University of Liverpool

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University of Liverpool
Motto: Haec otia studia fovent
(these days of peace foster learning)
Established: 1881 (as University College Liverpool)[1]
Type: Public
Chancellor: Rt Hon The Lord Owen
Vice-Chancellor: Prof. James Drummond Bone
Visitor: The Lord President of the Council ex officio
Students: 20,655[2]
Undergraduates: 16,805[2]
Postgraduates: 3,860[2]
Location: Liverpool, England
(Coordinates: 53°24′22″N 2°58′01″W / 53.406, -2.967)
Campus: Urban
Website: http://www.liv.ac.uk/

The University of Liverpool is a university in the city of Liverpool, England. It is a member of the Russell Group, and founded in 1881 it is also one of the six original civic universities. The university has produced eight Nobel Prize winners and today has more than 230 first degree courses across 103 subjects, as well as an annual income of £219 million, including £75 million for research.[3]

Contents

[edit] History

University of Liverpool
University of Liverpool
"Red brick" Victoria Building
"Red brick" Victoria Building

The University was established in 1881 as University College Liverpool, admitting its first students in 1882.[1] In 1884, it became part of the federal Victoria University. Following a Royal Charter and Act of Parliament in 1903, it became an independent university with the right to confer its own degrees called the University of Liverpool.

The University has produced eight Nobel Prize winners, from the fields of science, medicine and peace. The Nobel laureates include the physician Sir Ronald Ross, physicist Professor Charles Barkla, the physiologist Sir Charles Sherrington, physicist Sir James Chadwick, chemist Sir Robert Robinson, physiologist Professor Har Gobind Khorana, physiologist Professor Rodney Porter, and physicist Professor Joseph Rotblat. Sir Ronald Ross was also the first British Nobel laureate in 1902.

The term red brick was first coined by a Liverpool professor to describe the red brick built civic universities that were built in the UK, mostly in the latter part of the 19th century; these were characterised by Victorian buildings of red brick, such as Victoria Building, which was historically the administrative heart of the University.

[edit] Present

Liverpool has the sixth largest financial endowment of any UK university, valued at £110m, according to the Sutton Trust.[4] It is a member of the Russell Group of Universities. The University has over 23,000 registered students, with almost 18,000 full-time registered students. The University has a broad range of teaching and research in both arts and sciences, and has a large medical school, which is associated with the neighbouring Royal Liverpool University Hospital. Sir Howard Newby will be taking up the post of Vice-Chancellor of the University of Liverpool from September 2008.

The University has a Students' union to represent students' interests, known as the Liverpool Guild of Students.

It should be noted that whilst Liverpool has a total of three universities, the colloquial term Liverpool University commonly refers to the University of Liverpool rather than either of the other two, Liverpool Hope University or Liverpool John Moores University.

[edit] Campus and facilities

The University is mainly based around a single urban campus approximately five minutes walk from Liverpool City Centre, at the top of Brownlow Hill and Mount Pleasant, the main site is divided into six faculties: Arts, Engineering, Medicine, Social and Environmental Sciences, Sciences and Veterinary Science. The Veterinary Teaching Hospital (Leahurst) and Ness Botanical Gardens are based on the Wirral Peninsula. There was formerly a research station at Port Erin on the Isle of Man until it closed in 2006. The Johnston Laboratories, a pathology research facility of repute during much of the 20th century, is now the biochemistry department of the university.

[edit] Harold Cohen Library

The Harold Cohen Library is the main library for science, engineering and medical, dental and veterinary sciences. It also contains eight computer centres as well as the Wolfson training suite.

[edit] Sydney Jones Library

The Sydney Jones Library is the main library for arts and humanities in the University of Liverpool. The library is houses in two buildings, the Grove Wing and the Abercromby Wing (formerly Senate House). The Grove Wing contains the majority of the collection and the special collections. The Abercromby Wing contains the Law Library, the library offices, computer services and the main Issue Desk. The two buildings are linked by the Link Building which has the information support desks.

