University of Nottingham: Difference between revisions

The University of Nottingham is a public research university in the city of Nottingham, England, with further campuses in Ningbo, China and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The university was founded in 1881, gaining its Royal Charter in 1948. It is a member of the Russell Group, Universitas 21, the Association of Commonwealth Universities, and the European University Association. With over 40,000 applications every year, Nottingham is one of the top 5 most popular universities in the UK, and has been described by the Times as "the nearest Britain has to a truly global university" and a "prime alternative to Oxbridge".^[10]

The University of Nottingham traces its origins to the founding of an adult education school in 1798, and the University Extension Lectures inaugurated by the University of Cambridge in 1873 – the first of their kind in the country.^[2] Indeed, the existence of the Adult Education School has resulted in Nottingham becoming a loose contender for the crown of third oldest university in the United Kingdom, after Oxford and Cambridge. Yet the origins of The University of Nottingham are generally acknowledged to lie in the establishment of University College Nottingham in 1881 as a constituent college of the University of London. In 1875 an anonymous donor provided £10,000 to establish the work of the Adult Education School and Cambridge Extension Lectures on a permanent basis, and the Corporation of Nottingham agreed to erect and maintain a building for this purpose and to provide funds to supply the instruction.^[2] The foundation stone of the college was duly laid in 1877 by former UK Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone,^[11] and the college's distinctive neo-gothic building on Shakespeare Street was formally opened in 1881 by Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany.^[11] In 1881 there were four professors – of Literature, Physics, Chemistry and Natural Science. New departments and chairs quickly followed: Engineering in 1884, Classics combined with Philosophy in 1893, French in 1897 and Education in 1905; in 1905 the combined Department of Physics and Mathematics became two separate entities; in 1911 Departments of English and Mining were created, in 1912 Economics, and Geology combined with Geography; History in 1914, Adult Education in 1923 and Pharmacy in 1925.^[2]

The university underwent vast expansion in the 1920s when it moved from the centre of Nottingham to a large campus on the city's outskirts. The new campus, entitled University Park, was completed in 1928 and financed by an endowment fund, public contributions, and the generosity of Sir Jesse Boot who presented 35 acres (140,000 m²) to the City of Nottingham in 1921.^[12] Boot, later named Lord Trent, and his fellow benefactors sought to establish an "elite seat of learning" committed to widening participation,^[13] and hoped that the move would solve the problems facing University College Nottingham in its restricted Shakespeare Street building. Boot stipulated that whilst part of the Highfields site, lying southwest of the city, should be devoted to the University College, the rest should provide a place of recreation for the residents of the city, and by the end of the decade the landscaping of the lake and public park adjoining University Boulevard was completed. University College Nottingham was initially accommodated within the Trent Building, an imposing white limestone structure with a distinctive clock tower designed by Morley Horder and formally opened by His Majesty King George V on 10 July 1928. During this period of development Nottingham attracted high-profile lecturers including Albert Einstein, H G Wells and Mahatma Gandhi,^[14] and the black board used by Professor Einstein during his time at Nottingham is still on display in the Physics department.^[15] Apart from its physical transfer to surroundings which could not be more different from its original home, the College made few developments between the wars. The Department of Slavonic Languages (later Slavonic Studies) was established in 1933, the teaching of Russian having been first introduced in 1916. In 1933-34 the Departments of Electrical Engineering, Zoology and Geography, which had been combined with other subjects, were made independent; and in 1938 a supplemental Charter provided for a much wider representation on the Governing Body. But further advances were delayed by the outbreak of war in 1939.^[2]

From the years 1881 to 1947 students at University College Nottingham received their degrees from the University of London,^[16] but this would change in 1948 when Nottingham was granted its Royal Charter, bestowing upon it the title of "university" and the power to confer degrees in its own name.^[17] The name of the institution duly changed from University College Nottingham to The University of Nottingham. The university duly underwent vast expansion in the latter half of the 19th century. In the 1940s the Midlands Agricultural and Dairy College at Sutton Bonington merged with the university to form the School of Agriculture, and in 1956 the Portland Building was completed to complement the architecture of the Trent Building. In 1970 the university established the UK's first new medical school of the 20th century.^[11] 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 in China in 1999 and 2004, respectively. Finally, 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).

