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Swansea University

Coordinates: 51°36′35.00″N 3°58′50.00″W / 51.6097222°N 3.9805556°W / 51.6097222; -3.9805556
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Not to be confused with Swansea Metropolitan University or Swansea College.
Swansea University
Prifysgol Abertawe
File:Swansea University Logo 301.jpg
MottoGweddw crefft heb ei dawn
("Technical skill is bereft without culture")
TypePublic
Established1920
ChancellorNone; previously Professor Sir David Williams
Vice-ChancellorProfessor Richard B. Davies
Students18,445[1]
Undergraduates11,730[1]
Postgraduates2,145[1]
Other students
4,570 FE[1]
Location
Swansea
,
UK
CampusUrban
ColoursGreen & White
AffiliationsUniversity of Wales, EUA, ACU
Websitehttp://www.swan.ac.uk/

Swansea University (Welsh: Prifysgol Abertawe) is a university located in Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom. Swansea University was chartered as University College of Swansea in 1920[2], as the fourth college of the University of Wales, following the report of the Haldane Commission into University Education in Wales. In 1996, it changed its name to the University of Wales Swansea[2] following structural changes within the University of Wales. The new title of Swansea University was formally adopted on 1 September 2007 when the University of Wales became a non-membership confederal institution and the former members became universities in their own right.[3]

It is the third largest university in Wales in terms of number of students. The university campus is located next to the coast at the north of Swansea Bay, east of the Gower Peninsula, in the grounds of Singleton Park, just outside Swansea city centre. Swansea was granted its own degree-awarding powers in 2005 in preparation for possible changes within the University of Wales.[4]

Swansea and Cardiff University compete in an annual varsity match, known as the Welsh version of the Oxbridge event, termed the Welsh Varsity.

Governance and structure

Swansea received its royal charter in 1920 and like many universities is governed by its constitution that is set out in its statutes and charter. The governing body of Swansea University is its Council, which, in turn, is supported by the Senate and the Court.

  • The Council consists of 29 members including the Chancellor, Pro-chancellors, Vice-chancellor, Treasurer, Pro-vice-chancellors, staff and student members, city council representation and a majority of lay members. The council is responsible for all of the University's activities and has a well-developed committee structure to help discharge its powers and duties.
  • The Senate consists of 200 members, the majority of whom are academics but includes also representatives from both the Students' Union and the Athletic Union. The senate is chaired by the Vice-chancellor, who is the head of the university both academically and administratively. The senate is the main academic body of the university and is responsible for teaching and research.
  • The Court consists of over 300 members, who represent the stakeholders in the university and stretch from local to national institutions. The court meets annually to discuss the university's annual report and its financial statements, as well as to discuss current issues in higher education

Academic structure

Faraday Tower, home to the Schools of Engineering and Physical Sciences.

Swansea University's academic departments are organised into 8 schools:

  • The School of Arts and Humanities: These two schools have recently merged and now include: American Studies, Ancient History and Egyptology, Applied Linguistics, Classics, Cymraeg/Welsh, English, French, German, History, Italian, Medieval Studies, Media Studies, Politics & International Relations, PPE, Spanish-Hispanic Studies, Translation, War and Society
  • The School of Business and Economics: Business and Economic departments
  • The School of Environment and Society: Biological Sciences, Geography, Centre for Development Studies, Sociology and Anthropology
  • The School of Human and Health Science: Adult Studies, Biomedical Studies, Child Health Studies, Clinical Studies, Critical and Emergency Care, E Health Learning, Health Economics and Policy Studies, Midwifery and Gender Studies, Mental Health Studies, Philosophy Humanities and Law in Healthcare, Primary Healthcare, Public Health and Older People, Psychology, Applied Social Studies, Childhood Studies, Sports Science
  • The School of Engineering: Aerospace, Chemical and Biological, Civil, Electrical and Electronic, Information, Communication & Computing Technology, Materials, Mechanical, Medical, Nanotechnology, Product Design
  • The School of Medicine: Graduate Entry Medicine, Centre for Health Information, Research & Evaluation, Institute of Life Science, BioMedical Research, Genetics Group
  • The School of Law: International Maritime, Trade and Commercial Law, Business & Law. Legal Practice Course, Graduate Diploma in Law, IISTL, CEELP, LLB
  • The School of Physical Sciences: Computer Science, Mathematics and Physics

Student accommodation

Swansea University provides approximately 3400 places in University halls and can normally offer accommodation to over 98% of new Undergraduate students who require it. Accommodation is also available for all International Postgraduate students.

Swansea University maintains on-campus and off-campus halls of residence and the purpose built Hendrefoelan Student Village. Several new halls of residence were completed in 2004 and in 2008.

There are also a number of University Managed Properties in the Uplands and Brynmill areas of the city.

