University of Portsmouth
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| Established | 1869 (Gained University status in 1992) |
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| Type | Public |
| Staff | 1,264 |
| Students | 19,155 |
| Location | Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK |
| Campus | Guildhall |
| Affiliations | EUA, The Channel Islands Universities Consortium |
| Website | www.port.ac.uk |
The University of Portsmouth is the only university in the historic city of Portsmouth, Hampshire. It is based on two main campuses, Guildhall and Langstone. Regarded as one of the stronger performing of the Post-1992 universities, it has become increasingly important as a centre of learning along with the University of Southampton in the South East of England. Recently, the two institutions have shown increasing levels of co-operation, for example by submitting in July 2005 a joint bid for £35 million pounds of funding towards a Dentistry school.
Portsmouth seems better placed than most Post-1992 universities to deal with the surge of applications encouraged by the government's target that 50% of those under-35 should experience Higher Education at some point in their life. Portsmouth has seen its applications for courses increasing, with a 67% year-on-year for the years 2001 - 2005. The University has a successful programme in encouraging wider access to Higher Education through its awarding winning "UP for It" scheme. From the 2006/7 academic year, the University will charge the full amount of £3000 tuition fee for Home/EU students.
The University offers a wide range of courses, including some rated excellent by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), such as Pharmacology and Pharmacy, Molecular Biosciences, Organismal Biosciences, Mathematics, Electronic and Computer Engineering, Statistics and Operational Research. Social Sciences are also a strength of the University, with Education, Modern Foreign Languages (with increasing provison for Mandarin Chinese and Arabic), Politics, Psychology, and finally Nursing all rated as excellent by the QAA. The University offers the European Union's ERASMUS programme either as an optional semester or a compulsory year abroad in language courses run by the School of Languages and Area Studies. Another semester abroad can be made in the United States of America at Moorhead State University, Minnesota.
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[edit] History
The University was founded as the Portsmouth and Gosport School of Science and the Arts in 1869. Due to the dependence on shipping and trade to the city, the main function of the college was to train the engineers and skilled workmen who went on to work at the city docks, as well as at the large Royal Navy dockyard situated in Portsmouth. However, due to a decline in shipping and population since the World War II, when large swathes of the city were destroyed by German bombing, the college was forced to diversify in terms of its syllabus and teaching in order to attract new students. This steadily continued until the 1960s when, due to a massive government-sponsored expansion in Higher Education, the college was renamed Portsmouth Polytechnic. Along with this new name came the power for Portsmouth to award degrees, accredited and validated by the National Centralised CNNA. The expansion of the polytechnic continued and in the late 1980s, it was considered one of the largest and the best performing polytechnics in the UK. It narrowly missed being awarded university status in its own right in 1990, and instead was awarded university status with the power to validate its own degrees along with the other Polytechnics in 1992, under the provision of the Further and Higher Education Act, 1992.
[edit] Campus
The University is split between two campuses: Guildhall and Langstone.
Langstone is the smaller of the two campuses, located in Milton, Portsmouth on the eastern edge of Portsea Island, the island on which the city of Portsmouth sits. The campus overlooks Langstone Harbour and it is home to the University's sports grounds. It also includes a canteen and bar, as well as a 'student village', which provides accommodation for 570 students in three halls of residence; Queen Elizabeth Queen Mother (QEQM), Trust and Langstone Flats. Students in QEQM and Langstone Flats have access to en-suite bathrooms. It used to be home of the University's School of Languages and Area Studies. The School has now moved into the Park Building on the Guildhall Campus.
The Guildhall site is much larger. Unlike most university campuses, it is not all enclosed on one tract of land, instead featuring various university buildings scattered throughout the centre of the city. This campus contains much of the University's teaching facilities, and nearly all of the Student Halls of residence (except the Langstone student village and two halls (Rees Hall and Burrell House) located on Victoria Promenade, the city's main esplanade).
The University's Frewen Library is currently being extended at a cost of £7 million, which was originally due to open in October, however ongoing delays mean that it is unlikely to open until January. The University has also in recent years invested in the Faculty of Science, in particular through the renovation of its aluminium-clad main building, St Michael's. The Nuffield Sports Centre used by the Faculty is also being expanded. Across the University there is a programme of renovation and expansion of teaching facilities.
A new faculty called Creative and Cultural Industries was openned in September 2006. It aims to provide a unique environment in which all aspects of creative thinking will flourish and develop by combining creative schools from across the university.
