| University of East Anglia | |||
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Logo of the University of East Anglia |
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| Established | 1963 | ||
| Type | Public | ||
| Endowment | £4.3 million[1] | ||
| Chancellor | Sir Brandon Gough[2] | ||
| Vice-Chancellor | Professor Edward Acton[3] | ||
| Visitor | The Lord President of the Council ex officio[4] | ||
| Admin. staff | 2,966[5] | ||
| Students | 19,585[6] | ||
| Undergraduates | 15,190[6] | ||
| Postgraduates | 4,395[6] | ||
| Location | Norwich, Norfolk, United Kingdom | ||
| Campus | 320 acres (1.29 km²)[7] | ||
| Colours |
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| Affiliations | 1994 Group ACU Universities UK |
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| Website | www.uea.ac.uk | ||
The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university based in Norwich, United Kingdom.[9] It was established in 1963, and is a founder-member of the 1994 Group of research-intensive universities.[10]
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The University of East Anglia opened in October 1963, not on its present campus, but in the "University Village" on the other side of Earlham Road, a collection of prefabricated structures designed for 1200 students, laid out by the local architectural firm Feilden and Mawson. There were no residences. The Vice-Chancellor and administration were based in nearby Earlham Hall.[11]
In 1961, the first vice-chancellor, Frank Thistlethwaite, had approached Denys Lasdun, an adherent of the "New Brutalist" trend in architecture, who was at that time building Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, to produce designs for the permanent campus.[11] The site chosen was on the western edge of the city, on the south side of Earlham Road. The land, formerly part of the Earlham Hall estate was at that time occupied by a golf course.[12] Lasdun unveiled a model and an outline plan at a press conference in April 1963, but it took another year to produce detailed plans, which diverged considerably from the model. The first buildings did not open until late 1966.
Lasdun put all the teaching and research functions into the "teaching wall", a single block 460 metres long following the contour of the site. Alongside this he built a walkway, giving access to the various entrances of the wall, with access roads beneath. Attached to the other, southern, side of the walkway he added the groups of terraced residences that became known as "Ziggurats". In 1968, Lasdun was replaced as architect by Bernard Feilden, who completed the teaching wall and library, and created an arena-shaped square as a social space of a kind not envisioned in his predecessor's plans.[11]
In the mid-1970s, extraction of gravel in the valley of the River Yare, which runs to the south of the campus, resulted in the university acquiring its own lake or "Broad" as it is often referred to. At more or less the same time, a bequest of tribal art and 20th century painting and sculpture, by artists such as Francis Bacon and Henry Moore, from Sir Robert and Lady Lisa Sainsbury resulted in the construction of the striking Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the western end of the main teaching wall, one of the first major works of architect Norman Foster.
In 2005 the university, in partnership with the University of Essex, and with the support of Suffolk County Council, the East of England Development Agency, Ipswich Borough Council, Suffolk College, and the Learning and Skills Council, secured £15 million funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England for the creation of a new campus in the Waterfront area of Ipswich, called University Campus Suffolk or UCS.[13] The campus opened in September 2007.[13]
In January 2010 the University of East Anglia opened UEA London, a purpose built teaching facility near Liverpool Street Station in the City of London to provide facilities for more than 1,000 students.[14]
In November 2009, computer servers at the Climatic Research Unit (a research institute within the University) were hacked, and the stolen information made public. Over 1,000 emails, 2,000 documents, and source code were released. Because the Climate Research Unit is a major repository for data supporting the idea of man-made global warming their release directly prior to the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference attracted international attention and led to calls for an inquiry.[15]
Notable features of the UEA campus include Earlham Hall which is home to Norwich Law School, the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the western end of the main teaching wall designed by Norman Foster to house the art collection of Sir Robert and Lady Lisa Sainsbury, and "Sportspark", a multi-sports facilities built in 2001 thanks to a £14.5 million grant from Sport England Lottery Fund.[16] Other features include the large university lake or "broad" at the southern edge of campus and "The Square", a central outdoor meeting place flanked by concrete steps.
