University of Nottingham
The
University of Nottingham is a leading research and teaching
university in the city of
Nottingham, in the
East Midlands of
England. It is a member of the
Russell Group, and of
Universitas 21, an international network of research-led universities.
In
2005, it had more than 32,000 registered students, with more than 10 applicants per place. This included over 4,000 international students from more than 100 countries. Its current
Chancellor and President is the distinguished Chinese physicist Professor
Fujia Yang, and its
Vice-Chancellor Sir Colin Campbell.
General information
British newspapers regularly rank Nottingham as one of the top ten higher education institutions in the country. Admission is highly competitive, with 2004 undergraduate entrants averaging more than three A grades at A-level.
Research
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The Downs, University Park Campus |
Much of the pioneering work on
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) was done at Nottingham, work for which Nottingham professor Sir
Peter Mansfield received the
Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology in
2003. The University remains a strong centre for research into MRI and its 7
tesla scanner contains the most powerful
magnet in the UK - it required 230 tonnes of iron cladding to prevent the surrounding area being affected by its powerful field.
The University 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 the University (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 the university include the UK's seventh most powerful supercomputer.
The university is also strong in the humanities and social sciences, and in the same year that Sir
Peter Mansfield won his Nobel Prize, Professor
Clive Granger, who was at the university for 22 years as a student and academic, also won the
Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.
The University had 26 departments rated 5 or 5* (internationally excellent) in the UK Funding Council's
2001 Research Assessment Exercise. The University is one of the top four UK universities for receiving research funding from private industry and commerce, in 2003-2004 it received £84m in such awards and in 2004-05 it reached a landmark £100,047,792 â€" a rise of 17.6 per cent on last year .
Student life
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Nottingham University Business School, Jubilee Campus |
The
University of Nottingham Students' Union is heavily involved with the provision of 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 including
Ramsoc, the Hillwalking and Rambling society. The University consistently places within the top ten in the country in
British Universities Sports Association (
BUSA) rankings.
The student magazine
Impact is published regularly in term time. A range of student theatre takes place at the University's New Theatre. The Students' Union runs two Sound and Lighting companies, TEC PA and Lighting, who provide their services for many student events at the University Park, and Jubilee campuses, and SB-TEC who provide their services to the Sutton Bonington Campus. The University Radio Station,
University Radio Nottingham (URN) has won approximately a third of all the
BBC Radio 1 awards for student radio. The radio station also held the world record for the longest continuous radio broadcast at 42 hours. A number of other world records have been set at the university, including the most people in a
Ford Sierra car (27) and the longest line of dancing
drag queens (set by Broadgate Park Karni reps and residents) (49).
Campus 14 is a
bar crawl of fourteen bars on the University Park campus and is a well-known campus tradition. It was officially banned by the university in
2001, but the tradition still (not so) quietly continues today.
 |
Trent Building and Highfields Lake, University Park Campus |
Nottingham Campuses
University Park Campus to the west of the city centre, is the original and principal campus of the University and is widely regarded as one of the most attractive in the country. The University now has several further campuses, but all share similar design features to the original with the exception of Sutton Bonington campus, being 'garden campuses' situated around a lake with extensive greenery.
Jubilee Campus is an award winning campus designed by Sir
Michael Hopkins, opened by HM the
Queen in
1999, a mile away from University Park.
Sutton Bonington Campus houses the University's School of Biosciences and the forthcoming Veterinary School and is located about 12 miles (20 km) to the south of Nottingham, between the M1 motorway, Ratcliffe power station and the
Midland Main Line railway. The old
Carlton Studios site on Lenton Lane was bought in March 2005, to become the
King's Meadow Campus.
Student accommodation for the majority of first year undergraduates and a number of other students is provided on the University's campuses in
halls of residence. For further details see
University of Nottingham Halls of Residence.
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University of Nottingham Malaysia campus. |
International Campuses
The
Malaysia Campus is situated in
Semenyih, a short distance from
Kuala Lumpur. The
University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China is the most recent campus, and is located in the city of
Ningbo, in the
Zhejiang province of
China.
Medical School
The University also has one of the largest medical schools in the United Kingdom, and runs courses at a number of teaching hospitals. The main teaching hospital, the
Queen's Medical Centre (QMC) is located just across the
A52 from the
University Park Campus, and is the largest teaching hospital in Europe. In September
2003 the doors opened for the first intake at a
new medical school in the nearby city of
Derby, offering a 4 year fast-track postgraduate medicine course. On top of these, a few years ago the University of Nottingham took on a number of nursing teaching sites (formerly the Mid Trent Nursing College), these are located across the
East Midlands and include sites at
Boston,
Derby,
Lincoln and
Mansfield as well as
Nottingham.
From
September 20 to
December 7 2004, the University was subject to an international academic boycott - 'greylisting' - after a breakdown in negotiations with the
Association of University Teachers (AUT) on pay and conditions for academic staff. The AUT claimed that Nottingham failed to honour a commitment to follow a national agreement reached in March
2004. The University, however, claimed that its actions were in line with its undertakings in respect of the national agreement and that the University had sought to negotiate with the AUT from the start. The boycott has led to disruption at Nottingham, with lectures scheduled to be given by lecturers from other universities being cancelled, participants withdrawing from conferences and, in the case of a
Royal Geographical Society conference, the whole conference being moved to London. The boycott was suspended after agreement was reached on re-opening talks.