[edit] Student Union
The University of Portsmouth Students Union (UPSU) - Voted best Union in the UK in New Musical Express in 2004. Formerly housed in the ex-NAAFI (Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes) building Alexandra House, a new £6.5 million purpose-built Union was opened in 2002 at the other end of Ravelin Park, to the north of Frewen Library, though the main entertainment area has been significantly altered recently.
The Union houses two bars, a nightclub and a grocery shop, along with Blackwells bookshop and also its own radio station, PURE:FM.
Student Newspaper - The student magazine is called Pugwash - published monthly, in its time it has won the Best Student Magazine award from the National Students Union. There is also a weekly sports newspaper called Purple Wednesdays. The name stems from the ubiquitous day for BUSA (British Universities Sports Association) activities and the fact that purple is the corporate colour of the University (though strangely enough, it doesn't feature prominently on the university's armorial bearings). Sporting 'colours' (awarded annually for achievement and effort) are thus purples and half-purples.
Following financial difficulties in 2005, UPSU was re-structured and is now a registered charity, under the direct control of the University. As a result of this new investment, in October 2005 the Union was redeveloped, in particular its bars, and this could allow for extra teaching and exam space. However, this intrusion by the University proper into the affairs of the traditionally separate Students' Union was not greeted with great enthusiasm by all students. This is highlighted by the university's proposed closure of the Union at 6pm four nights a week in order to cut costs, has been met with opposition by the sabbatical officers and some students.
[edit] Student activities
The University offers a wide range of sports clubs, and fields teams in many competitions and in BUSA leagues. The sports on offer vary from traditional team games like Football, Rugby Union, and Cricket to Octopush, a form of under-water hockey. Notably, the University is home to the longest running university paintball club in the United Kingdom. Unsurprisingly given Portsmouth's rich maritime history and location, Sailing and Rowing are also very popular, and the sailing team enters a team the for the annual Cowes Week regatta on the Isle of Wight.
Despite not offering a degree in Music, the University has a full time music department offering instrumental lessons and ensembles. These include the Choir, Orchestra, Wind Band and Big Band.
[edit] Chancellorship
The Chancellor of the University is Lord Palumbo of Walbrook, a property developer who was once Chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain. He sits as a Conservative peer in the House of Lords and was educated at Eton College and also Worcester College, Oxford.
The Vice-Chancellor is Professor John Craven who was appointed in 1997. Professor Craven is an economist, and was educated at the University of Cambridge and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He previously was a Professor of Economics at the University of Kent.
The Pro Vice Chancellor is Professor John David Turner appointed in 2006.
[edit] Structure
Portsmouth Business School
- Department of Accounting and Law
- Department of Economics
- Department of Human Resource and Marketing Management
- Department of Strategy and Business Systems
Faculty of Technology
- Department of Civil Engineering
- School of Computing
- Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation
- Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering
- School of Environmental Design and Management
- Department of Mathematics
- Department of Mechanical and Design Engineering
- Technology Extended Campus
Faculty of Science
- School of Biological Sciences
- School of Earth and Environmental Sciences
- Department of Geography
- School of Professionals Complementary to Dentistry
- School of Health Sciences and Social Work
- Institute of Marine Sciences
- School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences
- Department of Psychology
- Department of Sport and Exercise Science
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
- Institute of Criminal Justice Studies
- School of Education and Continuing Studies
- School of Languages and Area Studies
- School of Social, Historical, and Literary Studies
Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries
- Portsmouth School of Architecture
- School of Art, Design, and Media
- School of Creative Arts, Film, and Media
- Department of Creative Technologies
- Portsmouth Centre for Enterprise
[edit] Notable Alumni
- Simon Armitage - Poet
- David Chidgey, Baron Chidgey of Hamble-le-Rice in the County of Hampshire - Liberal Democrat politician
- Ron Davies - Former Labour Politician and Former Secretary of State for Wales
- Ben Fogle - Television presenter and Travel writer
- Rachel Lowe - Game Designer, Entrepreneur & Head of RTL Games
- Diana Maddock, Baroness Maddock - Liberal Democrat politician
- Andrew Miller - Labour politician
- Ricky Salmon - Radio presenter
- Howie Watkins - Television presenter and "Performance Biologist"
- Kate Edmondson - Television presenter of TMF UK's 'The Loaded Hour'
- Grayson Perry - Artist winner of the 2003 Turner Prize
- Shirley Conran - Writer
[edit] External links
- University of Portsmouth website
- PURE:FM - University of Portsmouth's Student Radio Station
- UPSU - University of Portsmouth's Student Union Website
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