In terms of accommodation the university campus has eight en-suite residences, namely Constable Terrace, Nelson Court, and Britten, Colman, Victory, Kett, Browne, and Paston Houses. The residences are named after Horatio Nelson, John Constable, Benjamin Britten, Jeremiah Colman, Horatio Nelson's ship HMS Victory, Robert Kett, Sir Thomas Browne and the Paston family who wrote the Paston Letters. The university also offers en-suite accommodation at the University Village, located next to the university campus. There are also four non en-suite residences on campus, namely Norfolk and Suffolk Terraces also known as the "Ziggurats", and Orwell and Wolfson Close. The university also manages Mary Chapman Court, a hall of residence in Norwich city centre.[17]
Facilities on campus include the "Union Pub and Bar", a concert and disco venue called "The LCR", a canteen called "Zest", a cafe/coffee shop called "The Blend", a bar/coffee shop called "The Hive", a graduate bar called the "Graduate Students Club" and "The Street" with a 24-hour launderette, the Union Food Outlet, Union Paper Shop, Union Post Office, a coffee shop called "Cafe Direct", branches of NatWest and Barclays, and a Waterstone's book shop. Most of these are situated in the centre of the campus, next to The Square.
The campus is linked to the city centre and railway station by frequent buses, operated by First, via Unthank Road or Earlham Road. First also operate frequent buses from the campus to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and to Bowthorpe.
The University offers over 300 courses across four Faculties and 23 Schools of Study.[5] They are as follows:
| ARWU[18] (2011/12, national) |
20-29 | |
|---|---|---|
| ARWU[18] (2011/12, world) |
201-300 | |
| QS[19] (2011/12, world) |
261 | |
| THE[20] (2011/12, national) |
27 | |
| THE[20] (2011/12, world) |
145 | |
| Complete/The Independent[21] (2012, national) |
27 | |
| The Guardian[22] (2012, national) |
18 | |
| The Sunday Times[23] (2012, national) |
22 | |
| The Times[24] (2012, national) |
23 | |
The results of the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), published on 8 December 2008, showed that over 50% of the University’s research activity was deemed to be "world leading" or "internationally excellent", with 87% in total being of "international standing".[25] The university's research in the domains of American and Anglophone Area Studies, Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, and in Development Studies placed its respective Schools within the top three nationally.[26][27][28] UEA also boasts the highest percentage of national world leading research in History of Art, Design and Architecture.[29] Research in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences along with Pharmacy places UEA within the top ten nationally.[30][31] The previous 2001 RAE ranked the Schools of Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Environmental Sciences and History at 5*, the highest possible research ranking. The Schools of Architecture, Biological Sciences, Chemistry, English Language and Literature, History of Art, Law, Philosophy, Pure Mathematics and Social Work were ranked at 5.[32]
The postgraduate Master of Arts in Creative Writing, founded by Sir Malcolm Bradbury and Sir Angus Wilson in 1970 is regarded as the most respected in the United Kingdom, and admission to the programme is competitive.[33] The course has gone on to produce a number of distinguished authors, including Ian McEwan, Kazuo Ishiguro, Anne Enright, Tash Aw, Andrew Miller, Owen Sheers, Tracy Chevalier, Trezza Azzopardi, Panos Karnezis, and Suzannah Dunn.The German émigré novelist W. G. Sebald also taught in the School of Literature and Creative Writing, and founded the British Centre for Literary Translation, until his death in a car accident in 2001.[34]
The Climatic Research Unit, founded in 1972 by Hubert Lamb in the School of Environmental Sciences[35] has been an early centre of work for climate change research. Publications include the recent study on anthropogenic polar warming. The School was also stated to be "the strongest in the world" by the Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government, Sir David King during a lecture at the John Innes Centre in 2005.[36] There has, however, been some controversy over alleged misconduct by climate scientists at the Climatic Research Unit (CRU).