[edit] Liverpool Medical School

Liverpool Medical School was ranked as the ninth best medical school in the United Kingdom by The Times Good University Guide 2008.[5] One of the key features of the medical programme is Problem-based learning (PBL). This is an educational process that encourages students, working in small groups, to learn through curiosity and to seek out information for themselves. Students have the opportunity to link basic medical science with clinical practice early in the programme, thereby stimulating and maintaining their interest instead of overwhelming it with facts.[citation needed] Other features of the programme include introduction to clinical and communication skills training, a greater emphasis on learning medicine in the community and early patient contact. However a recent study published on the pass rates of medical school graduates in MRCP postgraduate exams has shown Liverpool graduates to be the least likely to pass amongst all other UK medical schools, even after controlling for pre-admission variability of medical school entrants.[6] The Medical School offers a five-year undergraduate course, and a four-graduate entry course. Much of the clinical education takes part at the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital NHS Trust. The Medical School also has one of the oldest student societies - Liverpool Medical Students' Society. LMSS in fact pre-dates the University in its conception from when simply a teaching hospital existed around which the University was built. [7]

[edit] School of Biomedical Sciences

The School of Biomedical Sciences is one of the premier research centres within the University of Liverpool.[citation needed] It houses 58 senior academics plus another 170 mostly research staff, including two fellows of the Royal Society and several fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences. The School is unique in the UK in maintaining a broad range of high quality research in areas from signalling pathways, molecular biology through to primate and human evolutionary morphology. The three separate degree programmes offered by the School in Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology consistently rank among the top ten in the UK.[citation needed]

[edit] Liverpool Dental School

The Liverpool Dental School, based at the Liverpool Dental Hospital, is one of the top dental schools in the UK.[citation needed] The Liverpool Dental Programme is based on a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) system, where small groups of students are given a medical case, and through research are encouraged to learn about the causes and treatments for themselves. The Dental school now hosts the best Operation Techniques suite (Phantom Head) in the world, until a similar suite based on its design, but twice its size, is finished in the USA.[citation needed]

The Dental School offers a five-year undergraduate course, and recently the number of dental students at the University has increased due to the introduction of a new graduate entry fast track four-year course.

[edit] Faculty of Veterinary Science

Main article: University of Liverpool Faculty of Veterinary Science

The first veterinary school in the UK to be incorporated into a university, the Faculty's treatment and research facilities on the main campus and at Leahurst on the Wirral Peninsula, approximately 12 miles outside Liverpool, are amongst the most advanced and innovative in the country.[citation needed] There are three main teaching hospitals:

The Philip Leverhulme Equine Hospital is one of the busiest and most successful equine hospitals in the UK,[citation needed] with particular expertise in the areas of gastroenterology, oncology, orthopaedics and neurology. The University's Veterinary Development Campaign is currently in the midst of fund raising to support the installation of the first veterinary MRI Unit in the North of England and a new Radiotherapy Unit.

The Small Animal Teaching Hospital moved to its new home in April 2007: a brand new, state of the art £9.6 million facility at Leahurst. This is the most modern, well-equipped hospital for small animals in the UK.[citation needed] Facilities include MRI and CT scanning, the Johnson Foundation radiotherapy treatment unit, an operating theatre dedicated to key-hole surgery, and the Hill's Pet Mobility Centre.

The Farm Animal Hospital takes cases from throughout NW England and North Wales for detailed investigation and intensive care treatment.

In 2006 the faculty was voted no. 1 UK vet school in The Times Good University Guide 2006, awarded 24/24 by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education and in 2005 was cited as "the University with the most satisfied students" by the British Veterinary Association and the Association of Veterinary Students.[citation needed]

[edit] Faculty of Engineering

The Faculty of Engineering is one of the largest departments in the University, offering a wide variety of courses, including Civil, Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering, Avionics, Electrical and Electronic Engineering (except that this is a department separate from the engineering department) and variants of these, including foundation year courses.The University has recently started offering courses in Aerospace Engineering and Pilot studies.This course gives students the opportunity to acquire significant flying time( for Pilot's licence), while undertaking an Aerospace Engineering degree programme. Students obtaining AAB - AAA A level grades (in relevant A levels) are eligible for scholarships. Most of the faculty's subject areas rank within the Top 10 in the UK.[8] The faculty's Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing research submission obtained a maximum 5* grading in the most recent research assessment.[9] The Times "Good University" guide places the Mechanical Engineering course third nationally. [10] The department houses the UK Centre for Materials Education (UKCME) and boasts a flight simulator, one of a very few departments to have one in the UK.
£36m is being spent on refurbishing the department (due for completion in September 2008).[11] This will include the construction of an active learning laboratory which will be one of the largest and best equipped laboratories in Europe.[12] Pupils enrolled on the 4 year Aerospace MEng Programme, have the opportunity to spend their third year at one of America's leading engineering Schools, at the University of Illinois (Urbana champaign).

