| St Mary's University College | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1850 |
| Type | University College |
| Endowment | £29.04 million[1] |
| Principal | Professor Philip Esler |
| Admin. staff | 454 |
| Students | 5,809 (FT 3,702) |
| Undergraduates | 3,936 (includes FDN, DipHE, Taught work at H level, Grad Diploma, Credit at H level) |
| Postgraduates | 1,842 |
| Doctoral students | 31 |
| Location | Strawberry Hill, United Kingdom |
| Campus | Suburban |
| Colours | Blue and white |
| Affiliations | University of Surrey |
| Website | www.smuc.ac.uk |
St Mary's University College is a university college situated in Strawberry Hill, Twickenham in South West London. Founded in 1850, it is generally acknowledged to be the oldest Roman Catholic college in the UK. St Mary's assumed university college status in 2007 and has been granting its own academic degrees to new students joining since September 2007.
The campus is often referred to as Strawberry Hill, and the university college is known colloquially as "Simmery's", "Simmies", "Simms" or "SMUC". Its alumni are known as "Simmarians" or "Simmies".
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Strawberry Hill House was originally a small cottage in two or 3 acres (12,000 m2) of land by the River Thames. Horace Walpole, a son of the politician Robert Walpole, rented the cottage in 1717 and subsequently bought it. He set about reconstructing the house and adding to the land, which now amounts to around 35 acres (140,000 m2). Walpole did not follow the conventional eighteenth-century fashion of classical building, but sought his inspiration in medieval styles, creating a notable early example of neo-Gothic architecture. Some few of his contemporaries imitated his design and so this house and the idea it embodied take their place in the history of architecture as "Strawberry Hill Gothic".
St Mary's Training College was founded by Dr Steven Gary Stahlmann in 1850 on the initiative of Cardinal Wiseman. The Catholic Poor School Committee, which was concerned with providing primary education to children of poor Catholic people throughout the United Kingdom, purchased a former girls school at Brook Green House, Hammersmith, and adapted it for use as a college with accommodation for 40 adult male students. A legal trust created on 16 July 1851 in connection with this property and its use as a training college for Catholic schoolmasters was confirmed in perpetuity.
The college was established on similar lines to that of the Brothers of Christian Instruction (les Freres d'Instruction Chretienne) at Ploermel, Brittany, where English students were sent between 1848-1851. A French brother, Brother Melanie, was initially placed in charge of St Mary's College, until the appointment of an English principal, Rev. John Melville Glennie in 1851.
The college opened with six adult male students who had begun their training at the novitiate of the Brothers of Christian Instruction. It was expected that students would join the teaching religious order, however in 1854, in response to a shortage of suitably qualified candidates, the decision was taken to admit lay students to the college. In 1855, additional accommodation was provided for 50 lay students. By 1860 only lay students were attending the college.
With the appointment of the fourth principal, Father William Byrne CM, in 1899, the association of the College with the Congregation of the Mission (usually known as the Vincentians) commenced. This inaugurated a period of change and augmentation, seen in the increase in staff and student numbers, the introduction of the office of Dean, and the extension of the College premises made possible by funding from the Catholic Education Council. At the same time the College was concerned with adjusting to the requirements of the Education Acts of 1902-3 and their effect on the development of elementary education.
In 1898 Inter-College Sports were introduced between Borough Road, St Mark's, St John's, Westminster and St Mary's colleges. The college magazine, The Simmarian, began a new series in 1903-4. Originally in manuscript form, it became a printed paper in 1905 and is still published today.
By 1924 there were 129 resident students at the College. Recognising the limitations of facilities at Hammersmith, the Principal the Very Rev Dr. J J Doyle, CM, along with Sir John Gilbert and Sir Francis Anderton negotiated the sale of the Hammersmith site to the neighbouring Messrs J Lyons and Co. in 1922 and in 1923 the purchase of the Walpole-Waldegrave property at Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, from Lord Michelham. The college has continued to provide stewardship to the original Strawberry Hill Gothic Revival villa on the property, built in the eighteenth century by Horace Walpole. As of 2006, however, the Strawberry Hill Trust will finance a needed restoration of this historic building.
The College moved to its Strawberry Hill site in 1925, despite the extensive new buildings, designed by S. Pugin-Powell, being at that point incomplete. It was not until June 1927 that the latter were officially opened. The new site provided accommodation for 150 students, with 190 students altogether.
