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| Motto: | Patet omnibus veritas (Truth lies open to all) | |||||||||||
| Established | 1964 | |||||||||||
| Type: | public | |||||||||||
| Chancellor: | Sir Christian Bonington | |||||||||||
| Vice-Chancellor: | Prof. Paul Wellings | |||||||||||
| Students: | 17,415 [1] | |||||||||||
| Undergraduates: | 13,810 [1] | |||||||||||
| Postgraduates: | 3,610 [1] | |||||||||||
| Location | Lancaster, England | |||||||||||
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| Affiliations: | 1994 Group N8 Group AMBA ACU NWUA Universities UK |
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| Website: | http://www.lancs.ac.uk/ | |||||||||||
Lancaster University (officially "The University of Lancaster")[2] is a collegiate campus university in Lancaster, England. The University is frequently placed in the top 20 UK universities in national league tables and in the top 10 for research, notably with its 6* Management School (LUMS - one of only two 6* Management Schools in the UK, along with London Business School) which has been at the top of the UK research rankings for more than a decade. The physics department has broken numerous world records for the lowest maintainable temperature ever reached.[3] Typical offers, according to The Independent range from 260 points for environmental science to 360 for business studies. [4] The University was ranked the best in the North West in 2007, by The Times. [5]
Contents |
History
One of a series of new British universities, Lancaster University admitted its first students in Arts subjects in 1964. The first Science students were admitted in 1965. The purpose-built campus was built on a 200 acre site donated by Lancaster City Council in 1963[6], located three miles south of the city, at Bailrigg, near the villages of Ellel and Galgate was started in November 1965, with the first building completed a year later although the first student residences did not open until 1968[7]. Before the new site was progressively occupied, the University occupied various buildings in Lancaster and the surrounding area. The university library was in the Shrigley and Hunt, staff offices and laboratories were in the old premises of Waring and Gillow. Student accommodation was mostly in Morecambe. Also, the Grand Theatre was used as a lecture theatre and other rooms in the St Leonard's area were used for teaching. The main architect of the campus was Gabriel Epstein of Shepeard and Epstein[8]. In contrast to some of the other new universities it was designed to integrate social, residential and teaching areas instead of zoning these functions. The other major features of the design was that there would not be a large central students' union building, but that individual colleges would be the centre of social and recreational facilities[9] and the separation of vehicular and pedestrian traffic, this was achieved by the creation of a pedestrian spine running north-south through the campus, motor vehicles being restricted to a peripheral road, there is a linking underpass running east-west, this includes bus stops and is directly beneath Alexandra Square (named after the first Chancellor of the University) the central area of the campus. Car parking was arranged in cul-de-sacs running off the peripheral road. Alexandra Square contains the library in the south west corner designed in 1964 by Tom Mellor and Partners, the 1st phase opening in September 1966, the 2nd in July 1968 & the 3rd in January 1971[10], also on the Square's west side is University House the main administrative building of the university, as well as various banks and shops, to the south east of the square is located the tallest building on campus the fourteen storey Bowland tower (which contains accommodation) which disguises the boiler room chimney. The library was extended in the late 1990's and in 1998 the Ruskin Library designed by Sir Richard MacCormac was opened. The Whitehouse Collection housed in the Ruskin Library is the largest holding of books, manuscripts, photographs, drawings and watercolours by and related to John Ruskin in the world. One of the most distinctive of the buildings is the free-standing University Chaplaincy Centre. Opened the 2nd May 1969, the architects were the Preston based firm of Cassidy & Ashton. The building has a trefoil plan with a central spire where the three circles meet. The logo of the University is based on this spire and the University colours are 'Quaker Grey' (chosen to reflect the strong links of the city of Lancaster and its region to the Religious Society of Friends) and red.[1]
Colleges
The University originally had two colleges, Bowland and Lonsdale (with Bowland being built first and Lonsdale a year after Bowland). It has expanded greatly since then and now has 8 undergraduate colleges, which are all named after locations from the historic county boundaries of Lancashire (three of which are now part of the ceremonial county of Cumbria):
- Bowland, named after the Forest of Bowland
- Cartmel, named after the village of Cartmel and the surrounding Cartmel Fells (now in Cumbria)
- The County, named after Lancashire County Council
- Furness, named after the Furness region of historic Lancashire (now in Cumbria)
- Fylde, named after the Fylde peninsula
- Grizedale, named after Grizedale Forest (now in Cumbria)
- Lonsdale, named after the Lune Valley (Lonsdale)
- Pendle, named after the Pendle area of Lancashire, and Lancaster's role in the Pendle witch trials.
