University of Hertfordshire

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University of Hertfordshire


Motto	Building Futures
Established	1952 Polytechnic College 1992 University status
Type	Public
Chancellor	Lord Salisbury
Vice-Chancellor	Tim Wilson
Students	23,690^[1]
Undergraduates	18,540^[1]
Postgraduates	4,490^[1]
Other students	665^[1]
Location	Hatfield, England, UK
Campus	Urbanlink
Affiliations	Alliance of Non-Aligned Universities, Association of Commonwealth Universities
Website	http://www.herts.ac.uk/

The University of Hertfordshire is a modern university based largely in Hatfield, in the county of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom, from which the university takes its name. It has more than 23,000 students.

1 History
2 Faculties
3 UH Racing
4 UH Key Developments
5 Awards
6 Rankings
7 Professional Accreditation
8 Academic Dress
9 See also
10 References
11 Bibliography
12 External links
- 12.1 Academic Dress
- 12.2 Maps

[edit] History

In 1951, the de Havilland company gave land in Hatfield adjoining the A1 to Hertfordshire County Council for educational use in perpetuity; the Council used this to build and operate Hatfield Technical College, which trained aerospace engineers for Hatfield's then-dominant aerospace industry. In 1967 it became an early polytechnic. With the passage of the Further and Higher Education Act, 1992, the institution gained university status and became self-governing rather than controlled by the county council.

There are three campuses of University of Hertfordshire.

College Lane Campus.
De Havilland Campus, also a Saracens training ground [1]
St Albans Campus

The main site of the university remains the original technical college buildings in Hatfield, though the site has had many new buildings added since. Notable among these is the Learning Resources Centre, a combined library and computer centre which is the largest university building of its kind in Britain. Computer science, engineering, and natural sciences are here, along with halls of residence including Telford Court, and the Roberts Way student village.

College Lane Campus, Main Building

Innovation Centre, College Lane Campus

Weston Auditorium, De Havilland Campus

Sports Complex, De Havilland Campus

Learning Resource Centre, De Havilland Campus

Learning Resource Centre, College Lane Campus

Hall of Residence, College Lane Campus

Fern Hall, College Lane Campus

Nearby in Hatfield is the de Havilland campus, built on a former BAe site. The Business School and the faculty of Humanities and Education are housed here, along with another library. The law faculty is based in St Albans, conveniently for the law courts. There were formerly campuses in Watford (Wall Hall) and Hertford (Balls Park), but these were closed when the de Havilland campus opened. A very small site in Bayfordbury houses the university's telescopes and the biology plus geography field station. The University has particular research strengths in History, Engineering, Computer Science, Astrophysics, Philosophy and Nursing.

As the town of Hatfield lacks a very active nightlife, the University of Hertfordshire Student's Union puts on regular events at the Hatfield campus. These often take place in the Union's Hutton Hall or the peculiarly shaped building commonly known as the "Elehouse", named due to its original architecture being similar to the elephant house at London Zoo (built by Sir Hugh Maxwell Casson (1910-1999)).

It is likely that the Medschool campus will be built on the site of the former Hatfield Aerodrome, and where the de Havilland campus is also situated.

The university is seeking to set up a campus in China, where pupils will be taught in English and following English-designed courses.

They are also seeking to set up a wine school in China. This promises to be the only one set up by a University from the UK.

[edit] Faculties

Hertfordshire was described as "the flagship of the former polys" by the Independent in 2002. [2] As a polytechnic, it was strong in aerospace engineering and computer science. More recently, it has built up its strengths in other areas such as pharmacology, history, geography and astrophysics. Entry requirements have been rising in recent years.

The university has six faculties:

Faculty for the Creative and Cultural Industries (formerly Art & Design)
The Business School
Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences
Faculty of Health and Human Sciences
Humanities, Law and Education
Inter-disciplinary Studies

(Schools of Study)

Hertfordshire was one of the first universities in the country to develop a Paramedic Science degree. They are now also providing a Critical Care Paramedic course and an Emergency Care Practitioner course.

[edit] UH Racing

UH Racing's car in the class 1-200 event FSUK 2006

The University of Hertfordshire has one of the most successful Formula Student teams in the World. UH Racing has competed in many countries and has won many awards.

