Thames Valley University

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Thames Valley University


Established	1990 (as the Polytechnic of West London)
Type	Public
Chancellor	Lord Karan Bilimoria
Vice-Chancellor	Professor Geoff Crispin
Students	52,890^[1]
Undergraduates	17,935^[1]
Postgraduates	1,990^[1]
Location	Ealing, Reading and Slough, UK
Further education	32,965^[1]
Website	http://www.tvu.ac.uk/

Thames Valley University (TVU) is a British university based on campuses in Slough, Reading and Ealing, all in the Thames Valley area west of London.

1 History
2 Organisation
3 Controversy
4 Notable alumni
5 External link
6 See also
7 References

[edit] History

Originally founded in 1860 as Lady Byron School, the former Ealing College of Higher Education became a university in 1992, merging with Slough Technical College and the London College of Music, which relocated from central London.

In 2004, TVU (then based at Ealing and Slough) merged with Reading College and School of Arts & Design to form a university that is very large by UK standards; since then a major rebranding has taken place. As a university, TVU is unconventional. It appeals almost exclusively to a West London and Thames Valley student body, with many students commuting from home. It offers a variety of professional training courses unavailable elsewhere. Some 45% of students come from non-white ethnic groups, and 60% study part-time (Guardian 2006).

[edit] Organisation

TVU currently comprises four Faculties: the Faculty of the Arts (FOTA), formerly the London College of Music and Media; the Faculty of Professional Studies; the Faculty of Health and Human Sciences; and Technology. There is also a 14-19 Academy, based at Reading and structured as a department of the University,^[2] offering predominantly GCSE and A level courses. Finally, the Graduate School^[3] (based in Ealing) co-ordinates and provides support to research activities^[4] and research degree courses.

All 45,000 of the university's students are represented by Thames Valley University Students' Union.

[edit] Controversy

The University has weathered several storms in its short life. In the mid-1990s its high-profile Vice-Chancellor, Mike Fitzgerald, ushered through a new networked "New Learning Environment" for undergraduate students, involving a shift to online delivery and asessment. The NLE did not last in that form, and in 1998 Fitzgerald resigned following a negative Quality Assurance Agency report (QAA 1998) that cited serious management failures in the delivery of this model (Webster 2000).

By 2003 the QAA report on the University had returned a much more positive verdict [1], repeated in 2005 ^[5]. The NLE has now become a VLE (virtual learning environment) with a "blended e-learning" approach to teaching. In 2006 admissions were down and the University has consistently struggled to meet financial targets. Lower admissions in 2006 were evident across the HE sector following the introduction of tuition fees^[6]

[edit] Notable alumni

Jason Kay — musician, member of Jamiroquai
Freddie Mercury — musician, member of Queen
Ray Davies — musician, member of The Kinks
Ron Wood — musician, member of The Rolling Stones,The Faces
Peter Townshend — musician, member of The Who
Robert Voegeli — American musician, member of The Goldhawks, Panic
Grant Stoddard - author
Matt Tong - musician, member of Bloc Party
Former staff include Prof. Tim Lang of City University, a national expert on food issues, who was the UK's first Professor of Food Policy at TVU from 1994-2002.

[edit] External link

TVU website

[edit] See also

Ealing Art College

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Table 0a - All students by institution, mode of study, level of study, gender and domicile 2005/06. Higher Education Statistics Agency online statistics. Retrieved on March 28, 2007.
^ TVU: Sixth Form Academy. Retrieved on March 15, 2007.
^ TVU: Graduate School. Retrieved on March 27, 2007.
^ TVU: Research. Retrieved on March 27, 2007.
^ http://www.qaa.ac.uk/reviews/reports/institutional/ThamesValley06/findings.asp
^ Guardian. Retrieved on March 28, 2007.

QAA (1998). Special Review of Thames Valley University. The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, 9/11/1998.
University profiles: Thames Valley University. The Guardian (2006-10-10). Retrieved on March 15, 2007.
Webster, Ray; Herrmann, A and Kulski, M M (eds.). Integrating hard and soft technologies in HE: The new learning environment at Thames Valley University. Flexible Futures in Tertiary Teaching: Proceedings of the 9th Annual Teaching Learning Forum, 2-4 February 2000. Perth: Curtin University of Technology. Retrieved on March 15, 2007.