Lancaster University Totally Explained

Everything about University Of Lancaster totally explained

Lancaster University (officially "The University of Lancaster") is a British university in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The university has an annual income of £149 million, 2,250 staff and 17,415 students. In the last Research Assessment Exercise Lancaster was named the 9th best research institution in the United Kingdom. Along with the universities of Durham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and York, Lancaster forms the N8 Group of research universities. In national league tables of the overall performance of the 118 universities in the UK, Lancaster is consistently placed within the top 20, and was placed tenth overall in the 2008 Good University Guide. In 2006, Lancaster was one of the five universities shortlisted for Sunday Times University of the Year.
Lancaster is a collegiate university, with its main functions divided between three central faculties of the University and 9 colleges. In general, the faculties perform research and provide centralised lectures to students, while the colleges are responsible for the domestic arrangements and welfare of undergraduate students, graduate students, post-doctoral researchers and some University staff.

History

Origins

Following the Second World War there were only nine universities and less than 1000 full time students in Britain. The future of higher education became an important concern of the government as it tried to cope with the demands of an expanding population and the advent of a new technological age. Between 1958 and 1961, this balance was readdressed as 7 new plate glass universities were announced; one of these was the University of Lancaster.

Establishment

The university was established by royal charter in 1964. The charter stipulated that HRH Princess Alexandra of Kent, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy LG GCVO be the first Chancellor. She was inaugurated in 1964. The ceremony also saw the granting of various honorary degrees to amongst others, the new Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Princess Alexandra served the university as Chancellor until retiring in 2004. She was the longest serving Chancellor of any British university.
The University accepted its first students in October 1964 and there were initially 13 professors, 32 additional members of teaching and research staff, 8 library staff and 14 administrators on academic grades. The motto adopted by the new university Patet omnibus veritas which means Truth Lies Open to All reflecting the hope that the expansion of higher education would lead to the extension of education to all. The first Science students were admitted in 1965.
The university was temporarily based in the city after its establishment. A lecture theatre and the university’s first JCR were based in Centenary Church, a former congregational church, just across from the old factory premises of Waring & Gillow, which were used to accommodate the new students. Many new students were housed in Morecambe. The Grand Theatre was leased as a main lecture room and 112 and 114 within the St Leonard's area became teaching and recreational rooms. The library occupied the old workshops of Shrigley and Hunt on Castle Hill.

List of Chancellors

HRH Princess Alexandra of Kent, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy LG GCVO (1964-2004)
Sir Christian Bonnington CBE (2005 -present)

List of Vice-Chancellors

Professor Sir Charles Carter (1964–1980)

Professor Philip Reynolds CBE (1980–1985)

Professor Harry Hanham (1985–1995)

Professor William Ritchie OBE (1995-2002)

Professor Paul Wellings (2002-present)

The Colleges

All members of the university are members of a college, which are all named after regions of the traditional county of Lancashire. The University also has one post-graduate college. The campus buildings are located on a hilltop, the lower slopes of which are landscaped parkland which includes the Carter Lake duckpond and the university playing fields. The site is located three miles south of the city centre. The campus buildings are arranged around a central walkway known as The Spine . The walkway runs from north to south and is covered for most of its length in order to provide shelter from the frequent rainfall which dominates the Lancashire climate. The main architect was Gabriel Epstein of Shepeard and Epstein. In contrast to some of the other campus universities Bailrigg was designed to integrate social, residential and teaching areas. Another major feature of the design was that there wouldn't be a large central Students' Union building, but that the individual colleges would be the centre of social and recreational facilities. Vehicular and pedestrian traffic is separated. This is achieved by restricting motor vehicles to a peripheral road with a linking underpass running east-west beneath Alexandra Square. The underpass accommodates the Bailrigg bus station. Car parking is arranged in cul-de-sacs running off the peripheral road.
Construction of the Bailrigg campus began in November 1965, with the first building being completed a year later. The first on-campus student residences opened in 1968 . Alexandra Square is the university's main plaza. Named after the first chancellor, HRH Princess Alexandra, it's situated at the centre of the original campus and contains the library in the southwest corner, designed in 1964 by Tom Mellor and Partners, the first phase opening in September 1966, the second in July 1968 and the third in January 1971 . The library was extended in 1997 and in 1998 the Ruskin Library designed by Sir Richard MacCormac was opened. On the west side of the square is University House as well as various banks and shops. To the southeast of the square is the tallest building on campus - the fourteen storey Bowland tower which contains accommodation and disguises the boiler room chimney. One of the most distinctive of the Bailrigg buildings is the free-standing University Chaplaincy Centre. Opened on the 2nd May 1969, the architects were the Preston based firm 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 the spire. A plan existed to have a twin campus with another eight colleges to the east of the M6 motorway at Hazelrigg. this would have been linked to Bailrigg by a flyover. The plan was abandoned during the 1970's and the land sold during a period of financial difficulties.