The Liverpool Engineers Student Society (LESS), organises social events for engineering students.

[edit] English Language Unit

The English Language Unit (also known as the ELU) is a teaching unit within the School of English, specialising in language teaching and learning. It offers language support for registered international students, visiting fellows and international staff members. It also helps to provide a range of postgraduate courses and research opportunities for language teachers, including a well-respected CELTA course.

[edit] Centre for Manx Studies

The Centre for Manx Studies, located in Douglas, Isle of Man, is also affiliated to the University.

[edit] University accommodation

The two main university accommodation complexes are both located in the Mossley Hill district of Liverpool. These both belong to the University, and include the Greenbank and Carnatic complexes. The Greenbank Halls include Derby and Rathbone Hall and Roscoe and Gladstone Hall (commonly known as D&R and R&G respectively). Carnatic Halls is the largest of the University of Liverpool accommodation complexes including 6 halls: Morton House, Lady Mountford House, Dale Hall, McNair Hall, Salisbury Hall and Rankin Hall. Both sites include a range of catered and self-catered accommodation.

Within the main campus, there are three accommodation sites: Mulberry Court, Philharmonic Court and Melville Grove. Mulberry Court is situated between Oxford Street, Mulberry Street, and Mount Pleasant. Melville Grove is on Grove Street and Philharmonic on Catharine Street. These are self-catering halls situated roughly three minutes walk from the Guild of Students, and ten minutes from the city centre. Melville Grove typically accommodates postgraduate students, though undergraduates may also apply for accommodation there. Philharmonic has halls for first year students and flats for postgraduate students with families.

[edit] Students' Union

[edit] Liverpool Guild of Students

Guild of Students
Guild of Students

LGoS is the centre point of activity in student life. It is the largest Students' Union building in the UK & the second largest in Europe.[citation needed] It contains various bars and cafes as well as offices used by the administrative staff. It also contains the various halls comprising Guild Live, a popular entertainment venue with live bands often playing. Every Monday night the Guild hosts an event called Double Vision which is the largest student night in the United Kingdom.[citation needed]

LGoS used to publish the Liverpool Student newspaper until it closed down in May 2007, due to fading popularity and mismanagement. It has since been replaced by the official LGoS publication, the Sphinx. A city-wide student newspaper called LX News was also independently launched in August 2007, in association with The University of Liverpool and the other institutions in Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores University and Liverpool Hope University.

[edit] Academic Reputation

In The Complete University Guide 2008 published in The Independent, The University of Liverpool was ranked 42nd out of 113, based on nine measures[13], while The Good University Guide 2008 in The Times ranked Liverpool 34th out of 113 universities.[14]. The Sunday times university guide recently ranked the University of Liverpool 27th out of 123 [15]

[edit] Notable alumni

[edit] See also

[edit] References

 This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2007)
  1. ^ a b History of the University. University of Liverpool (2007-03-27). Retrieved on 2007-09-10.
  2. ^ a b c 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 2008-04-10.
  3. ^ http://www.liv.ac.uk/about/history/index.htm
  4. ^ University Fundraising - an Update (PDF). The Sutton Trust (December 2006). Retrieved on 2007-11-22.
  5. ^ University Rankings League Table: Medicine. The Times Good University Guide. The Times (2007-08-16). Retrieved on 2007-09-09.
  6. ^ 1741-7015-6-5.fm
  7. ^ Your University (Student Guide) Page 27
  8. ^ 7
  9. ^ 7
  10. ^ Times Online
  11. ^ Future development
  12. ^ Active learning laboratory
  13. ^ The Independent newspaper, April 24 2008
  14. ^ The Times: http://extras.timesonline.co.uk/gug/gooduniversityguide.php
  15. ^ The Times: http://extras.timesonline.co.uk/stug/universityguide.php. 23/05/2008
  16. ^ Saxby

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Faculties, departments and other bodies of the University of Liverpool

Medical School | Royal Liverpool University Hospital | School of Tropical Medicine | Liverpool University Press | Faculty of Veterinary Science
Other bodies connected to the University
Centre for Manx Studies
v • d • e
Russell Group of UK research universities
v • d • e
N8 Group of Northern England research universities

Durham • Lancaster • Leeds • Liverpool • Manchester • Newcastle • Sheffield • York