Thames Valley University

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Thames Valley University
Established: 1990 (as the Polytechnic of West London)
Type: Public
Chancellor: Lord Bilimoria
Vice-Chancellor: Professor Peter John 1 July 2007
Students: 47,430[1]
Undergraduates: 17,200[1]
Postgraduates: 1,940[1]
Other students: 28,290 FE[1]
Location: Ealing, Reading and Slough, UK
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.

Contents

[edit] History

The former Thames Valley College became a university in 1992, after merging with Ealing College of Higher Education (originally founded in 1860 as Lady Byron School), the London College of Music (which relocated from central London), and the Wolfson School of Nursing. From 1990 - 1992 TVU was known as the Polytechnic of West 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] Student accommodation

As of September 2006, TVU offers its students at the Ealing and Slough campuses halls of residence accommodation on a student and keyworker accommodation site named Paragon, which won the 'Major Housing Project of the Year' category at the 2007 Building awards. The site is in Brentford, about a mile away from the Ealing campus.

Paragon is home to the tallest building to be completed using Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) in the UK, which serves as a 130,000 sq ft academic facility for the university's human sciences facility.

The student accommodation at Paragon has been criticised by its residents for being too expensive, costing the highest of all London universities' halls of residence along with SOAS in the 2007-2008 year. TVU defended the costs, asserting that the halls are of an especially high standard.[2]

[edit] Organisation

TVU currently comprises four Faculties: the Faculty of the Arts (FOTA), formerly the London College of Music and Media, and now incorporating the London College of Music, relaunched in March 2007; the Faculty of Professional Studies; the Faculty of Health and Human Sciences; and the Faculty of Technology. There is also a 14-19 Academy, based at Reading and structured as a department of the University,[3] offering predominantly GCSE and A level courses. Finally, the Graduate School[4] (based in Ealing) co-ordinates and provides support to research activities[5] and research degree courses.

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 assessment. 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 [6]. 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[7]

A 2007 article in The Guardian newspaper said that Thames Valley University was, at that time, on a list of universities whose finances were being monitored by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, as their financial stability was under threat unless they acted. The Funding Council did not publish this list.[8].

[edit] Academic reputation

In newspaper league tables of British universities, TVU is currently placed 112 out of 130 in The Guardian university guide (2008) [9] and 110 out of 119 in the The Sunday Times university rankings (2006)[10]

[edit] Notable alumni


[edit] Notable staff

  • 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.
  • Pip Williams – a course leader teaching music technology at Thames Valley University, Ealing. Philip (Pip) Williams, (born October 7, 1947) is a record producer, arranger and guitarist, best known for producing albums for Status Quo and The Moody Blues.
  • The composer Francis Pott is Head of Composition and Research Development in the Faculty of the Arts.
  • The composer Andrew McBirnie is Chief Examiner in Music for London College of Music Examinations.
  • Mike Howlett is a teacher of music technology at the university, who previously performed with the bands Gong and Strontium 90, and produced many New Wave acts in the 1970s and 1980s.
  • Lola Young, Baroness Young of Hornsey

[edit] External links

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Table 0a - All students by institution, mode of study, level of study, gender and domicile 2006/07 (Microsoft Excel spreadsheet). Higher Education Statistics Agency. Retrieved on 2008-04-12.
  2. ^ Proctor, Lucy "TVU halls leave students broke". Ealing Gazette, November 2 2007 (retrieved on 18-11-07)
  3. ^ TVU: Sixth Form Academy. Retrieved on 2007-03-15.
  4. ^ TVU: Graduate School. Retrieved on 2007-03-27.
  5. ^ TVU: Research. Retrieved on 2007-03-27.
  6. ^ Institutional audit - Thames Valley University
  7. ^ Guardian. Retrieved on 2007-03-28.
  8. ^ Secret list of universities facing collapse | higher news | EducationGuardian.co.uk. Retrieved on April 5, 2008.
  9. ^ Guardian Unlimited | Education
  10. ^ http://extras.timesonline.co.uk/stug2006/stug2006.pdf


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