University of West London

University of West London
Former names
 Thames Valley University, Polytechnic of West London, Lady Byron School, Ealing College of Higher Education, Thames Valley College of Higher Education, Queen Charlotte's College of Health Care Studies, London College of Music
Type Public
Established 1992 (as Thames Valley University)
1860 (as the Lady Byron School)
Endowment £1.63 million (2015)[1]
Chancellor Laurence Geller
(since 1 August 2010)
Vice-Chancellor Peter John
(since 1 July 2007)
Students 10,490 HE (2014/15)[2]
Undergraduates 8,980 (2014/15)[2]
Postgraduates 1,510 (2014/15)[2]
Other students
 28,290 FE[3]
Location Ealing, Brentford, and Reading, United Kingdom
Website www.uwl.ac.uk

The University of West London (UWL) is a public university in the United Kingdom which has campuses in Ealing and Brentford in London, as well as in Reading in Berkshire.

The university has roots back to 1860, when the Lady Byron School was founded, which later became Ealing College of Higher Education. In 1990, Ealing College of Higher Education, Thames Valley College of Higher Education, Queen Charlotte's College of Health Care Studies and the London College of Music merged to form the Polytechnic of West London. In 1992, the Polytechnic of West London became a university and adopted the name Thames Valley University. In 2004, Thames Valley merged with Reading College and School of Arts and Design. A former campus in Slough was closed in 2010.

In August 2010, the university announced that it had been granted permission to change its name to the University of West London, to reflect a focusing of operations onto its Ealing and Brentford campuses.[4] The new name was formally adopted on Wednesday 6 April 2011.[5]

History

The University of West London traces its roots back to 1860, when the Lady Byron School was founded at what is now University of West London's Ealing campus. The school later became Ealing College of Higher Education.

Ealing College, founded in 1860 by Lady Byron

The Slough campus was founded in January 1912 as a selective secondary school in William Street. By the 1960s, it had become Slough College of Further Education. In the 1970s it became Thames Valley College of Higher Education and in 2011 it was closed down.

In 1990, Ealing College of Higher Education, Thames Valley College of Higher Education, Queen Charlotte's College of Health Care Studies and the London College of Music were merged to become the Polytechnic of West London. Two years later, the polytechnic became a university under the Further and Higher Education Act 1992, and adopted the name Thames Valley University.

In 2004, the university merged with Reading College and School of Arts and Design (which was originally founded in 1947 as Reading Technical College). Reading College's sites at Kings Road and Crescent Road became TVU sites.

Paragon Campus in Brentford (Former TVU Branding)

In 2009, the university decided to divest itself of its further education courses, together with its Kings Road site, that it had inherited from the Reading College and School of Arts and Design. In 2010 the responsibility for further education, along with the Kings Road site, were transferred to a relaunched Reading College. Although some 40 miles west of London, the university retained its other sites in Reading, including the Crescent Road site that also originated with the Reading College and School of Arts and Design.[6][7]

In May 2009, the university announced that it would be closing its Slough campus in 2010 due to the relocation of nursing students, who make up the majority of the student body there, to Reading. Other courses will be moved to one of the university's west London campuses, although some part-time and nursing courses will remain in Slough at a different site.[8]

In August 2010, it was announced that the university would change its name to the University of West London, with the Privy Council subsequently granting permission for the change.[4] The university unveiled a new logo and branding in April 2011. Vice-Chancellor Peter John stated that the changes reflected the university's development since 1992 and new focus on its Brentford and Ealing campuses.

Campuses

Slough was home to one of the campuses of Thames Valley University but due to the Heart of Slough project the campus was demolished.

New Campus

The University of West London has planning consent for the redevelopment of the St Mary's Road site in Ealing. They applied to build 8 3-storey luxury houses requiring trees to be felled in this valuable open space. The application was turned down by Ealing's Planning Committee in June 2015 but the University appealed and won. 500 people signed a petition asking the University not to proceed with the building program. This is a narrow road in a conservation area and a valuable green space for wild life. In 1992 the University signed an agreement to landscape the site for the community which it did not honour. [9]

Organisation

The University of West London is currently organised into three faculties, within which there are eight Schools. The Faculty of the Arts (FOTA), formerly the London College of Music and Media, now incorporates the London College of Music, relaunched in March 2007 and the School of Film, Media and Design.

The Faculty of Health and Human Sciences consists of two Schools: School of Nursing, Midwifery and Healthcare and School of Human and Social Sciences. The Faculty of Professional Studies is made up of three schools; School of Law and Criminology, the Claude Littner Business School, London Geller College of Hospitality and Tourism and the School of Computing and Engineering. [10]

The university's Faculty of Technology formed part of the School of Computing and Technology in May 2010. The Graduate School[11] (based in Ealing) co-ordinates and provides support to research activities[12] and research degree courses. Currently, the University offers traditional Phd programmes as well as Professional Doctorates and Phd by Publish Works.

The university also works with the Met Film School, a private film school that is based at Ealing Studios in London, United Kingdom.[13] The school, which launched in 2003, offers two and three year Bachelors programs as well as various master's degree programs, which are accredited through the University of West London.

Academic reputation

Walpole House in Ealing, housing the university's administration.

