| Brunel University | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1966 |
| Type | Public |
| Endowment | £1.8 million[1] |
| Chancellor | Lord Wakeham PC |
| Vice-Chancellor | Professor Chris Jenks |
| Admin. staff | 1,616 |
| Students | 15,446 |
| Undergraduates | 10,345 |
| Postgraduates | 3,779 |
| Doctoral students | 974 |
| Location | Uxbridge, London, England |
| Campus | Suburban |
| Affiliations | Association of Commonwealth Universities European University Association |
| Website | http://www.brunel.ac.uk/ |
Brunel University (informally Brunel) is a public research university located in Uxbridge, London, United Kingdom. The university is named after the Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
Brunel's origins lie in Acton Technical College, which was founded in 1928. In 1957 Brunel College of Technology separated from Acton Technical College with a focus on the education of engineers. Brunel College of Technology was awarded the status of College of Advanced Technology in 1960 and became Brunel College of Advanced Technology in 1962. In June 1966 Brunel College of Advanced Technology was awarded a Royal Charter and became Brunel University.
Brunel is ranked 39th out of 122 in The Sunday Times University Guide 2012.[2] It is a member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the European University Association and Universities UK.
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Brunel is one of a number of British universities created in the 1960s following the Robbins Report on higher education. The university's origins lie in Acton Technical College, which was split into two in 1957 – Acton Technical College continued to cater for technicians and craftsmen, and the new Brunel College of Technology (named after Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the British engineer) was dedicated to the education of chartered engineers.
In 1960 Brunel College of Technology was awarded the status of College of Advanced Technology, and it was decided that it should expand at another site in order to accommodate the extra buildings that would be needed. Uxbridge, Hillingdon was chosen to house the new buildings, and work hadn’t even started before the Ministry of Education officially changed the College’s status: it was officially named Brunel College of Advanced Technology in 1962 – the 10th Advanced Technology College in the country, and the last to be awarded this title.
The Uxbridge (Vine Street) railway branch line was closed in 1964, and the college purchased the land adjacent to its site where the railway had run for £65,000 from the local council.[3]
The Royal Charter granting university status was awarded on 9 June 1966. The University continued to use both campuses until 1971 when it finally left the Acton site.
In 1980 the University merged with Shoreditch College of Education, located at Cooper's Hill, Runnymede. This became Brunel's second campus. In 1995 the University expanded again, integrating the West London Institute of Higher Education, and adding campuses in Osterley and Twickenham. This increased the number of courses that Brunel University was able to offer. Traditionally the university's strengths were in engineering, science, technology and social sciences but with the addition of the West London Institute, new departments such as arts, humanities, geography & earth science, health and sports science were added, and the size of the student body increased to over 12,000.
In recent years Brunel has been the subject of controversy as its approach to higher education has been both market-driven and politically conservative. The decision to award an honorary degree to Margaret Thatcher in 1996, following the University of Oxford's refusal to do so, provoked an outcry by staff and students, and as a result the ceremony had to be held in the House of Lords instead of on campus. In the late 1990s, the Departments of Physics, Chemistry, and Materials Engineering were all closed, and, in 2004, the then Vice-Chancellor Steven Schwartz, initiated the reorganisation of the university's faculties and departments into schools, and closed the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences. The present Vice-Chancellor, the sociologist Christopher Jenks, took office in 2006.[4]
In June 2011, Brunel University licensed Creative Barcode, an automated idea sharing platform which protects ownership of early stage ideas.[5]
In the late 1990s Brunel devised a 10-year, £250 million Masterplan for the campus. This involved selling off campus sites in Runnymede, Osterley and Twickenham and using the revenue from the sales to renovate and update the buildings and facilities on the Uxbridge campus. Works carried out included a library extension, a state-of-the-art sports complex, renovated students' union facilities, a new Health Sciences teaching centre, and the construction of more halls of residence.
Since the original Masterplan, the University has spent a further £50 million on campus renovation and work is currently underway on the building of a new 'Eastern Gateway' building, which will house a 400 seat lecture theatre, main reception, the Brunel Business School and the Beldam art gallery.[6]
The Brunel campus (especially those buildings in the 1960s 'Brutalist' architectural style) has appeared in several films, most famously in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, large parts of which were filmed on campus. It has also featured in several UK television series including Spooks, Silent Witness and Inspector Morse.
Brunel currently has the following eight constituent Academic Schools:[7]
In the financial year ended 31 July 2010, Brunel had a total income (including share of joint ventures) of £169.5 million (2008/09 – £157.8 million) and total expenditure of £163.8 million (2008/09 – £153.0 million).[8] Key sources of income included £57.55 million from Funding Council grants (2008/09 – £51.68 million), £64.51 million from tuition fees and education contracts (2008/09 – £57.77 million), £12.57 million from research grants and contracts (2008/09 – £13.78 million), £598,000 from endowment and investment income (2008/09 – £1.36 million) and £34.25 million from other income (2008/09 – £33.19 million).[8] During the 2009/10 financial year Brunel had a capital expenditure of £6.63 million (2008/09 – £13.13 million).[8]
At year end Brunel had reserves and endowments of £132.42 million (2008/09 – £124.11 million) and total net assets of £170.20 million (2008/09 – £152.32 million).[8]
The Brunel Coat of Arms was granted to the University in 1966 and incorporates various images representative of the University's heritage and principles. For example, the masonry arch symbolises Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the compass and cogwheel symbolise technology, the ermine lozenge is an allusion to the Arms of Lord Halsbury, the first Chancellor of the University and the crest of the swan symbolises Uxbridge.[9]
Brunel students have access to specialist laboratories for electronic imaging, bioprocessing and experimental techniques; flight, driving and train simulators; a 3-D body scanner; an MRI scanner; motion-capture equipment; an occupational therapy suite; sports and performing arts facilities; and academic archives in cult film and contemporary writing.[10]
Depending on the degree course followed, some undergraduate students may undertake practical placements and projects as an integral part of their courses (a founding principle of the sandwich degree structure).
