University of Birmingham

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University of Birmingham
University of Birmingham Coat of Arms
Motto Per Ardua Ad Alta
Through hard work,
great heights are achieved
Established 1900
Type Public
Chancellor Sir Dominic Cadbury
Vice-Chancellor Professor Michael Sterling
Students 27,000 total
Location Birmingham, United Kingdom
Colours
                                 
Website www.bham.ac.uk

The University of Birmingham is an English university in the city of Birmingham. It was founded in 1900 as a successor to Mason Science College, and is thus the earliest of the so-called "red brick" universities. A major research-led institution, it currently has nearly 17,000 undergraduate and 7,000 postgraduate students.

Contents

[edit] About the university

The university is currently the 4th most popular university in the UK—in terms of number of applications per place—with courses such as law, medicine, English and American Studies, in particular, being heavily oversubscribed. It also has some of the best academic departments in the country, indeed the world, and has produced a number of leading academics and other notables.

Its main campus, in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham, is arranged around the 100-meter-high Chamberlain clock tower (nicknamed "Old Joe") commemorating Joseph Chamberlain, the University's first Chancellor. The Great Hall of the University is in the domed Aston Webb Building, which is named after one of its architects (the other was Ingress Bell).

The Aston Webb building, Chancellor's Court.
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The Aston Webb building, Chancellor's Court.

The University's Selly Oak campus is a short distance to the south of the main campus. It was the home of a federation of nine higher education colleges, mainly focused on theology and education, which were integrated into the University for teaching purposes in 1999. Among these was Westhill College (later the University of Birmingham, Westhill) which merged with the University's School of Education in 2001. On this campus the UK daytime television show Doctors is filmed. The University also operates on several other sites in the city.

Due to Birmingham's role as a centre of light engineering, the University traditionally had a special focus on science, engineering and commerce, as well as coal mining. It now teaches a full range of academic subjects and has five-star rating for teaching and research in several departments; additionally, it is widely regarded as making a prominent contribution to cancer studies.

The University of Birmingham operates the Lapworth Museum of Geology in the Aston Webb Building in Edgbaston. It is named after Charles Lapworth, a geologist who worked at Mason Science College.

[edit] History of the university

The earliest beginnings of the University can be traced back to the University of Birmingham Medical School which began life through the work of William Sands Cox in his aim of a Medical School along strictly Christian lines, unlike the London medical schools. The medical school was founded in 1828 but Cox began teaching in December 1825. [1]

On 23 February 1875, Sir Josiah Mason, the Birmingham industrialist and philanthropist, who made his fortune in making key rings, pens, pen nibs and electroplating, founded Mason Science College. It was this institution that would eventually form the nucleus of the University of Birmingham.

In 1882 their Departments of Chemistry, Botany and Physiology were transferred to Mason Science College, soon followed by the Departments of Physics and Comparative Anatomy. The transfer of the Medical School to Mason Science College gave considerable impetus to the growing importance of that College, and in 1896, a move to incorporate it as a University College was made. As the result of the Mason University College Act 1897 it became incorporated as Mason University College on 1 January 1898, with the Right Honourable Joseph Chamberlain MP becoming the President of its Court of Governors.

It was largely due to Chamberlain's tireless enthusiasm that the University was granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria on 24 March 1900. The Calthorpe family offered twenty-five acres (10 hectares) of land on the Bournbrook side of their estate in July. The Court of Governors received the Birmingham University Act 1900, which put the Royal Charter into effect, on 31 May. The transfer of Mason University College to the new University of Birmingham, with Chamberlain as its first Chancellor and Sir Oliver Lodge as the first Principal, was complete. The University Charter of 1900 also included provision for a Faculty of Commerce, as was appropriate for a university itself founded by industrialists and based in a city with enormous business wealth. Consequently, the faculty, the first of its kind in Britain, was founded by Sir William Ashley in 1901, who from 1902 until 1923 served as first Professor of Commerce and Dean of the Faculty. In 1963, the University of Birmingham helped in the establishment of the faculty of medicine at the University of Rhodesia, now the University of Zimbabwe (UZ). UZ is now independent, however student exchange programs persist.