Major Projects

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.

Southwest Campus

The university began expansion onto the lower slopes of Bailrigg with the development of new buildings for Graduate College in 1998. The is now part of southwest campus. Development continued with the construction of infolab 21 and Alexandra Park which now houses Lonsdale College, Cartmel College and the en-suite rooms of Pendle College.
The decision to expand onto what is now known as Southwest Campus was met with some protest for various reasons. Some of the complaints against the expansion were that it would drive up accommodation prices, both on and off campus. The site 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 The development of 'InfoLab 21' also met objections with the proposed building being described as a "Dalek Factory"(External Link

). Another concern related to the limited amount of new social space. The older accommodation sometimes consisted of approximately 15 students sharing communal bathrooms and kitchens. The communal kitchens were often a source of social interaction, while the new en-suite areas have fewer students per kitchen, and private bathrooms.

Services

The Bailrigg campus hosts a range of shops and services, allowing, if desired, for self-contained living, detached from the city. Services on campus include Bailrigg post office, Barclays Bank, NatWest Bank, a travel agent which sells rail and National Express tickets, a health centre, a pharmacy, a dental practice, an opticians. Shops on campus include a SPAR supermarket, LUSU Shop, LUSU Central, a charity shop, the proceeds of which go to Cancer Care and St. Johns Hospice, Waterstone's bookshop, a newsagents, a florists and Endsleigh insurance.

Food and Drink

Bailrigg hosts a large variety of Food Outlets: Lancaster Environment Centre 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 Wobbly burgers; 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 in the George Fox building; Spicy Hut, an Indian restaurant at the north end of campus. The campus also hosts ten bars, one for each college and one in the Great Hall Complex.

Cultural Venues

The Peter Scott Gallery

The Peter Scott Gallery is open to the public free of charge and presents a varied programme of temporary exhibitions. The gallery is located on the Bailrigg campus and houses the University's international art collection, which includes Japanese and Chinese art, antiquities, works by twentieth century British artists including works by artists from the St Ives School, Sir Terry Frost, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Barbara Hepworth and William Scott. Among other British artists whose work is represented are Norman Adams, Patrick Caulfield, Elizabeth Frink, Kenneth Martin and Winifred Nicholson. Within the last fifteen years works by Andy Goldsworthy, Peter Howson and Albert Irvin have been acquired. The university collection also includes prints by significant European artists such as Dürer, Miró, Ernst and Vasarely.The gallery also holds the most significant collection of Royal Lancastrian ceramics in Britain, which is on permanent display in the John Chambers Ceramics Room.

The Nuffield Theatre

The Nuffield Theatre is a versatile black-box theatre located at the north end of the campus. It has has a long and respected tradition of staging and commissioning experimental performance from across the UK and abroad from contemporary theatre and avant garde to full student-written plays. Many of the most important performance makers of the last 30 years have shown their work here. Supporting a range of emergent and experimental practice through its New Works programme and its Emerging Artists scheme, the Nuffield forms the prime site for Theatre Studies student engagement with the creation, viewing and critique of contemporary performance.

The Ruskin Library

The University is home to the Ruskin Library which houses archive material related to the English poet, author and artist John Ruskin. It is open to the public, although only a small part of the collection is on public display at once. The building was constructed in 1997 by architect Richard MacCormac. 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.

The Great Hall

The Great Hall is situated at the far north end of the campus and since its construction has remained largely unchanged to. The design of the Hall was a compromise because it had to fill a variety of functions ranging from the staging of concerts, dances to exams and degree ceremonies. During the early days of the university, there used to be student meetings in the building. The hall also played host to a number of popular bands until the student population got too big and concerts became a fire hazard. Bands such as Pink Floyd, Bob Geldof and Eric Clapton played in the Hall before the construction of the Sugar House. The Great Hall is the venue for The Lancaster International Concerts Series which presents an internationally recognised programme of visiting orchestras, soloists, and ensembles, as well as opera, and events for young people.