The chief officer of Nottingham is the Chancellor, elected by the University Court on the recommendation of the University Council.^[18] The chief academic and administrative officer of Nottingham is the vice-chancellor who is assisted by six pro-vice chancellors.^[18] Nottingham's governing body is the University Council, which has 35 members, mostly non-academic.^[18] Nottingham's academic authority is the Senate, consisting of senior academics of Nottingham and elected staff and student representatives.^[18] Nottingham's largest forum is the University Court, presided over by the chancellor.^[18] Nottingham's current Chancellor and President is Professor Fujia Yang; its current Vice-Chancellor is Professor David Greenaway who replaced Sir Colin Campbell in 2008, who as the UK's highest paid Vice-Chancellor, oversaw the university's expansion plans, leading the Times to call him "the Sir Alex Ferguson of Vice-Chancellors".^[19]

University Park Campus, to the west of the Nottingham city centre, is the 330 acre historic home of The University of Nottingham. Set around its famous lake and clock-tower and with extensive parkland greenery, the campus is widely regarded as one of the most attractive in the country.^[20][21] University Park has won numerous awards for its architecture and landscaping, and has been named the greenest campus in the country thanks to a new Green Flag Award. The 2009 award is the seventh in a row for University Park – more than have ever been awarded to a UK university over successive years.^[22] 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. The campuses state-of-the-art facilities house the Schools of Education and Computer Science, as well as The Nottingham University Business School. The site is also the home of The National College for School Leadership. Additional investment of £9.2 million in the Jubilee Campus was completed in 2004 with a second building for Nottingham University Business School opened by Lord Sainsbury.^[23] The environmentally-friendly nature of the campus and its buildings have been a big factor in the awards that it has received, including the Millennium Marque Award for Environmental Excellence, the British Construction Industry Building Project of the Year, the RIBA Journal Sustainability Award and the Civic Trust Award for Sustainability. The Jubilee Campus also won the praise of the Energy Globe Award judges in 2005.^[23] The campus is distinct for its modern and unique architecture, culminating in Aspire, a 60 metre tall artistic structure which, as the tallest freestanding structure in the UK, dominates the surrounding skyline. The University plans to invest £200 million in a new scheme designed by Ken Shuttleworth, designer of the iconic and award-winning London 'Gherkin', and at the heart of the new scheme will be the Nottingham 'Volcano'. However, the architecture of the Jubilee Campus is not admired by all, and the newly completed Amenities buildings have been labelled the second worst new architectural design in Britain in a recent survey.^[24]

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.

Nottingham has pioneered the introduction of overseas campuses as part of an internationalisation strategy which is unique in its ambition, depth and achievement. The first stage in this global strategy was the establishment in 1999 of a campus in Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia, a short distance from Kuala Lumpur. This was followed in 2004 with the introduction of a campus in Ningbo, China, located in the Zhejiang province. The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus was the first campus of a British University in Malaysia and one of the first anywhere in the world - earning the distinction of the Queen's Award for Enterprise 2001 and the Queen's Award for Industry (International Trade) 2006.^[25] In September 2005, the Malaysia Campus moved to its new purpose-built campus at Semenyih, 30 km south of Kuala Lumpur city centre. Occupying a scenic position overlooking green hills on a 101-acre site, the campus was designed to mirror the attributes of University Park in the UK. The £40 million Ningbo campus was completed in 2005 and was officially opened by John Prescott, the UK's Deputy Prime Minister, in February 2006. Like the Malaysia Campus, Ningbo Campus builds on the attributes of University Park in the UK and includes a lake and its own version of Nottingham's famous Trent Building.