Hendrefoelan Student Village

Hendrefoelan Student Village is the University’s largest residence site where 1644 students live in self-catering accommodation. The Hendrefoelan estate is 2½ miles from the campus, just off the main Swansea to Gower road, set amongst mature woodland with open grassy areas.

Campus halls

There are nine halls that make up the campus residences providing accommodation to around 1226 students. The halls offer a combination of part and self-catered rooms and a choice of standard or ensuite study rooms. Three of these halls (Caswell, Langland and Oxwich) were completed in 2004 and the original halls (Kilvey, Preseli, Rhossili and Cefn Bryn, formerly known as Sibly, Lewis Jones, Mary Williams Annexe and Mary Williams respectively) have undergone some refurbishment in recent years. Penmaen and Horton are the newest addition to the campus residences providing 351 self-catered, ensuite study rooms. Many rooms have views over the bay or across the park.

Tŷ Beck / Beck House

Six large Victorian town houses situated in the Uplands area of Swansea, approximately a mile from the Singleton campus. Predominantly provide rooms for Postgraduates and students with families, as well as overseas exchange students.

Recent developments

The Digital Technium houses Britain's most advanced Virtual Reality cave.[5]

The University has restructured in recent years, expanding popular areas such as History, English, Geography and Computer Science, but closing the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and the Department of Philosophy.[citation needed] The Department of Chemistry has also ceased to take undergraduate students, although it continues to carry out research and post-graduate teaching. Recent course additions include Aerospace Engineering as well as a partnership with Cardiff University to provide a four-year accelerated graduate-entry medical degree (MB BCh) in Swansea which was launched in 2004. In 2007 Swansea University was awarded the four year course on its own.[4]

The Western Britain chapter of the International Conference for the Study of Political Thought was moved to the Department of Politics & International Relations from Exeter University earlier in 2006.[citation needed]

In July 2007 the Institute of Life Science (ILS) opened as the research arm of the university's school of medicine.[6] The ILS is based in a six-storey building housing laboratories, business incubation suites and an IBM Blue C supercomputer.[7][8] The supercomputer is used for projects including numerically-intensive analysis of viral genomes, epidemiological modelling, large clinical databases and analysis of the genetics of disease susceptibility.[9] In July 2009, an expansion of the ILS was announced with a £30m investment from Swansea University, the Welsh Assembly Government, the European Union and Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board.[10]

In November 2007, the University announced a collaboration with Navitas to found an International College - International College Wales Swansea to provide foundation, 1st year degree and Pre-Masters programmes on campus. The first intake is September 2008.

Boots Centre for Innovation

The ILS Building contains the Boots Centre for Innovation and the IBM Blue-C Supercomputer.

Boots Centre for Innovation was created in April 2007 as a non profit making partnership between Boots the Chemist, Longbow Capital, Swansea University and the Welsh Assembly Government. The Centre was created to work closely with early stage companies or lone inventors to develop innovative new products and technologies within the health and beauty sectors, and to eventually launch new consumer products for the shelves of Boots stores.[11]

Campus plan

Accelerating growth in research activities is putting pressure on facilities and requires the University to provide additional workspace and an improved infrastructure. The University recently commissioned a team of consultants, Actium Consult, to research options for a ten-year “Estates Strategy”, taking into account the pressures created by its growth and sustained increases in student numbers. The brief was to research and evaluate all options available to the University. The key finding in the report demonstrates that the University will require a significant amount of additional space in order to provide the facilities necessary to meet future demand. Actium Consult proposed three different options to address this need for space.

  1. Demolish Fulton House and Union House and redevelop the site
  2. Refurbish Fulton House and redevelop the site between Singleton Hospital and the halls of residence
  3. Consider an alternative location (two sites are evaluated in the report).
Fulton House, Swansea University.

The consultant’s recommendation is to redevelop central areas of Singleton Campus, although this does raise a number of other issues. The University also needs to consider future provision for student accommodation. Currently, all the options are being considered and the University is consulting with staff, as well as other stakeholders in the local community, to identify the best course of action.

In written evidence presented to the Welsh Assembly's Enterprise and Learning Committee in January 2008, the university stated that it was "at an advanced stage of discussion" about a new 'Innovation Campus' on a second site. The new campus could be home to Engineering, Computing, Telecommunications, the Business and Law Schools and a range of "research/test facilities" for large and small companies.[12] One proposal is the development of a 100-acre (0.40 km2) site near Fabian Way at Crymlyn Burrows.[13]