Birmingham also supported the creation of Keele (formerly University College of North Staffordshire) and Warwick University under the Chancellorship of Aitken who acted as 'Godfather to the University of Warwick' (Ives, 2000, p.342). The initial plan was for a university college at Coventry attached to Birmingham but Aitken advised an independent initiative to the University Grants Committee (Ives, 2000, p.343).

[edit] University league tables

Birmingham University has been ranked 33rd out of 109 higher education institutions in The Times newspaper’s 2007 Good University Guide, and 16th in the Guardian's 2006 rankings. It is ranked fifth nationally for Research Excellence.

Birmingham is rated equal 90th best university in the world in the Institute of Higher Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University (IHE-SJTU) Academic Ranking of World Universities 2006.[2] In October 2006 the university was also ranked equal 90th best in the world by The Times Higher Education Supplement.

Year Times Ranking Guardian Ranking
2007 33/109 16/122
2006 33/109 16/122
2005 23/119 29/122
2004 23/119 22/109
Year World Ranking
2006 90/500
2005 98/500

[edit] Architecture of the University

"Old Joe", the University Clock Tower.
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"Old Joe", the University Clock Tower.

The University occupies a site some 3 miles south-west of Birmingham city centre. The original 25 acre site was given to the university in 1900 by Lord Calthorpe. The original buildings on the Edgbaston site were built at the turn of the twentieth century. The original semi-circle of red-brick domed buildings form Chancellor's Court, at the centre of which stands the clock tower and which sit on a 30 ft (9.1m) drop so the original architects placed their buildings on two tiers with a 16 ft drop between them.

The grand buildings were an outcome of the £50,000 given by steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie to establish a "first class modern scientific college" on the model of Cornell University.

Affectionately known as 'Old Joe', as it is dedicated to the University's first chancellor Joseph Chamberlain, the design of the clock tower draws its inspiration from the that of the Torre del Mangia, the medieval clock tower forming part of the Town Hall in Siena, Italy and is made from Accrington Red Brick. When it was built it was desribed as 'the intellectual beacon of the Midlands' by the Birmingham Post. The clock tower was Birmingham's tallest building from the date of its construction in 1908 until 1969 and is still the third highest in the city.

The campus has a wide diversity in architectural types and architects. "What makes Birmingham so exceptional among the Red Brick universities is the deployment of so many other major Modernist practices: only Oxford and Cambridge boast greater selections" (Foster, 2005, p.242-3).

The statue on horseback fronting the entrance to the university and Barber Institute is a 1722 statue of George I rescued from Dublin in 1937. This was saved by Bodkin, a director of the National Gallery of Ireland and first director of the Barber Institute. The statue was commissioned by the Dublin Corporation from the Flemish sculptor Van Nost (Ives, 2000, p.230).

[edit] Chancellors of the University

[edit] Principal officers of the university

[edit] Guild of Students

Main article: University of Birmingham Guild of Students
  • The Birmingham University Guild of Students was the first purpose-built Students' Union in the country when it was built in 1930 (architect Holland W. Hobbiss), and was a founding member of the National Union of Students.
  • The Guild of Students has a radio station called Burn FM which broadcasts twice a year on FM using Restricted Service Licences; a television station, GTV (Guild Television) and a weekly newspaper called Redbrick. A new literary magazine has been published this year called Birmingham University Literary Magazine

[edit] University Sport Birmingham

Birmingham has many successful sports teams and has been consistently ranked in the top three of the BUSA (British Universities Sport Association) league table. [1] The recently re-branded University Sport Birmingham (USB) offers a wide range of competitive and participation sports, which is utilised by the student and local population of Birmingham.

Alongside fitness classes such as yoga and aerobics, USB offers over 40 different sport teams, including rowing, football, rugby, field hockey, American football, ice hockey (Birmingham Eagles), triathlon and many more. The wide selection has ensured the university has remained one of the country's most active and colourful campuses with over 2000 students participating in sport.

[edit] Off-campus establishments

[edit] Other items of interest

The University:

Facts about the clock in the "Old Joe", the Chamberlain Tower.