The University also has one post-graduate college:
- Graduate, built in 1992.
Three additional colleges were originally planned for the Bailrigg campus, but were never built, presumably for financial reasons. The following historic Lancashire "forests" have all been quoted at some point as the intended names.
These would have been sited to the south of the campus. Also a plan originally existed to have a second twin campus with another eight colleges to the east of the M6 motorway at Hazelrigg, linked with a flyover. This was abandoned during the 1970's and the land sold during a period of financial difficulties. A large scale map of the Hazelrigg plans existed in University house until the late 1970's. The college buildings accommodate a number of academic departments, but are primarily social and accommodation facilities, each with its own bar and Junior Common Room. A selling-point of the University is that the colleges are more than mere halls of residence, offering a sense of community. Every student and member of staff is a member of a college. While this college environment thrives, however, the Lancaster organisation is slightly different to that of Oxford, Cambridge and Durham. While Lancaster's students are allocated a college, the latter three universities employ an application system by which a prospective undergraduate must apply directly to a specific college.
Campus
The campus is organised around a central walkway known as The Spine. This walkway down the middle of the campus from north to south and is covered most of the way as protection from the frequent rainfall which dominates the Lancashire climate. For most of its length one is walking due north or south. Over recent years the University has been under ongoing regeneration work, the most notable example being the construction of Alexandra Park to the southwest of campus, which now houses Graduate, Lonsdale and Cartmel colleges. New accommodation blocks for Furness and Fylde colleges, on the east side of campus, were completed in September 2006, while the near complete rebuilding of Grizedale College and construction of further accommodation for County College at the northern edge of campus is on going as of Summer 2007. The process has seen controversy, due to the rate of expansion, the increase in rents due to the new accommodation being en-suite, and the limited amount of new social space. The older accommodations usually consist of approximately 15 students sharing communal bathrooms and kitchens. The communal kitchens are often a source of social interaction, while the en-suite areas have fewer students per kitchen, and private bathrooms. Facilities on campus include:
- Shops
- SPAR, a small supermarket
- LUSU Shop
- LUSU Central
- Charity shop, proceeds from which go to Cancer Care and St. Johns Hospice
- Waterstone's
- Robinsons newsagents
- an Opticians
- a florists
- Food Outlets
- Lancaster Environment Centre (LEC) Courtyard Cafe
- Uni Chippi
- Pizzetta Republic
- The Sultan, Indian-Styled Fast Food Restaurant
- Gregg's the baker
- Diggles coffee shop
- Coffee shops in County, Bowland, Grizedale, and Fylde colleges
- Barker House Farm food court
- Wibbly Wobblys (burger shop)
- Global Cafe, located in the Chaplaincy Centre
- Cafe 21, a cafe in Infolab21
- Hub Cafe, a cafe in the Management School
- The Venue, a slightly upmarket cafe operated by the University itself
- Wong's Kitchen (a Chinese restaurant/takeaway in the George Fox building)
- Spicy Hut (an Indian restaurant at the north end of campus)
- Banks
- Other Facilities
- Mosque, Islamic Prayer Room for Muslims also open to Non-Muslims Alike, located near the InfoLab21
- Lancaster University Chaplaincy Centre
- Endsleigh insurance
- a post office
- a travel agent (also sells rail and National Express tickets)
- the Great Hall
- the Jack Hylton room, a small concert hall
Outside the Jack Hylton room. - a sports centre and swimming pool
- an art gallery
- the Nuffield Theatre
- a dental practice
- a Health Centre, operated by local doctors
- a pharmacy
- 10 separate bars (one for each college, and one in the Nuffield Centre)
- a duck pond,
The University is also home to the Ruskin Library. See the University's own campus amenities page for more information.
Student activities
There are many student-run clubs and societies on campus; these include:
- Bailrigg FM, the student radio station
- Scan, the student union's newspaper
- Lancaster University Cinema, the student union's on-campus cinema. It was founded in 1965 as the Film Society. The name was changed in May 2004. It operates out of Bowland Lecture Theatre.