Nottingham is divided into five faculties and multiple schools of study.^[26]

• Faculty of Arts
• Faculty of Engineering
• Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
• Faculty of Science
• Faculty of Social Sciences

Nottingham is a research-led institution and the university has been awarded two Nobel Prizes this decade.^[27] 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 in Physiology or Medicine 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 a 12 teraflop supercomputer.^[28]

Nottingham had 26 departments rated 5 or 5* (internationally excellent) in the UK Funding Councils' 2001 Research Assessment Exercise.,^[29] and for the last several years has been in the top four universities in Britain for the amount of research income received, being awarded over £140 million in research contracts for the 2008-2009 academic year.^[30] Indeed, League tables compiled by the Times Higher Education based on UK Research Councils grants have revealed that The University of Nottingham came joint second in Britain in 2009 for its success rate for grant applications, ahead of Oxford, University College London (UCL) and Imperial College.^[30] Nottingham is also a key partner in the British Government's designation of the city of Nottingham as a "Science City", and Nottingham's status as a world-class research institution was confirmed in the recently published 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), finishing 7th in the UK in terms of 'Research Power'.^[31] According to RAE 2008 data, more than 90 per cent of research at The University of Nottingham is of international quality, with almost 60 per cent of all research defined as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’. In 27 subject areas, the University features in the UK Top Ten, with 14 in the Top Five.^[32]

The university was ranked 75th in the world by the QS-World University Rankings.^[33] The 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) found 60 per cent of Nottingham's research to be "world-leading" or "internationally excellent".^[34]

The university was named Times Higher Education "University of the Year" in 2006, Times Higher Education "Entrepreneurial University of the Year" in 2008, and finished runner up in the 2010 Sunday Times 'University of the Year'. Nottingham has consistently ranked amongst Britain's top 10 leading universities in the various national and international rankings published over the last 15 years.^[35] Nottingham finished 8th in the Sunday Times 10 year average ranking of British universities based on consistent league table performance over the past decade,^[36] and is ranked in the UK's Top 10 by the Shanghai Jiao Tong (SJTU) 2009 World University Rankings.^[37][37]

Nottingham was also a member of the 'Sutton Trust 13', a collection of the 13 highest ranking British universities in the 1999 league tables compiled by the educational charity The Sutton Trust in 2000, which aims to challenge educational inequality at top universities.^[38] Nottingham traditionally has one of the highest application to place ratios of any university in the United Kingdom, leading the Sunday Times to describe a place there as "among the most sought-after in higher education" and "with almost 10 applicants per place, Nottingham is one of the hardest universities to get into in the UK".^[39][40] Therefore entry into Nottingham is extremely competitive, and as a result new undergraduates average a UCAS tariff score well north of 400, with "more than 80% of its students having at least three A grades at A-Level" according to the Times.^[41] This had put its admissions selectivity consistently in the top 10 in Britain and has lead the Times to describe Nottingham students as "the brightest in their peer group".^[40][42] Moreover, according to the last statistical analysis by the Times Higher Education Supplement, Nottingham students averaged the 6th highest A-level grades in the United Kingdom throughout the nineties and early 2000s.

The University 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 Good University Guide, going in less than twenty years "from being a solid civic university to a prime alternative to Oxbridge", as well as "The nearest thing Britain has to a truly global university".^[10] The University has mirrored this success abroad with a rapid rise in international rankings, firmly establishing itself amongst the top 1% of universities worldwide, leading the Sunday Times to state that Nottingham now has "one of the strongest international profiles of any UK university".^[39][43] Indeed, due to Nottingham's strong international profile and entrepreneurial spirit, leading economist Andrew Oswald has described Nottingham in early 2002 as one of only 5 British universities capable of privatisation and competing with the major universities in the United States.^[44] Nottingham is also ranked as the 8th best international university in the global "Best Places to Work in Academia 2010" survey.^[45] 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,^[46] and in the 2008 Times High Fliers survey being named in the top 3 most targeted British universities by leading graduate recruiters.^[47] Indeed, according to the 2009 edition of the International Professional Classification of Higher Education Institutions, which assesses the number of alumni listed among CEOs in the 500 largest worldwide companies, Nottingham is ranked 3rd in the UK (tied with Cambridge) and 28th in the World.^[48]

