University of Leicester

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University of Leicester


Motto	Ut Vitam Habeant (so that they may have life)
Established	1921
Type	Public
Chancellor	Sir Peter Williams
Vice-Chancellor	Professor Robert Burgess
Staff	3438
Students	16,160 ^[1]
Undergraduates	9,670 ^[1]
Postgraduates	6,495 ^[1]
Location	Leicester, UK
Campus	Urban parkland
Affiliations	1994 Group, AMBA, EUA, ACU, EMUA, INU
Website	http://www.le.ac.uk/

University of Leicester seen from Victoria Park - Left to right: the Department of Engineering, the Attenborough tower, the Charles Wilson building.

The University of Leicester is a leading research led university based in Leicester, England, with approximately eighteen thousand registered students - about ten thousand of them full-time students, and six thousand of them distance-learning students (the largest distance learning population of any UK university other than the Open University). The main campus is about a mile from the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park and Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College.

[edit] History

The University was founded as Leicestershire and Rutland College in 1918. The site for the University was donated by a local textile manufacturer, Thomas Fielding Johnson, in order to create a living memorial for those who lost their lives in World War I. This is reflected in the University's motto Ut Vitam Habeant — 'so that they may have life'. The central building, now known as the Fielding Johnson building and housing the University's administration offices and Faculty of Law, dates from 1837 and was formerly the Leicestershire and Rutland Lunatic Asylum.

Students were first admitted to the college in 1921. In 1927, after it became University College, Leicester, students sat the examinations for external degrees of the University of London. In 1957 the college was granted its Royal Charter, and has since then had the status of a University with the right to award its own degrees. The University won the first ever series of University Challenge, in 1963.

[edit] Organisation

The University is organised into five faculties.

Faculty of Medicine and Biological Sciences
Faculty of Arts
Faculty of Law
Faculty of Science
Faculty of Social Sciences (expanded in 2004 to include the Faculty of Education)

[edit] Academic Achievements

[edit] Science

The University of Leicester is one of the United Kingdoms major research universities. The University is world renowned for its scientific research groups, particularly in the areas of astrophysics, biochemistry and genetics. Genetic fingerprinting was developed at Leicester in 1985. It houses Europe's biggest academic centre for space research, in which space probes have been built, most notably the Mars Lander Beagle 2, which was built in collaboration with the Open University. A Leicester built instrument has been operating in space every year since 1967. Leicester Physicists (led by Professor Ken Pounds) were critical in proving a fundamental law of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity - that black holes exist and are common in the universe. It is a founding partner of the £52 million National Space Centre. In total Leicester has the highest research income of any non Russell Group institution in the UK. The University of Leicester is one of a small number of Universities to have won the prestigious Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher Education on more than one occasion: in 1994 for physics & astronomy and again in 2002 for genetics.

The campus - Fielding Johnson Building on the left, Ken Edwards building on the right.

[edit] Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Aside from its scientific achievement, the university also has a rich history in the arts. Its Sociology department has historically been an intellectual crucible, many of the country's most prominent sociologists have been students or teachers at Leicester. Literary connections include Kingsley Amis, who is believed to have partially based his Campus novel Lucky Jim on Leicester University. Amis is alleged to have been inspired to write the book when visiting his friend Phillip Larkin who was working at the university as a librarian at the time. Malcolm Bradbury also used Leicester as a basis for his satire on university life The History Man. More recently, popular novelist Adele Parks graduated from the university in the 1990's, and the university library now holds the writings of both Joe Orton and Sue Townsend.

The Centre for Mass Communication Research, now part of the Department of Media and Communications, is one of the longest established academic centres at Leicester, engaging in pioneering research in the 1970s and 80s and now specializing in Masters courses, as does the Department of Museum Studies, in terms of both campus-based and distance-learning MAs.

The School of Historical Studies at Leicester is, with 35 full time members of staff, including 11 Professors at current, one of the largest of any university in the country. It is has made considerable scholarly achievements in many areas of history, notably Urban History, English Local History, American Studies and Holocaust Studies: each one a centre of excellence in the School.

The Department of English is one of the UK’s leading providers of English at degree level, comprising 25 members of staff, including 8 Professors, and committed to offering the whole spectrum of English Studies from Contemporary Writing to Old English and language studies. The Centre for Victorian Studies is amongst the most distinguished academic centres in the country, and Malcolm Bradbury one of the Department's most famous alumni; he graduated with a First in English in 1953.

The Leicester Faculty of Law is also one of the country's top law schools. It maintains links with many top law firms, including the Magic Circle firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, who offer a one year scholarship to a Leicester student studying for the dual Law and French degree.

[edit] Teaching

The University is also held in high regard for the quality of its teaching. 19 subject areas have been graded as "Excellent" by the Quality Assurance Agency — including 14 successive scores of 22 points or above stretching back to 1998, six of which were maximum scores. Only one other UK university has a track record stretching back this far of consistently "excellent" scores. Leicester was ranked joint 1st in the UK in the 2005 and 2006 National Student Survey for teaching quality and overall satisfaction amongst mainstream English universities. Leicester is home to two prestigious national Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (in Genetics and Geographical Information Science) and plays an important role in a third (Physics). Over two thirds of subjects feature in the national top 10.