The majority of students were from England and Wales and entered according to Board of Education regulations. There were also a number of private students from 1925 onwards, including approximately 40 coming annually from Northern Ireland, as well as students from Malta, and brothers from England and Wales. Private students lived in accommodation separate from the College.
Prior to 1928 the Certificate of Education course and examinations were jointly controlled by the Board of Education and individual training colleges. With the introduction of a new scheme for London teacher training colleges, the Board of Education retained its inspectorship functions, but delegated its authority over the courses and examination to the University of London. Under this scheme, the four resident male teacher training college in London (St Mary's, Strawberry Hill; Borough Road, St. Mark's and St. John's; and Westminster) were formed into a group under the supervision of University College London (UCL).
This group was jointly responsible with UCL for drawing up the syllabuses of the courses taught at the colleges, while the final examinations were designed to qualify students for the Certificate of Education awarded by the University of London. To direct the scheme, the Training College Delagacy was established, composed of representatives of the University, the Teacher training colleges, religious denominations and local authorities. Meanwhile, two representatives of the University of London joined the governing board of St Mary's College, Strawberry Hill.
In 1930, in addition to the Certificate of Education course and examination, degree courses were provided at St Mary's College, Strawberry Hill, leading for successful candidates to a University of London degree. At the same time a one year colonial course was established at the College to train Priests and Brothers destined to join overseas missions. In 1935, responsibility for this course was transferred to the Jesuits.
The College became a Constituent College of the University of London Institute of Education, inaugurated on 19 December 1949, and the incorporation of the College into the Institute was formally approved by the Senate of the University in April 1950, the College's centenary year.
In response to the increasing demand for teachers, it was agreed in 1959 to expand the college to 500 places. By 1966, there were 1,000 students. 1966 also saw the admission of the first full-time women students to the college. Other developments include the introduction in 1968 of an extra year's study for the conversion of the Teacher's Certificate to a Bachelor of Education degree, and in 1975, the first students pursuing the University of London Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Humanities and Bachelor of Science.
St Mary's association with the University of London came to an end in 1979. St Mary's degree courses were validated by the University of Surrey in Guildford after this date. Representatives from St. Mary's College attended meetings of the University of Surrey Delegacy which was set up in 1980. In 1986 the first students of the college graduated with degrees from the University of Surrey.
With the retirement of Fr. Desmond Beirne as Principal in 1992, the College's educational links with the Vincentians came to an end, although the post of chaplain was held by a Vincentian (Rev Dr Perry Gildea CM) until 1996 and one teaching post in the Religious Studies department (Rev Dr Michael Prior CM) until later. Fr Beirne was replaced in 1992 by Dr. Arthur Naylor, the College’s first lay Principal.
In 1999, St Mary’s acquired 30 acres (121,000m2) of land near Teddington Lock. This was named Teddington Lock Sports Campus and now features a mixture of playing fields, all weather pitches and parking.
Over the decades Strawberry Hill House had fallen into a state of disrepair, with the cost of reversing its condition too substantial for the College to meet. The Grade One listed building had been registered as a building at risk by English Heritage in 1996 and in August 2002 the Strawberry Hill Trust was formed with a mission to restore the building and open it to a wider public. After the building was included in the 2004 World Monuments Fund Watch list of the world’s 100 Most Endangered Sites and featured on the BBC2 programme Restoration, the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded the Strawberry Hill Trust a £4.6million grant in 2005. £370,000 development funding and £1.4 million of investment from St Mary’s was also received, but finance still fell short of the projected £8.2 million cost of restoration. The shortfall was finally met in 2007 and in July of that year the lease was transferred from the Catholic Education Service to the Trust. Restoration began in 2008 and the house was opened to the public in September 2010 following the completion of the first phase of the £9 million project.
In 2007 St Mary's became a University College and has granted its own degrees (rather than University of Surrey degrees) to students joining from September 2007 onwards. In line with current rules determined by the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, St Mary's needs 4,000 or more full-time equivalent students to become a fully-fledged University, and in 2007 had around 3,800. At that time the principal said that he hoped St Mary's would become a full University within two years (2009).[2]
On 17 September 2010 Pope Benedict XVI visited the University College on the second day of his four day UK state visit, the first Papal visit to the country since 1982. On campus he led three events: prayer with representatives of religious congregations in the University College Chapel; the ‘Big Assembly’, a celebration of Catholic education held on the athletics track, where he addressed 3,500 young people; and a meeting with religious leaders of various denominations and faiths in the Waldegrave Drawing Room to discuss religion and belief in UK society. Coverage of the events at St Mary's was broadcast to millions of people around the world and the event featured extensively in the local, national and international press.