  • The four dials are each 17 ft. in diameter.
  • The minute hand is 10 and a half ft. long.
  • At its widest part the hour hand is 2 ft. across.
  • The hands are made out of sheet copper.
  • The frame is made of one solid casting and weighs half a ton.
  • The pendulum is 15 ft. long.
  • The hour bells weigh more than 6 tons.
  • The whole weight of the clock and bells exceeds 20 tons.
  • At 100m tall it is still one of the tallest buildings in Birmingham and one of the top 50 tallest in the UK [3]
  • It has been suggested that the clock tower provided inspiration for JRR Tolkien’s character Sauron- an all seeing eye on a large tower. Although there is no definitive proof of this, Tolkien lived around Birmingham in his youth when the tower could always be seen, even at night due to the luminous clock face.

[edit] Branding

The University's crest from the 1980s until 2005
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The University's crest from the 1980s until 2005

In 2005 the University began rebranding itself as a less conservative institution, changing the logo from the crest introduced in the 1980s. The new logo is, in fact, more in line with the crest as it appears on the University's original Royal Charter.

As it stands, the University now has two logos to represent a dual image. After a £320,000 research project into the image of the University, it was decided that the University was viewed as an older institution by companies and potential investors and as such an updated image was required to redefine the University as being modern and up-to-date. The marketing brand makes use of the letters U and B to bracket key words and achievements associated with the University. A new "word marque", using the Baskerville font in honour of the Birmingham printer John Baskerville, is used as the primary logo when trying to attract both prospective investors and students. The crest, repainted to more closely resemble that on the original University charter, appears on degree certificates and academic documents. Much of the signage around the University remains unchanged as of early 2006, still bearing the 1980s crest, but there is a project taking place to introduce a new signage system around the University during the summer of 2006. The rebranding was not well received by many students and members of staff at the University, there having been little or no consultation.[4]

[edit] Alumni

A full list can be seen under

Main article: University of Birmingham alumni
.

[edit] References

Foster, A. (2005) Birmingham, Pevsner Architectural Guides, Yale University Press: London. ISBN 0-300-10731-5

Ives, E. (2000) The First Civic University: Birmingham, 1880-1980 - An Introductory History, University of Birmingham Press: Birmingham. ISBN 1-902459-07-5

  1. ^ The BUSA Championship Results 2005/2006 (July 6, 2006) BUSA

[edit] External links

Universities in the West Midlands

Aston | Birmingham | Coventry | Keele | Staffordshire | UCE Birmingham | Warwick | Wolverhampton | Worcester
Universitas 21
University of Auckland | University of Birmingham | University of British Columbia | University College Dublin | University of Edinburgh | Fudan University | University of Glasgow | University of Hong Kong | Korea University | Lund University | McGill University | University of Melbourne | Tec de Monterrey | University of New South Wales | University of Nottingham | Peking University | Shanghai Jiao Tong University | University of Queensland | National University of Singapore | University of Virginia
Russell Group
(of British research universities)
Birmingham | Bristol | Cambridge | Cardiff | Edinburgh | Glasgow | Imperial College London | King's College London | Leeds | Liverpool | London School of Economics | Manchester | Newcastle | Nottingham | Oxford | Queen's | Sheffield | Southampton | University College London | Warwick
Buildings in Birmingham, England
 Highrise (In height order): BT Tower | Holloway Circus Tower | Chamberlain Clock Tower | Alpha Tower | Orion Building | The Rotunda | NatWest Tower | Five Ways Tower | Centre City Tower | Hyatt Regency Hotel | 1 Snow Hill Plaza | Quayside Tower | Colmore Gate | The McLaren Building | Metropolitan House | Edgbaston House | Post & Mail Building | Jury's Inn Birmingham 

 Notable lowrise: 1-7 Constitution Hill | 17 & 19 Newhall Street | Birmingham Assay Office | Baskerville House | Central Library | Council House | Curzon Street railway station | Great Western Arcade | ICC | The Mailbox | Methodist Central Hall | Millennium Point | The Old Crown | Paradise Forum | Birmingham Proof House | Sarehole Mill | Symphony Hall | Town Hall | Victoria Law Courts 
 Major railway stations: Moor Street station | New Street station | Snow Hill station 
  Major complexes: Brindleyplace | Bull Ring, Birmingham | Pallasades Shopping Centre 
  Sports venues: Alexander Stadium | Edgbaston Cricket Ground | NIA | St. Andrews | Villa Park 
  Lists of buildings: List of tallest buildings and structures in Birmingham | List of Birmingham board schools | Listed buildings in Birmingham
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