Two academics from UEA, Professor of Development Studies Katrina Brown and Professor of Economic Behaviour and Decision Theory Graham Loomes, are among six scholars in the UK to have recently received prestigious fellowships from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) that will allow them to carry out cutting-edge research in social science.[37] Professor Ian Diamond, ESRC Chief Executive, said "These fellowships are designed to support leading social scientists working in the UK. The scheme offers Fellows with an outstanding track record in research, the time and funding to pursue an exciting research agenda, and to carry out innovative and creative work that will have economic, social land policy impacts. Each of the six successful individuals has an international reputation as a leader in their respective fields." The four other fellowship recipients were academics from Cardiff University, the University of Essex, the London School of Economics and the University of Oxford.[38]
According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (Hesa), in 2004 the proportion of students admitted to the University from independent schools was 11.6%.[39]
The UEA Union has a selection of sports clubs and societies ranging from football and rugby clubs to the independent student newspaper Concrete.
Nexus UTV, the campus television station, broadcasts news, comedy, documentaries and various other programmes, and is one of the oldest still-running student television stations in the country having been established in 1968.[40]
Livewire 1350AM, the award-winning campus radio station, which transmits to air on 1350AM in the vicinity of the University, as well as broadcasting on the internet, was established in 1989.
A more recent society, The Campus Sustainability Initiative, founded The Sustainability Initiative Fund, where UEA students each pay a £1 per year sustainability fee with the proceeds going towards sustainable projects on campus such as implementing renewable energies or energy conservation projects. The initiative was supported by UEA students in a campus referendum with a 78 percent majority, and the project was inspired by a similar initiative at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
The UEA Student Union operates many of the services on the university campus, which are open to all members of the university community and the general public. Connected to both "The Street" and "The Square" is one of the most popular Union venues, the "Union Pub and Bar", which underwent extension and refurbishment at the cost of £1.2 million in 2002. Other bars include "The Hive" (which, due to efforts from the Students' Union, was refurbished for the start of the 2004/05 academic year), and the "Graduate Students Club". In the same building is The LCR, known in full as either The Large[41] or Lower[42] Common Room. The LCR is home to weekly campus discos, as well as the many touring gigs. The students' union also run The Waterfront venue off campus in Norwich's King Street.
See also Category:Academics of the University of East Anglia
James Walter McFarlane Professor of European Studies 1964-86, founding Dean of School of European Studies, editor The Oxford Ibsen.Pro-Vice-Chancellor 1968-71
| Name | Position Held |
|---|---|
| Sir David Baulcombe | Professor of Plant Biology (2002–2007) |
| Sir Malcolm Bradbury | Professor of American Studies and co-founder of the MA in Creative Writing |
| Angela Carter | Writer in residence |
| Charles Clarke | Visiting Professor in Politics |
| Richard Evans | Lecturer in Modern History |
| Giles Foden | Professor of Creative Writing |
| Ian Gibson | Dean of Biology |
| Patricia Hollis, Baroness Hollis of Heigham | Lecturer in Modern History (1967–1990) |
| Phil Jones | Professor of Environmental Sciences and Director of the Climatic Research Unit |
| Paul Kennedy | Professor of History (1970–1983) |
| Hubert Lamb | Founding Director of the Climatic Research Unit |
| Sir Andrew Motion | Professor of Creative Writing (1995–2002) |
| Shirley Pearce | Professor of Health Psychology and Dean of the Institute of Health |
| Jonathan Raban | Lecturer in British and American literature (1967–1969) |
| Tracy Ryan | Lecturer in Australian Literature and Film |
| W. G. Sebald | Professor of German Literature and founder of the British Centre for Literary Translation |
| Steve Smith | Director of the Centre for Public Choice Studies |
| Robert Sugden | Professor in the School of Economics |
| Richard Synge | Professor of Biological Sciences (1968–1984) and winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry |
| Robert Watson | Chair of Environmental Science |
| Sir Angus Wilson | Lecturer in Creative Writing and co-founder of the MA in Creative Writing |
| Solly Zuckerman, Baron Zuckerman | Professor in Environmental Sciences (1969–1974) |
Dormer, P. and Muthesius, S. (2002) Concrete and Open Skies: Architecture at the University of East Anglia, 1962-2000. Unicorn Press.
Sanderson, M. (2002) The History of the University of East Anglia, Norwich. Hambledon Continuum.
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