Academic rankings

Rankings
Complete[14]
(2017, national)		 106
The Guardian[15]
(2017, national)		 96
Times/Sunday Times[16]
(2017, national)		 84

In the 2015 edition of the major rankings of British universities the university was placed 97 out of 116 in The Guardian university guide,[17] and the University has been in a relatively similar position of 96 in 2017.[18] The University rank in the latest league table in The Sunday Times in 2017 shows a good progress with rank 84.[18]

The University of West London has recorded the best results of any university in London in the annual National Student Survey (NSS) in 2016, with students’ responses showing it to be the best University in London for student satisfaction.[19] in the NSS 2016, There were 100 per cent overall satisfaction rates for nine courses across the University’s eight schools, ranging from Midwifery to Business Studies and Music Technology to Hospitality Management. Among these 100 per cent overall satisfaction rates, the University recorded the best overall satisfaction rates in the UK for Civil Engineering and Building courses in the NSS 2016.[19]

Teaching standards

A lecture at the University of West London, Ealing Campus

In 2009, the University was the only university to win the Queen's Anniversary Prize for outstanding achievement and excellence in hospitality education – and it regularly win awards from major industry bodies.[20]

University of West London Careers and Employment Service is a member of the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services and has been awarded the Matrix Standard for Quality.[20]

Student life

University of West London Students' Union

The University of West London Students' Union (informally UWLSU) is the recognised student organisation of the University of West London. It was ranked the best student union[19] in London in 2016. The Students' Union represents the 47,000 students at all its sites. UWLSU is affiliated to the National Union of Students.

The new UWL Students' Union, opened in 2013

The union has the ground floor of the North Building at the St. Mary's Road campus at which the Coffee Shop, Freddie's Bar and Gym are located, with a secondary site at the Paragon campus. The union aims to bring students the biggest events, ways to take up a new activities or sports, support and advice services, and a place to socialise.

The official radio station for the University is Blast Radio, based on campus in 'The Heartspace'.

Student accommodation

The University of West London Campus at St Mary's Road, Ealing.

Prior to 2006 the university operated halls of residence only at the Reading campus, although a number of private houses in the Ealing area were rented by the university and allocated to students studying there. In September 2006 the university began to offer halls of residence accommodation to students from the Ealing and Slough campuses at a student and keyworker accommodation site named Paragon. The site won the 'Major Housing Project of the Year' category at the 2007 Building awards, and is in Brentford, approximately two miles away from the Ealing campus.

Paragon is home to the tallest building to be completed using Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) in the UK, which serves as a 130,000 sq ft (12,000 m2) academic facility for the university's human sciences facility.

The student accommodation at Paragon has been criticised by its residents for being too expensive, costing the highest of all London universities' halls of residence along with SOAS in the 2007–2008 year. TVU defended the costs, asserting that the halls are of an especially high standard.[21]

Controversies

In the mid-1990s, its high-profile Vice-Chancellor, Mike Fitzgerald, ushered through a networked "New Learning Environment" for undergraduate students, involving a shift to online delivery and assessment. The NLE was discontinued in this form, and Fitzgerald resigned in 1998 following a negative Quality Assurance Agency report stating there were "significant management failures" in the delivery of this model.[22] The University suffered severe financial shortfalls in the years that followed.

Notable people

Staff

Freddie Mercury, lead vocalist of the band Queen was a student in 1960s

Alumni

In Media, Music & Film Industry

Several alumni at the University of West London are world-famous artists, musicians and Oscar nominees:

In Business, Law, Health and Hospitality

In Politics

References

  1. ↑ http://www.uwl.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Departments/About-us/UWL4500_Annual%20Report_2015_AW_LORES.pdf
  2. 1 2 3 "2014/15 Students by HE provider, level, mode and domicile" (XLSX). Higher Education Statistics Agency. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  3. ↑ "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 12 April 2008.
  4. 1 2 "University set to get new name". Press Association. UK: Google News. 3 August 2010. Retrieved 3 August 2010.
  5. ↑ "Ealing University's name change stalled". Ealing Gazette. UK. 20 October 2010. Retrieved 2 November 2010.
  6. ↑ "About Reading College". Reading College. Retrieved 23 August 2010.
  7. ↑ Hewitt, Adam (31 December 2009). "Oxford college 'preferred bidder' for TVU". Reading Chronicle. Berkshire Media Group. Retrieved 23 August 2010.
  8. ↑ "News & events". Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  9. ↑ [ealing.cmis.uk.com/Ealing/Document.ashx? ealing.cmis.uk.com/Ealing/Document.ashx?] Check |url= value (help). Missing or empty |title= (help)
  10. ↑ http://www.uwl.ac.uk/about-us/academic-schools. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  11. ↑ "TVU: Graduate School". Archived from the original on 22 February 2007. Retrieved 27 March 2007.
  12. ↑ "TVU: Research". Retrieved 27 March 2007.
  13. ↑ Rosser, Michael. "Met Film School: starter for 10". Screen Daily. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
  14. ↑ "University League Table 2017". The Complete University Guide. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
  15. ↑ "University league tables 2017". The Guardian. 23 May 2013. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
  16. ↑ "The Times and Sunday Times University Good University Guide 2017". Times Newspapers. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  17. ↑ "University league table 2015 - the complete list". The Guardian. London. 2 June 2014.
  18. 1 2 "University league tables 2017". The Guardian. 23 May 2013. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
  19. 1 2 3 UWL News. "University of West London number one in London for student satisfaction | University of West London". www.uwl.ac.uk. Retrieved 18 September 2016.
  20. 1 2 3 "University of West London". Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  21. ↑ Proctor, Lucy "TVU halls leave students broke". Ealing Gazette, 2 November 2007 (retrieved on 18–11–07)
  22. ↑ Webster, 2000
  23. ↑ "News & events". Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  24. ↑ "4. Freddie studied at Ealing Art College, where his contemporaries included Peter Townshend and Ronnie Wood. It was here that he started thinking about pursuing a career in music.". Odd Stuff Magazine. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
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