the popular entertainments section Poly Scene.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Vice-Chancellor's Office. Northumbria University (2008-02-13). Retrieved on 2008-04-11.
  2. ^ a b c d Table 0a - All students by institution, mode of study, level of study, gender and domicile 2006/07 (Microsoft Excel spreadsheet). Higher Education Statistics Agency. Retrieved on 2008-04-11.
  3. ^ BBC NEWS | England | Tyne | Blaze damages £100m uni buildings
  4. ^ Time-lapse video of bridge installation - High Bandwidth - Northumbria University, Newcastle UK

[edit] External links

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