University rankings

The Times university 2008 Top 100 league table listed the University as the 46th best university in the UK (out of a total of 109), up from 50th position in 2004 but down from 42nd in 2005. In addition, the University picked up the 2005 Times Higher Education Supplement Award for the UK's "best student experience".[14][15] However, the survey was criticised by some, as it was carried out by the Student Panel making the sample self-selected and therefore unscientific. The University is also listed as one of the top 500 universities in the World at 401 to 500 in the 2006 Shanghai Jiao Tong University World Rankings.[16] Additionally, the 2008 Times Higher Education Supplement of World University Rankings places Swansea as 347th in the world, up from 401-500 in 2007.[17] The Guardian league tables placed the university at 83rd in its institution wide table.[18]

Library

Library & Information Services at Swansea provides a combined library, IT and Careers service. The main Library & Information Centre on the Singleton campus has over 800,000 books and periodicals, along with a wide range of electronic resources including over 23,000 electronic journals. There are over 1,000 study spaces, almost half of which are equipped with networked PCs. LIS was awarded the Charter Mark in 2006.

The Library & Information Centre also has major archive collections, based on the South Wales Coalfield Collection, several papers of Welsh writers in English and the Richard Burton Collection, which was recently donated by Burton's wife, Sally. It is hoped that the collection will form the hub of a learning resource dedicated to the actor’s life and work.

Recent developments include a major extension in opening hours (8am to 2am Sundays to Thursdays; 8am to 8pm Fridays and Saturdays), the installation of a Costa coffee pod in the Group Study Area and the transfer of the stock of the Morriston Hospital Nursing Library to the Library and Information Centre.

Sports centre

Swansea University's sports centre [19] is located near the main campus on the western side of Sketty Lane. The university sports centre is separate to the adjacent King Edward V Playing fields to the west. The sports centre is used by the university for its sports degree courses as well for general student recreation. Facilities include the Wales National Pool, an indoor 6-lane running track, gymnasium, sports hall, tennis courts, squash courts and a climbing wall. Outdoor facilities include an 8-lane running track and floodlit playing fields including rugby, football, lacrosse and cricket pitches.[20][21]

Xtreme Radio 1431AM

Xtreme Radio is the radio station of the University, run by students. It was founded in November 1968 as Action Radio[22]. It broadcasts to various areas around campus, around Swansea itself on 1431AM and worldwide on the internet. The station plays a wide variety of music, as well as having a number of specialist programmes including talk and sports shows. Xtreme celebrated its fortieth birthday on 30 November 2008, making it the third oldest student radio station in the UK and oldest in Wales.

Museum of Egyptian Antiquities (Egypt Centre)

Located within the Taliesin building, the Egypt Centre is a museum of Egyptian antiquities open to the public. There are over 4000 items in the collection.[23] Most of them were collected by the pharmacist Sir Henry Wellcome. Others came to the university from: the British Museum; the Royal Edinburgh Museum; National Museums and Galleries of Wales Cardiff; the Royal Albert Museum and Art Gallery and also private donors.

Egypt Centre staff regularly give lectures and talks to museum groups and other outside bodies on widening participation in university museums; social inclusion and volunteering. Schools regularly visit us to take part in a stimulating and interactive programme of events.

Notable alumni

Science, Engineering and Technology

Business

Politics

Academia

Sporting

Arts

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Table 0 - All students by institution, mode of study, level of study and domicile 2007/08". Higher Education Statistics Agency online statistics. Retrieved 2009-10-06.
  2. ^ a b http://www.archivesnetworkwales.info/search/thesaurus/corps/list20.shtml#lbl425
  3. ^ BBC NEWS | Wales | Three universities go independent
  4. ^ [1] THES article 'Swansea Goes It Alone'
  5. ^ http://www.swan.ac.uk/university/TheCampus/Featurebuildings/DigitalTechnium/
  6. ^ Swansea University - ILS
  7. ^ ILS - Home
  8. ^ ILS - What we offer
  9. ^ ILS - Blue C's capabilities
  10. ^ BBC NEWS | Wales | Wales politics | Up to 650 jobs could come to city
  11. ^ [2]
  12. ^ EL(3)-03-08 : Paper 1 : Evidence to the Committee inquiry into the economic contribution of higher education - Swansea University
  13. ^ http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=161366&command=displayContent&sourceNode=161366&contentPK=20194195&folderPk=88499
  14. ^ BBC Article on the University's Ranking
  15. ^ Times League Table
  16. ^ 500.htm Academic World Ranking
  17. ^ [3]
  18. ^ Guardian Ranking
  19. ^ Swansea University - Facilities
  20. ^ Swansea University Athletic Union - The Home for SUAU University Athletes
  21. ^ City and County of Swansea - New sports village to host top athletics
  22. ^ Xtreme Radio 1431AM, Swansea University and surrounding Student areas - Media UK
  23. ^ http://www.swan.ac.uk/egypt/infosheet/setup.htm

51°36′35.00″N 3°58′50.00″W / 51.6097222°N 3.9805556°W / 51.6097222; -3.9805556

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