Leicester has been short listed for the award of University of the Year 2006 by the Times Higher Education Supplement. It was also short listed for the same award in 2005 and is the only university to have been short listed in consecutive years.

Entry to the university is competitive and grade requirements vary, depending on the course applied for. Offers are usually in the region of AAB to BBC at A level. The average amount of UCAS tariff points achieved by students on entry is 371, roughly equivalent to AAA at A2- Level.

[edit] Leicester Medical School

The university is home to a large medical school, Leicester Medical School, which opened in 1971. Leicester medical school was formally in partnership with the University of Warwick, and the Leicester-Warwick medical school proved to be a success in helping Leicester expand, and Warwick establish. The partnership ran the end of its course towards the end of 2006 and the medical schools became autonomous institutions within their respective universities.

[edit] League tables

Leicester is ranked 24th in the U.K by The Guardian University guide 2006 and 18th in The Times Good University Guide for 2007 [1]. The Guardian's league tables are compiled mainly on the basis of teaching data (staff/student ratio, job prospects, inclusiveness), and the Times's also include data on research ratings and the percentage of students who complete a degree.

[edit] Notable architecture

The Engineering Building, designed by James Stirling

The University's Engineering Building was the first major building by important British architect James Stirling. It comprises workshops and laboratories at ground level, and a tower containing offices and lecture theatres. It was completed in 1963 and is notable for the way in which its external form reflects its internal functions. The very compact campus contains a wide range of twentieth century architecture, though the oldest building, the Fielding Johnson building, dates from 1837. The Attenborough Tower houses the tallest working paternoster in the UK.

[edit] The future of the University

The university is currently undergoing a £300 million redevelopment. A new biomedical research building has already been constructed, along with the Henry Wellcome Building (School of Psychology).

The University Library is currently undergoing a substantial extension, which will double its size.

Student accommodations include 16 new pavilions and a redeveloped old hall, varying in size. On 1 October 2006, the university opened its new halls of residence located on Manor Road in Oadby. The new hall, named "New Hall" was built on the former site of Villiers Hall. It houses over 700 students in flats housing 4-5 students, each en suite with fully fitted kitchens. The new pavilions are named after villages and towns around Leicestershire. The pavilions are: Allexton, Barkby, Croft, Desford, Eaton, Foxton, Gumley, Huncote*, John O' Gaunt*, Kilby*, Leire, Medbourne, Nosley, Prestwold, Quorndon, Ragdale, and the old pavilion Spinney's House*. (* denotes self-catered flats.)

New Hall also houses a laundrette, large facilities building with bar/JCR, dining hall, kitchen, reception, two sets of toilets, four conference rooms and disabled access.

The 30-year plan is the largest in the university's history, expanding building space by 30% and student numbers from 19,000 to 25,000.

[edit] Library special collections

Christine and Paul Hatton were able to view examples from the rare books from the Hatton Topographical Library that their grandfather had donated to the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland College in 1920. This generous gift formed the nucleus of the University Library’s exceptional English local history collections.

Local history collections (for the Centre for English Local History), including:
- Thomas Hatton (1876 – 1943)'s collection. Born in Manchester, he began work as a junior clerk in a corset factory in Market Harborough and later moved to Leicester to set up his own boot manufacturing business. He also had interests in crossword promotion, greyhound racing and boxing (and on one trip to America was photographed with Laurel and Hardy, with all three of them wearing the trademark bowler hat), but his forté however was book collecting.
  
  Joe Orton, whose writings are contained in the University Library
  
  A discriminating collector who applied his professional knowledge as a boot manufacturer to his book collecting by pioneering the use of glazed goat skin as a binding material, over a period of ten years he gathered one of the finest private collections of topographical and local history books. When his interests moved from topographical to Dickensian material, he agreed to donate his nearly 2,000 local history books to what was then Leicester College.

The library also holds a number of collections containing items written by several famous writers, these include:

Joe Orton Collection. Joe Orton (1933-1967) was a Leicester-born playwright, the collection contains his manuscripts and correspondence.
Laura Riding Letters. The collected correspondence of the American poet and critic Laura Riding (1901-1991).
Sue Townsend Collection. The personal papers of Sue Townsend (born 1946). The collection contains Townsend's literary correspondence and notebooks detailing her works.

[edit] Facts and figures

From the 2004-2005 annual report[2]:

[edit] Students

18,005 Registered students

9,491 Undergraduate students
8,514 Postgraduate students (7,096 taught, 1,321 research)
5,962 Distance learning students
9,911 Full-time students (8,350 UK and EU, 1,561 other)

28.3% Faculty of Social Science (includes former Faculty of Education)
25.8% Faculty of Medicine and Biological Sciences
18.6% Faculty of Arts
17.1% Faculty of Science
10.3% Faculty of Law

[edit] Staff

709 Full-time academic staff
43 Part-time academic staff
415 Full-time research staff
68 Part-time research staff
336 Full-time academic-related staff
87 Part-time academic-related staff
860 Full-time support staff
920 Part-time support staff

[edit] Notable people

[edit] Chancellors

The Lord Adrian (1957–1971)
Alan Lloyd Hodgkin (1971–1984)
Sir George Porter (1984–1995)
Sir Michael Atiyah (1995–2005)
Sir Peter Williams (2005– )

To date, each of the former chancellors has had a University building named after him.

