University of Plymouth

University of Plymouth

File:PlymouthUniWiki.JPG
Type	Public
Established	1992, from Polytechnic South West
Vice-Chancellor	Roland Levinsky
Students	30,000
Address	UoP, Drake Circus, Plymouth, PL4 8AA , Plymouth , UK
Campus	Urban
Website	www.plymouth.ac.uk
File:UniversityofPlymouth.jpg

The University of Plymouth is the largest university in the southwest of England, with over 30,000 students and is the 4th largest UK university based on student population. (Larger universities are London, Manchester, and Manchester Metropolitan respectively.) It has almost 3,000 staff (one of the largest employers in the southwest), and an annual income of around £110 million.

Plymouth is an up-and-coming 'Modern University' that is currently undergoing a great deal of development, including several new buildings and restructuring. The University jumped a highly impressive 33 places in The Guardian’s national university league tables published in May 2006- from 73rd place in 2005 to 40th place in 2006; the Times table, which unlike the Guardian's takes research performance into account, places it 55thand is billed as one of the top two modern universities in the UK. The Guardian describes the university as "forward thinking", as well as placing Plymouth in the coveted "top 20" for ten subjects including social work (5th), architecture, fine art and drama.

File:Plymouth uni.jpg

One of the University of Plymouth's newly renovated buildings in the City of Plymouth with the university logo on it

Undergraduate and postgraduate programmes are currently taught at campuses in Plymouth, Exeter, Exmouth. However the university's current policy is to centralise its campus activities in Plymouth. Many of the University's Faculty of Arts subjects (such as History, English, and Media Arts) have already moved to Plymouth. Subjects currently based at Exeter (such as Fine Art, Art History, Photography and 3-D Design) and Exmouth (such as Theatre & Performance) will be relocating to Plymouth in Autumn 2007. An exception to this trend is the university's extensive activities in education for the health professions; in addition many of its students are taught at Further Education Colleges throughout Devon, Cornwall and Somerset, such as Dartington College of Arts.

Portland Square Building, University of Plymouth, Plymouth Campus, UK

The University of Plymouth was previously (and unpopularly) known as Polytechnic South West between 1989-1992. Before that, its constituent bodies were known as Plymouth Polytechnic, Rolle College, and Seale-Hayne College. Designated as a university in 1992 along with the other former polytechnics, Plymouth has a reputation as one of the UK's leading new universities. In part because of its coastal location and strong maritime history, it is particularly renowned for its courses in maritime business, marine engineering, marine biology and ocean sciences. It also scores well in law, psychology, geographical sciences, computer science and art history. The university offers a course in "MediaLab Arts" (which recently changed name to "Digital Art and Technology"), a unique new media and computer science hybrid course.

Construction of the new Arts Complex on the Rowe Street building site at the Southern end of campus.

Jointly with the University of Exeter and the National Health Service in the region, the University runs the recently founded Peninsula Medical School. A new dental school has also been approved in 2006 and will open in 2007. A new £13 million building on the University of Plymouth's main campus provides teaching rooms, office space, a clinical skills laboratory and research facilities for the Plymouth-based activities of the School. Other investment in campus facilities includes a £30m arts complex, due to open in September 2007, a new £25m building for the Faculty of Education, which is relocating from Exmouth to the main campus in Plymouth in 2008, and an £8m extension and enhancement of library facilities.

The university is internationally renowned for its courses in shipping and logistics . In October 2005, The Sun national newspaper voted the University of Plymouth as having the most bizarre degree course in the country, the BSc (Hons) in Surf Science & Technology. Commonly known as surfing, this course is centred on surfing equipment design and surfing-related business, which is very popular in the southwest England region. Another possibly unique course is the BA in Business & Perfumery, whilst there is a renowned MSc in E-Commerce on offer.

Staff include Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher, who have written extensively on electoral systems, results and British politics and have regularly appeared on national television election programmes for both the BBC and ITV over the last 15 years. Dr. Roy Lowry who in August 2006 broke the world record for launching the most rockets at once and Dr. Iain Stewart who has hosted BBC documentaries like Journeys into the Ring of Fire and Journeys from the Centre of the Earth.

The University has its own students' union called UPSU.

Sport

The University has many active sport teams. These include:

• Sailing
• Ultimate
• Beach Volleyball
• Octopush/Underwater Hockey

External links

• University home page
• The Surfing Degree
• The Digital Art & Technology Course
• Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research (ICCMR)
• Centre for Research in Information Storage Technology (CRIST)
• Network Research Group (NRG)
• Faculty of Social Science and Business Home page
• Plymouth Business School Home page
• School of Law and Social Science Home page
• School of Geography Home page
• Social Research and Regeneration Unit (SRRU)
• Faculty of Social Science and Business News Page
• Faculty of Social Science and Business Events page