Clubs and Societies

There are many different clubs and societies operating within the University of Lancaster. Common areas include sports, hobbies, politics and religion. There are several fairs during the freshers period in which various clubs and societies promote themselves.
There is a huge range of interests offered by clubs and societies. For example, languages, nationalities, wargames, arts based including writing, dancing, anime and roleplaying and many more. If society covering a particular subject doesn't exist there's usually a mechanism by which it can be created. Bailrigg FM is the student radio station and Lancaster University Cinema

is the student union's on-campus cinema. It was founded in 1965 as the Film Society, changing its name in May 2004. It is based in Bowland College Lecture Theatre.

Sport

Every summer term the students take part in the Roses Tournament against the University of York. The venue of the event alternates between Bailrigg and Heslington campuses. As of 2007, both Lancaster and York have won the tournament 21 times, with 1 tie. Other sporting activities are focused on inter-college competition rather than on national leagues. The colleges compete for the Carter Shield and the George Wyatt Cup. In 2004 the Founder's Trophy was played for the first time between the university's two founding colleges, Bowland and Lonsdale.
There is also a wide range of religious based societies and places of worship within the University. Lancaster University Chaplaincy Centre is located at the north end of campus and the mosque and Islamic Prayer Room also open to Non-Muslims is located near InfoLab21. There are Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist and Bahá'í societies which hold regular events and meetings.

The Lancaster University Students' Union

The Lancaster University Students' Union (LUSU) is the representative body of students at the University of Lancaster. Unusually, there's no main Union building - instead the union is organised through the eight college JCRs, each of which has its own social venues and meeting spaces. The union is however allocated an administration building by the university. Scan is the student union's newspaper. LUSU 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.

NHS Hospitals

University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust The Centre for Medical Education was established as the co-ordinating unit for all medical and health-related activity across The University of Lancaster. It is home to the collaborative venture with The University of Liverpool, the University of Central Lancashire and the University of Cumbria to establish undergraduate medical education in North Lancashire and Cumbria.

Notable academic staff

Peter Checkland - Emeritus Professor, the developer of soft systems methodology (SSM) in the field of systems thinking.

Michael Dillon - Professor of Politics, author of Politics of Security

Alan Dix is a Professor in the Computing department

John Leach lecturer in AI with Computing and Psychology who has presented television programmes on survival psychology (External Link

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.(External Link

)

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.(External Link

) 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.

Jeffrey Richards - Professor of Cultural History and expert on British popular culture.

Norman Sherry - Professor of English, 1970-1983. Expert on Graham Greene.

Prof David Allsop Professor of Biomedicine and active supporter of the international "sleeves up" campaign.

Ninian Smart - Foundation Professor of Religious Studies, 1967-1982.

Lucy Suchman - Professor of Sociology, key contributor to research into human-computer interaction (HCI). Awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science in 2002.

Stephen Taylor - Professor of Finance. World leader in Financial Econometrics.

John Urry FRSA is a Professor of Sociology, noted for his work on tourism, mobility and compleity

John Law - Professor of Sociology, key proponent of actor-network theory.

Notable alumni

College is shown in parentheses, where known.

League Tables and Rankings

In April 2008, Lancaster was ranked 10th in the UK in the Independent Good University Guide 2009. . In 2007 the The Sunday Times named Lancaster as the top university in the Northwest. Lancaster University Management School is, along with London Business School one of only two 6* Management Schools in the UK. Typical offers, according to The Independent, range from 260 points to 360 points.

Notable Achievement

The physics department has broken numerous world records for the lowest maintainable temperature ever reached.

Governance

The Visitor

The Visitor of the University of Lancaster is Her Majesty The Queen. The Visitor is the final arbiter of any dispute within the University, except in those areas where legislation has removed this to the law courts or other ombudsmen. Student complaints and appeals were heard by the Visitor until the Higher Education Act 2004 came into force. All student complaints are now heard by the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education.