[edit] Notable academics

Khurshid Ahmad, Islamic Scholar
Isobel Armstrong, Scholar of Nineteenth-Century Poetry and Women's Writing
Graeme Barker, Disney Professor of Archaeology, University of Cambridge
Richard Bonney, Historian

Professor William George Hoskins - Pioneering Landscape Historian

Alan Bryman, Social Scientist
Chris Clarkson, prominent Criminal lawyer, specialising in Corporate Liability. Recently consulted the Government on reform proposals for corporate liability.
Philip Collins, Dickensian Scholar
Philip Cottrell, Economic and financial Historian
Heather Couper, Astronomer and Television Presenter
Nicholas J. Cull, US Historian
Gabriel Dover, Geneticist
Sarah Dromgoole, leading international figure in the realm of maritime law, especially marine underwater cultural heritage. Editor of Legal Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage: National and International Perspectives.
Eric Dunning, Sports Sociologist
Christopher Dyer, Medieval Historian
Norbert Elias, German Sociologist
Brian J. Ford, Scientist, Visiting Professor
G. S. Fraser, Scottish Poet
Anthony Giddens, prominent sociologist, taught social psychology at Leicester
Reuben Goodstein, Mathematician, proponent of Goodstein's theorem
Cosmo Graham, Public law and Competition law specialist. Member of the Competition Commission
Jan Grodecki OBE, Emeritus Professor and founder of the Law school, 1965-1983. Honorary Bencher of Lincoln's Inn
Jeffrey A. Hoffman, NASA astronaut and physicist
Richard Hoggart, Sociologist
W. G. Hoskins, (1931-1952) (1965-1968), local historian, author of The Making of the English Landscape
Norman Housley, Crusading historian

Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys - Inventor of Genetic Fingerprinting.

Sir Alec Jeffreys, geneticist, inventor of genetic fingerprinting
Hans Kornberg, Biochemist
Philip Larkin, Librarian and Poet
John McManners, Former Head of History dept, Regius Professor of History at the University of Oxford until retirement
Ken Pounds, Emeritus Professor of Physics, discovered black holes were common in the universe
Charles Rees, Organic Chemist
Lord Rees of Ludlow, The Astronomer Royal, is a visiting professor at Leicester
Clive Ruggles, Professor of Archaeoastronomy, believed to be the only such post in the world
J.B. Schneewind, Philosophy professor, Johns Hopkins University
Malcolm Shaw QC, The Sir Robert Jennings Professor of International Law, prominent International Lawyer & Jurist. Author of best selling book on International Law
Sami Zubaida, Political Scientist

[edit] Notable alumni

Numerous public figures in many diverse fields have been students at the University, including:

Pink Floyd's Iconic Dark Side of the Moon, designed by a former Leicester Student

Peter Atkins, physical chemist
David Blanchflower, Economist, Dartmouth College Professor
Malcolm Bradbury, author
Liam Donaldson, Chief Medical Officer
Lord Grocott, former MP, Captain of the Gentlemen-at-Arms
Pete McCarthy, writer, broadcaster, comedian
Michael Nicholson, journalist
J. H. Plumb, Historian of Eighteenth century Britain
C. P. Snow, author
Sir John Stevens, former Metropolitan Police Commissioner
John Sutherland, Guardian Columnist, Emeritus Professor of English Literature, University College London
Laurie Taylor, broadcaster, actor, sociologist
Jon Tickle, celebrity
Storm Thorgerson, Artist

Bryan R. Wilson, Reader Emeritus of Sociology at Oxford University.

Tony Underwood, England rugby union international
Professor Sir Alan Walters, Economist
Bryan R. Wilson, Oxford Sociologist
Ted Wragg , educationalist
Malik Zahoor Ahmad , Pakistan diplomat

[edit] The Attenboroughs

Two names commonly associated with the University of Leicester are Richard and David Attenborough. Their father Frederick Attenborough was Principal of the University College from 1932 until 1951. The brothers grew up on the campus (with their younger brother John), in a house which is currently home to the careers service (and is now near to the Attenborough tower, the tallest building on the campus and home to many of the arts and humanities departments). They were educated at the adjacent grammar school before attending the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the University of Cambridge respectively. Both have maintained links with the university - David Attenborough was made an honorary Doctor of Letters in 1970 and opened the Attenborough Arboretum in Knighton in 1997. In the same year, the Richard Attenborough Centre for Disability and the Arts was opened by Diana, Princess of Wales. Both brothers were made Distinguished Honorary Fellows of the University at the 13 July 2006 afternoon degree ceremony.