[edit] UH Key Developments

The University of Hertfordshire has invested £200 million over the last ten years developing world class facilities.
The 2003/04 academic year saw the opening of the £120m de Havilland campus in Hatfield complimenting the existing College Lane site, providing a 21st century environment for teaching and learning.
The multi-award winning, Learning Resources Centre - the largest in the UK - on the College Lane campus with similar high standard facilities on de Havilland. Both are open 24 hours a day, 5 days a week with long hours on weekends. They provide over 2,600 study places.
StudyNet, a Managed Learning Environment, or MLE for short, which provides a university wide set of systems and tools for educational delivery. The system allows learning, assessment and interaction to take place in a structured and managed way, fully integrated into and linking all university processes and systems. Facilities include access to email, discussion groups, module materials and assignments as well as interfacing through individual profiles to all appropriate university systems and information about student services, administrative functions and social activities.
The new Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Postgraduate Medical School was launched in June 2005 to enhance medical provision in the region.
The £15m Hertfordshire Sports Village has some of the best university-based sporting and fitness facilities in the country on the de Havilland campus.
The £4.5m three-storey Innovation Centre, opened in 2003, providing 800 square metres of office space. It provides facilities for spin-out companies from across the University as well as start-ups.
The University owns its very own bus network entitled Uno, that stretches right across Hertfordshire and into North-West London. Each route runs through the main College Lane campus at some point, and many others serve the De Havilland campus. It enables University staff and students access to the University's campuses without the need for a car. The general public may also Uno's buses, as many of Uno's routes are useful (staff and students are entitled to a discount).
The University of Hertfordshire School of Law, is increasingly becoming recognised as one of the country's top Law Schools from a New University (post-1992). This is due to the School of Law's success in external mooting competitions, and the amount of graduates successfully entering the legal profession. In October 2005, the School of Law established its own pro bono Law Clinic which provides legal advice to the general public as well as running Street Law projects in the local and regional community to schools, colleges as well as other community groups sych as the Women's Refuge. The Clinic was formally opened in June 2006 by Lord Justice Auld who presented a talk entitled 'Access to Justice via Pro Bono' [3].

[edit] Awards

Queen's Award for Industry

On 1 July 2004, the University of Hertfordshire was presented with the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise: International Trade in recognition of outstanding achievement. The University received a special message of congratulations from the Queen, and the Vice-Chancellor and International Office staff also attended a special reception at Buckingham Palace.

Award for Industry

A Centre for Excellence

In 2004 the University of Hertfordshire was awarded £4.5M by the Higher Education Funding Council for England to establish a Centre for Excellence in Blended Learning. This prestigious award enables the university to establish its profile as a leading institution combining established ways of learning and teaching with the opportunities offered by technology to ensure students have the best possible learning experience. The Blended Learning Unit

Fair Trade University

In March 2005, University of Hertfordshire was officially certified as a Fair trade university.

Fair Trade News

National Teaching Fellowships

Three members of staff have achieved lifelong Fellowship awards as outstanding teachers, as part of the National Teaching Fellowship Scheme introduced in 2000 by the Higher Education Funding Council for England and the Department for Employment and Learning in Northern Ireland.

e-Tutor of the Year

One of the engineering staff at the University of Hertfordshire successfully won the title e-Tutor of the Year in an annual national competition, launched in 2002 by the Higher Education Academy and the Times Higher Education Supplement.

[edit] Rankings

[edit] Professional Accreditation

The Royal Aeronautical Society.
The British Computer Society
The Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
The Engineering Council.
The Institution of Electrical Engineers.
The Institute of Mathematics and its Applications.
The College of Radiographers.
The Health Professions Council.
The General Social Care Council.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council.
The British Psychological Society.
The Institute of Health Care Development.
The Law Society.
The Institute of Biomedical Science.
The Society of Sports Therapists.
The Arts Therapists Board.
The CFA® Institute.

[edit] Academic Dress

The University of Hertfordshire prescribes academic costume for its members. Both dress and undress are prescribed, though only dress is used in practice - for example, at the graduation ceremonies, held in St Alban's cathedral.

The academic dress of bachelors of the university is a black stuff gown, with facings and long open sleeves gathered to a point at the elbow with a button. The master's gown is similar, but with spade sleeves. With these, on formal occasions such as graduations, is worn a hood of grey or white silk and stuff. In dress, grey hoods are worn by holders of diplomas below bachelor's level, and white hoods by bachelors. Masters add a border of purple silk. Because of the university's emphasis on interdisciplinary studies, there is no distinction between the academic dress of the various faculties.

In dress, holders of initial doctorates wear red gowns with purple facings; higher doctorates have purple gowns with white facings. In undress all doctors wear master's gowns. The university is unusual among former polytechnics in also prescribing academic dress for undergraduates - the black stuff bachelor's gown with no hood - although, again, this is not used in practice.