The Court

The Court serves as a mechanism for the University’s accountability to the wider community and to stakeholders, making sure that the University is well managed, properly governed and responsive to public and local interests and concerns. It is made up of mainly lay members. The Court consists of the following persons, namely:- Ex Officio Members

The Chancellor

The Pro-Chancellor

The Deputy Pro-Chancellors

The Vice-Chancellor

The Pro-Vice-Chancellors

All other members of the Senate

All other members of the University Council

The members of the Council of the Students’ Union

The heads of the associated colleges of the University

The Vice-Chancellor of the County Palatine of Lancaster

The Clerk of the Council of the Duchy of Lancaster

The Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire

The High Sheriff of Lancashire

The Constable of Lancaster Castle

The Bishop of Blackburn

The Bishop Suffragan of Lancaster

The Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lancaster,

The Mayor of the City of Lancaster

The CEO of Lancaster City Council,

The Chairperson of Lancashire County Council

The CEO of Lancashire County Council

The Chair of the Education Committee of Lancashire County Council

The Chief Education Officer of Lancashire County Council

The MPs for the constituencies wholly within Lancashire

The Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man,

The Bishop of Sodor and Man

The Lord Lieutenant of Cumbria

The High Sheriff of Cumbria

The Bishop of Carlisle

The Chairperson of Cumbria County Council

The CEO of Cumbria County Council

The Chair of the Education Committee of Cumbria County Council

The Chief Education Officer of Cumbria County Council

The MPs for the constituencies wholly within Cumbria Appointed Members:

4 persons appointed by the Privy Council

2 officers of the University, not members of the Senate, appointed by the College Syndicates

20 Graduates of the University appointed by the Senate

1 person appointed by each trade union recognised by the University

1 person appointed by each of the Senates or Governing Bodies of such universities within the North-West or North as the Council may from time to time determine

1 person appointed by the House of Keys of the Isle of Man

1 person appointed by Lancashire County Council

1 person appointed by the City of Lancaster council

1 person appointed by Cumbria County Council

1 person appointed by the City of Lancaster council

1 person appointed by each of the district councils of the counties represented

Heads of Schools or of Colleges of Further Education as may be appointed by the Council

1 person appointed by each of such learned or professional societies or bodies as the Council may from time to time determine

1 person appointed by each of such Chambers of Commerce, Trades and Labour Councils, Trade Unions, Associations of Employers or of Firms, other Associations, Societies, Clubs, and other similar organisations as the Council may from time to time determine

1 person appointed by each of the major world religions as the Council may determine

The Council

The Council is the governing body of the University, constituting of mainly lay members along with representatives of staff and students. It is responsible for the proper management and financial solvency of the University, with major policy decisions and corporate strategy being subject to its approval.
The Council consists of the following persons:
Ex Officio Members:

The Pro-Chancellor.

The Vice-Chancellor.

The President of the Students’ Union. Appointed Members:

5 officers of the University appointed by the Senate

1 officer of the University appointed by the non-academic staff of the University

1 student of the University appointed by the Students’ Union

1 Lancaster City Councillor apppointed by the Lancaster City Couincil

11 lay persons appointed by the Council on the recommendation of the Nominations Committee

The Senate

The Senate is the principal academic authority of the University. It oversees academic management and sets strategy and priorities, including the curriculum and maintenance of standards.
The Senate consists of the following persons, namely:
Ex Officio Members:

The Vice-Chancellor

The Pro-Vice-Chancellors

The Principals of Colleges

The Faculty Deans

The Associate Deans of the Faculties

The Heads of Departments

The Librarian

The President of the Students’ Union

The Education and Welfare Officer of the Students’ Union

The Director of the Graduate School

The Director of Undergraduate Studies

The Director of the School of Lifelong Learning and Widening Participation

The Director of Regional Outreach

Two of the Heads of the Associated Institutions of the University

The Head of CETAD

The Heads of institutes and centres recognised by the Senate as equivalent to an academic department. Elected and Appointed Members:

9 persons - 1 appointed by and from the Syndicate of each College

3 persons - 1 appointed by and from each Faculty

9 students, not ex officio members of the Senate

2 non-academic staff of the University elected by employees of the same category Co-opted Members:

Members or officers of the University who may be co-opted by the Senate, to a number not exceeding 7. If at any time the number of members of the Senate who are neither professors nor students falls below three-tenths of the total number of members, the Senate shall co-opt additional members of the University engaged in teaching or research, who shall be neither professors nor students, the number of such co-options being the minimum necessary to cause the ratio of those who are neither professors nor students to the total number of members to cease to be below three-tenths.Further Information

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