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,^[7] with over 30,000 students from more than 130 countries.^[89] Further, In 2009 the university received over 41,000 applications, placing it in the top 5 most popular universities in the UK. However, the university has traditionally been popular with many British public schools, with privately educated students making up approximately a third of the student body. This has proven controversial and has led Nottingham, like other middle class dominated universities such as the University of Bristol, Durham University and the University of Edinburgh, to introduce a variety of initiatives to help widen access and participation, culminating in the introduction of a Summer School scheme open to applicants from non-traditional backgrounds.^[90]

The University of Nottingham Students' Union is heavily involved with providing student activities at the university and has more than 190 student societies affiliated to it. A further 76 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.^{[citation needed]}

The student magazine Impact is published regularly during 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, TEC PA & Lighting, 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^{[citation needed]} student-run RAG organisation 'Karnival' (or Karni), which raised £1.2 million in 2009 for a host of good causes.^[91] 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.^{[citation needed]}

The Students' Union also organises a number of activities and events involving students and staff with the local community. The Student Volunteer Centre sees more than 600 students each year volunteering in local schools and community organisations, as well as a range of other projects throughout the city of Nottingham. The Students' Union also runs an international volunteering project, InterVol, which sends student volunteers to work in rural African communities.^[92] Nottingham's Active Communities initiative cooperated with the Students' 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.

The Students in Free Enterprise ("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.

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.^[93] 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.

At the south entrance to the main campus, in Highfields Park, lies the Lakeside Arts Centre, the University of Nottingham's 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.^[94] Its programme is complemented by two cafés and picturesque parkland, originally purchased and developed by industrialist Sir Jesse Boot.

Beyond the 225 capacity theatre space, the Lawrence Pavilion 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.

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.

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.^[95] 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.^[96] 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.^[97]

On May 14, 2008 Hicham Yezza, a computer administrator, and Rizwaan Sabir, a postgraduate student, were arrested at the University of Nottingham and were detained for six days under the Terrorism Act 2000. The University of Nottingham informed the police after finding an edited version of the al-Qaeda training manual the student was using for his research. Both were released without charge from terrorism offences, but Yezza was subsequently re-arrested on immigration grounds.^[98][99]

One of the most celebrated alumni of Nottingham is the novelist D. H. Lawrence. Nottingham has particularly strong links with Malaysia. The last two Malaysian Kings and the present Queen, as well as the current prime minister Najib Tun Razak and several other Malaysian government ministers are graduates. Nottingham also has strong links with the British Secret Service, or MI6, with the famous Cold War spy Greville Wynne a Nottingham graduate, and the current head of MI6, Sir John Sawers, is a Nottingham alumnus. Other prominent alumni include 2003 Nobel laureate Sir Clive Granger, 12 current members of the UK Parliament, political blogger Andrew Thorpe-Apps and Chinese sporting superstar Deng Yaping, a 4 time Olympic champion who was voted Chinese Athlete of the Century. Nottingham alumni include numerous Chairmen, CEOs and Managing Directors of leading multi-national corporations, including Citigroup, UBS, Vauxhall, Rolls Royce, The Post Office, Glaxo SmithKline, National Grid, Fox Searchlight, the Guardian Media Group, and Vodafone McLaren Mercedes. According to the 2009 edition of the International Professional Classification of Higher Education Institutions, which assesses the number of alumni listed among CEOs in the 500 largest worldwide companies, Nottingham is ranked 3rd in the UK (tied with Cambridge) and 28th in the world.^[48]

• Academic dress of the University of Nottingham
• China Policy Institute
• Institute of Contemporary Chinese Studies
• Nottingham University Press
• Third oldest university in England debate
• Rizwaan Sabir - Nottingham University postgraduate student arrested on campus under the Terrorism Act 2000
• The Periodic Table of Videos - YouTube chemistry channel featuring Nottingham University academics.

• 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.

• University of Nottingham website
• Highfields and Nottingham University Parks. Information and pictures

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