The University also attracted controversy in
2001 when it accepted £3.8m from
British American Tobacco for the creation of a centre of
corporate social responsibility. The donation caused Professor
Richard Smith, Editor of the
British Medical Journal to resign from his post as professor at the university, a 20 strong Cancer Research Team to move to London, and the Cancer Research Campaign to stop its £1.5m fundraising campaign for the renovation of the University's cancer research facilities.
The national
AUT pay dispute involving the boycott of assessment is currently concerning many students, especially those soon to graduate. There is a possibility that some student exam results will be modified due to the action. Many students are also unable to gauge their Spring semester performance due to having had no work returned to them and thus receiving no coursework marks. The dispute finished at midnight on the 6th June 2006 with the AUT reaching a settlement but the potential damage to student prospects has yet to be assessed. [
1]
As a distributed University, the parity of course structure and equivalence between the various University of Nottingham campuses has raised some controversy, particularly over the MBA held at the Malaysian Campus [
2].
The University can trace its origins back to the founding of an adult education school in
1798. The foundation stone of the original University College in Shakespeare Street was laid in
1877, accompanied by a speech by
William Ewart Gladstone. The building was formally opened in
1881 by
Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany. Outgrowing its city centre site, in
1928 the University College moved to a new campus to the south west of the city, a move made possible by the generosity of
Jesse Boot, later Lord Trent. His gift of land has gradually been added to, creating the current
University Park Campus. In
1948 the College received its
Royal Charter, which gave it the title of "university" and the power to confer degrees. Previously, its students received their degrees from the
University of London.
Over time the University has seen steady expansion. In 1947 the Midlands Agricultural and Dairy College at Sutton Bonington merged with the university, in the 1970s the university established a medical school. In
1999 a new Jubilee Campus was opened on the former site of the
Raleigh factory, one mile away from the University Park campus. More recently, the university has expanded overseas, opening campuses in
Malaysia and
China. In September 2005 the King's Meadow campus opened. Built on the site of a former television studio the campus hosts the university's administrative departments and the Information Services department.
The university has used several logos over the years. Initially, the university 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, the university adopted a simpler logo, in which a stylised version of
Nottingham Castle was surrounded by the text 'University of Nottingham'. In 2001 the university undertook a major rebranding exercise, including dropping this logo and replacing it with the current one (with the text to the right of the stylised castle).
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Trent Building, University Park Campus |
The Chief Officer of the University is the Chancellor, elected by the University Court on the recommendation of the University Council. The chief academic and administrative officer of the University is the
Vice-Chancellor, who is assisted by five Pro-Vice Chancellors. The university is divided into five
faculties, each headed by a
Dean, and 32 schools of study.
The University's governing body is the University Council, which has 33 members, mostly non-academic. Its academic authority is the Senate, consisting of senior academics of the University and elected staff and student representatives. The University's largest forum is the University Court, presided over by the Chancellor.
Chancellors
*
1949-
1954 The Lord Trent*
1954-
1971 The Duke of Portland*
1971-
1978 Sir Francis Hill*
1978-
1993 Sir Gordon Hobday*
1993-
2000 The Lord Dearing*
2000-
Professor Fujia YangVice-Chancellors
*
1948-
1965 Bertrand Hallward*
1965-
1970 The Lord Dainton*
1971-
1975 The Lord Butterfield*
1976-
1988 Professor Basil Weedon*
1988-
Sir Colin CampbellThe most celebrated alumnus of the University of Nottingham is probably the novelist
D. H. Lawrence (although his opinion of his alma mater was ambivalent at best). The university has particularly strong links with Malaysia, and two
Malaysian Kings as well as several Malaysian government ministers are graduates. Other prominent alumni include 2003 Nobel Laureate
Sir Clive Granger and 12 current members of the UK parliament.
For a more detailed list see:
List of University of Nottingham people*
Academic dress of the University of Nottingham*
University of Nottingham Students' Union*
University Radio Nottingham*
China Policy Institute*
Institute of Contemporary Chinese Studies*
Nottingham University Business School*
Nottingham University Gliding Club*
Nottingham University Mountaineering Club*
Nottingham University Hillwalking and Rambling Society (Ramsoc)*
Nottingham University Society of Change Ringers*
Nottingham University Press*
Nottingham Trent University is the other University in Nottingham.
*
Jabberwocky*
Campus 14*
University of Nottingham website*
University of Nottingham Students' Union*
URN, Student Radio for Nottingham*
Hugh Stewart Hall JCR website*
Nottingham University Society of Change Ringers*
Lakeside Arts Centre*
TEC PA & Lighting (part of the Students' Union)*
Nottingham University Christian Union (part of the Students' Union)*
BBC 360 images of University Park campus*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.
*
www.nottingham.ac.uk