Various religious and cultural groups are catered for, as well as hobbies ranging from writing to dancing, and even anime and roleplaying. Every summer the students take part in the Roses Tournament, a sports competition against the University of York. The venue of the event alternates each year between York and Lancaster. Otherwise, sporting activities are focused on inter-college competition rather than national leagues. The colleges compete for the Carter Shield and George Wyatt Cup, and in 2004 the Founder's Trophy was played for the first time between the University's two founding colleges, Bowland and Lonsdale. LUSU, the Students' Union, owns a nightclub in Lancaster called The Sugar House. This is a major source of income for the Students' Union. They also have two shops on the campus and an administration building. However, there is no Students' Union entertainment complex on campus as other similar-sized campus universities tend to have. There are nine bars on campus, one for each college, as well as a bar in the Great Hall complex which is opened for functions.
Chancellorship
The Chancellor of the university is Sir Chris Bonington, who took office in January 2005. He succeeds Princess Alexandra of Kent, who held the post for forty years from the University's inception, making her one of the longest serving Chancellors of any British university. There have been five Vice-Chancellors in the history of the university:
- 1964–1980: Professor Sir Charles Carter
- 1980–1985: Professor Philip Reynolds
- 1985–1995: Professor Harry Hanham
- 1995–2002: Professor William Ritchie
- 2002–Present: Professor Paul Wellings
Notable academics
- Peter Checkland - Emeritus Professor, the developer of soft systems methodology (SSM) in the field of systems thinking.
- Cary Cooper is Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health at Lancaster University Management School, Pro Vice Chancellor for External Relations
- Michael Dillon - Professor of Politics, author of Politics of Security
- Alan Dix is a Professor in the Computing department
- Norman Fairclough, a proponent of critical discourse analysis, is Emeritus Professor, and formerly Professor of Language in Social Life in the Department of Linguistics and English Language.[2]
- Paul Farley, Lecturer in Creative Writing - winner of the Whitbread Prize for poetry (2002) and other awards.
- Gwilym Jenkins (until 1974) - Professor of Systems Engineering.
- Geoffrey Leech is Emeritus Professor and was Professor of Linguistics and Modern English Language.[3] He was part of the team which, with a team based at Oxford University, compiled the British National Corpus, a 100 million word collection of a range of spoken and written texts, in the 1990s. This is an important contribution to corpus linguistics.
- Barbara Maher is Professor of Physical Geography and head of the Geography Department. Specialising in environmental magnetism and palaeomagnetism, she was the recipient of the Royal Society Wolfson Merit Research Award in 2006.
- George Pickett - Professor of Low-Temperature Physics, for which the university is world-renowned. He was one of the main designers of the adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator, which allowed the university's physics department to reach milli-kelvin temperatures and lower. He is also an author and co-author of several physics text books.
- Jeffrey Richards - Professor of Cultural History and expert on British popular culture.
- Norman Sherry - Professor of English, 1970-1983. Expert on Graham Greene.
- Ninian Smart - Foundation Professor of Religious Studies, 1967-1982.
- Lucy Suchman - Professor of Sociology, key contributor to research into human-computer interaction (HCI), author of "Plans and Situated Actions: The Problem of Human-machine Communication" (1987). Awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science in 2002.
- Stephen Taylor - Professor of Finance. World leader in Financial Econometrics. Author of the books "Modelling Financial Time Series" (1986) and "Asset Price Dynamics, Volatility, and Prediction" (2005).