In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), 90% of Brunel research submitted was rated as being of international quality.[11] In the RAE Brunel was ranked 37–39 (joint) for Research Power.[12]
Courses at Brunel draw on staff's research in areas including Cancer Genetics, Environmental Science, Human-Centred Design, Materials Processing, Contemporary Music and Digital Performance, Children’s Education and Sports Medicine.[10] The Brunel Institute of Cancer Genetics and Pharmacogenomics is internationally recognised for outstanding research in the field of cancer genetics.
Brunel traditionally performed well in the annual rankings of UK universities produced by The Guardian and The Times, in part due to its strong performance in the Teaching Quality Assessment (where Brunel received a score of 20/24 or better for every subject assessed). However, in recent years both The Guardian and The Times have ceased using the TQA to compile their rankings (they use the National Student Survey results instead) and therefore Brunel has fallen in both rankings.
In the 2008 QS World University Rankings Brunel was ranked 296th in the world (and 38th in the UK).[13] In the 20101/12 rankings, Brunel was placed 351st globally, making it the 42nd highest ranked UK university.[14] In the 2011/12 THES world university rankings, Brunel ranked 251-275 (shared), representing a sharp rise in rankings.[15] The University won the Queen's Anniversary Prize in 2011.[16]
| 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Times Good University Guide | 50th | 47th | 51st[17] | 50th[18] | 43rd | 43rd[19] | |
| Guardian University Guide | 75th | 53rd | 50th[20] | 32nd | 32nd[21] | 28th[22] | |
| Sunday Times University Guide | 39th | 49th | 49th | 50th[23] | 49th | 50th[24] | 44th[24] |
| The Daily Telegraph | 52nd[25] | ||||||
| Complete University Guide | 50th[26] | 46th[26] | 41st[27] | 41st[27] |
The Brunel School of Engineering and Design holds a yearly design exhibition called Made In Brunel, to promote and showcase the work of final year students to the design industry.[28] In past years it has been held at the Business Design Centre in Islington, and the Oxo Tower Wharf. The 2011 exhibition was held at the Bargehouse, on the Southbank, London.[29]
Brunel has a student-run radio station called Radio Brunel. It recently relaunched as an internet only station.
Brunel was one of the first UK universities to enter the Formula Student[30] engineering competition. It is an annual event in which universities from around the world compete in static and dynamic events using formula style racing cars designed and manufactured by students.
The Brunel Racing[31] team is composed of undergraduate and postgraduate students, each being allocated an area of the car to develop. The students on MEng Mechanical Engineering courses act as team leaders and manage BEng students throughout the year to ensure a successful completion of a new car each year.
Brunel Racing were UK Class 1 Formula Student Champions in 2002, and were the leading UK team at Formula ATA 2005, the Italian Formula Student event. In 2006 Formula Student Event, Brunel Racing were also the highest finishing UK competitor using E85 (fuel composed of 85% ethanol and 15% petrol.)
At Formula Student UK '09, Brunel Racing finished 6th overall in Class 1 and were UK Runners-Up by only 1.6 points of the 1000 available. In the process Brunel's 11th car, BR-X, finished 3rd in the fuel economy standings, 4th in the endurance and had the highest combined Endurance Economy Event score.
The university also runs a second racing team, composed exclusively of post-graduate students from the MSc Automotive and Motorsports Engineering course, called Brunel Masters Motorsports.[32] The 20 students on this course are from 10 different countries, with various cultural backgrounds and a with a wide range of industry experience.
The BMM team were the UK Class 2 Formula Student Champions in their first year, 2005.
Brunel's Formula Student teams have won prizes in the annual competition every year since they first entered in 1999.
Brunel’s £250 million campus redevelopment programme, completed in 2008, saw the refurbishment of existing halls and the construction of the new Isambard Complex. There are now 34 self-catering halls of residence on-campus, with a total of 4,549 rooms, including studio flats for co-habiting couples. Rooms are available for undergraduates, postgraduates, students with disabilities and co habiting couples. All rooms have network access.
Many of the halls of residence around the Uxbridge campus are named after bridges that Isambard Kingdom Brunel either built or helped to design; other halls are named either directly after him, or after other notable engineers or scientists. For example:
There are also three accommodation complexes: the Bishop Complex (Bishop, Kilmorey, Lacy and St Margaret’s Halls); the Lancaster Complex (Lancaster, Stockwell, Southwark, Borough Road, Maria Grey and Gordon Halls); and the Isambard Complex (North, Meadow, Michael Bevis, Concourse, Stephen Bragg, West, Maurice Kogan, David Neave, Central, East, Runnymede, George Shipp, Trevor Slater, Shoreditch, Syd Urry, South and Brian Winstanley Halls).
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