- John Urry is a Professor of Sociology, noted for his work on tourism, mobility, compleity and broader social and economic change. Among his major works are The Tourist Gaze (Sage, 1990, 2nd ed 2002) Consuming Places (Routledge 1995); - The End of Organized Capitalism (1987); and Economies of Signs and Space (1994), writing with Scott Lash. He has also written important books on Global Complexity (Polity 2003) and Sociology beyond Societies (Routledge 2000). He is director of the Centre for Mobilities Research and a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Arts
Notable alumni
- Richard Allinson – BBC Radio 2 DJ
- Antony Burgmans – Chairman of Unilever
- Alan Campbell – Labour MP
- Martin Close and Peter Whalley – Coronation Street writers
- Robert Fisk – journalist
- Tina Gaudoin - journalist[11]
- Martin J. Goodman (PhD Creative Writing, 2007) – journalist and novelist[12]
- Irving Hexham – Professor of Religious Studies
- Justin Hill (MA Creative Writing, 2000) – novelist[12]
- John Hull – Professor of Finance
- Ralph Ineson – actor
- D. F. Lewis – fiction writer
- James May – Top Gear presenter
- Alan Milburn – Labour politician
- Andrew Miller (PhD Creative Writing, 1997) – novelist[12]
- Jacob Polley (MA Creative Writing, 1997) – poet[12]
- Jason Queally – Olympic cyclist
- Andy Serkis – actor
- Ranvir Singh – presenter, and reporter, for BBC's North West Tonight
- Nahed Taher – CEO of Gulf One Investment Bank
- Gary Waller – Conservative politician
Chancellors Wharf
Chancellors Wharf is the name of the university's off-campus accommodation for students. It consists of three buildings by the canal on Aldcliffe road opposite of B&Q. The location is near to The Water Witch pub, central bus routes, the local infirmary and the city centre. Residents remain members of various colleges, with Chancellors Wharf itself being only a hall of residence.
Nuffield Theatre
The Nuffield Theatre is a versatile black-box theatre located at the north end of the campus. It has welcomed a wide range of theatre over the years - from contemporary theatre and avant garde to full student-written plays.
Controversy
George Fox Six
These were six members of the local community, including University students, who were prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service, for causing Aggravated Trespass during a corporate venturing meeting at the university in September 2004. Speakers at the conference were drawn from one of the largest companies in the North West. The protesters criticised these companies for involvement in the arms trade and the abuse of human rights and the environment.
The six protestors entered a lecture theatre in the university's George Fox building and their supporters say this was to hand out leaflets and engage delegates of the conference. The University says their aim was to aggressively disrupt the conference. On 30 September, 2005, the six were found guilty of Aggravated Trespass: specifically of intending to disrupt the conference and were ordered to each pay £300 costs and were given a 2 year conditional discharge.
University expansion
The university's decision to expand onto what is now known as 'South West Campus' was met with protest due to various problems with the site. Some of the complaints against the expansion were that it would drive up accommodation prices, both on and off campus; it was a greenfield site, with residents of nearby Galgate being worried about "the impact of the new buildings"; flooding of the local area due to increased run-off from the site; and increased traffic flow on the A6 and other local roads. Along with complaints about the South West Campus development, the development of 'InfoLab 21' was also objected to, with the proposed building being described as a "Dalek Factory".[4]
Travellers
During the night of 13 May 2007, a group of travellers moved onto the Rugby pitches of the university campus. They refused to leave the land when asked, and legal action to secure an eviction order was undertaken by the university.[13]
References
- History of Lancaster University by Lancaster University History undergraduates (2002)
- [5] - Lancaster University Management School
- ^ a b c Table 0a - All students by institution, mode of study, level of study, gender and domicile 2005/06. Higher Education Statistics Agency online statistics. Retrieved on 2007-03-31.
- ^ Charter, Statutes and Ordinances of the University of Lancaster (Microsoft Word document). Retrieved on 2007-12-27.
- ^ http://www.lancs.ac.uk/business/profiles/lowtemp.htm
- ^ http://education.independent.co.uk/higher/az_uni_colleges/article1208590.ece
- ^ http://www.lancasterguardian.co.uk/lancaster-news/Lancaster-Uni-named-best-in.3237697.jp
- ^ page 115, Building the New Universities, Tony Birks 1972
- ^ page 115, Building the New Universities, Tony Birks 1972
- ^ page 115, Building the New Universities, Tony Birks 1972
- ^ page 120, Building the New Universities, Tony Birks 1972
- ^ The Library Building: University of Lancaster 1972
- ^ Coolhunter: Kendal Mint Cake. Timesonline. Retrieved on 2007-11-11.
- ^ a b c d Some recent publications by past and present students of Creative Writing at Lancaster University. Dept of English and Creative Writing, Lancaster University. Retrieved on 2007-08-09.
- ^ Travellers camp out at university
External links
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Bath • Birkbeck • Durham • East Anglia • Essex • Exeter • Goldsmiths College • Lancaster • Leicester • Loughborough • Queen Mary • Reading • Royal Holloway • School of Oriental and African Studies • St Andrews • Surrey • Sussex • Warwick • York |
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