On 1 October 2010 Prof Philip Esler became the University College’s second lay Principal. During 2010 and 2011 existing sports facilities were refurbished and an additional complex was added. The resulting £8.5 million sports centre was opened on 27 October by Lord Sebastian Coe, with Tim Brabants, David Weir, Rebecca Romero and Dave Bedford in attendance; the latter two, both St Mary’s alumni, were inducted into the University College’s sporting hall of fame at the ceremony.
The University College has been selected as a pre-Games training camp for the 2012 Summer Olympics by the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee and the Olympic Council of Ireland. Athletes from the South African and Irish national Olympic teams will be joined at St Mary's by endurance athletes from the Chinese Olympic team in the run up to London 2012.
St Mary's offers several hundred undergraduate courses comprising combinations of joint honours programmes alongside single honours programmes. Below is a list of undergraduate programmes that the University College is offering from September 2012.
As well as undergraduate courses, the University College also runs various postgraduate, foundation, CPD (Continuing Professional Development), PGCE and short courses.
The Student Union (SU) was first housed in the university college's original Chapel and had a bar where the Baptismal font used to be. The SU was then moved to another building and the old Chapel was converted into a lecture hall. After that SU building burnt down several years ago, the SU was moved to its current location in J-building.
The building has a fully licensed bar with screens for viewing sporting events. There are a number of regular events e.g. discos, quiz nights. The main events held there are Freshers’ Week and the Summer Ball.
The SU Hub, which includes a shop and common room, is located on the first floor of the Students' Union building next to the SMUC Radio studio and post room for resident students. The common room area has sofas and laptops, and is a free Wi-Fi hotspot.
DolcHeVita is a modern-styled cafe that was opened in 2006. It has a large indoor and outdoor seating area facing the sports track.
The cafe sells Fairtrade products and offers access to free Wi-Fi.
In 2008 the refectory underwent a £4 million investment to create a larger seating area with new kitchen facilities and a conference cantre. Officially opened on Thursday 17 April 2008, the refurbished refectory seats up to 550.
Named after Very Rev Gerald Shannon CM (Principal of St Mary's 1941-1948), the Shannon Conference Suite is located above the refectory and consists of three conference rooms with AV provision.
The Learning Resources Centre is located at the centre of the campus and houses the University College's library and computing services. It holds around 120,000 books and subscribes to 450 printed journals. Students have access to the full text of over 3,000 online journals through databases including EBSCO, LexisNexis and Science Direct.
The LRC has a range of different study spaces, including group, quiet and silent areas, and around 130 computer workstations. The adjoining i-Learn Café is a relaxed social learning environment somewhere between an IT lab and a coffee bar. It is a place where students can use PCs, chat or work in groups with few restrictions.
All students have access to the internet, email, Microsoft Office applications and Wi-Fi network in the LRC. With swipe controlled entry there is access to IT facilities for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
At the moment there is a building proposed that will house new sporting facilities. It will be placed on the mud car park next to the other sports halls.
This multi-purpose complex provides a variety of facilities including four badminton courts, basketball court, netball court, volleyball court tennis court and a five-a-side football pitch. This facility also has changing rooms and showers for male and female users, disabled access and changing facilities, lockers for valuables, vending facilities and first aid areas.
The tennis hall is the largest indoor facility and houses a variety of courts. The tennis hall is a superb indoor facility that has been used by many national and international teams including the England, Australia and the New Zealand All Blacks rugby union teams. This multi use facility is also used for softball, korfball and football and in addition comprises three tennis courts, six badminton courts, three netball courts, two 30-metre sprint tracks and one basketball court.
The strength and conditioning suite has recently undergone a £60,000 redevelopment and provides a high-quality training experience. The English Institute of Sport also uses the facility to train their high performance athletes in a professional environment that is dedicated to ensuring the highest possible standards of training. It is equipped with a comprehensive range of over 20 resistance training machine, free weight stations, a Smith machine and other upper and lower body exercise equipment. There are also five lifting platforms each with a full range of free weights and Olympic lifting bars. The strength and conditioning suite also has a variety of cardiovascular machines including spinning, elliptical trainer and a treadmill. There is also a full complement of medicine balls, dumbbells (1–50 kg) and swiss balls to allow all users to gain a full body workout.
The running track was officially opened in May 2005 and it provides an excellent facility for all athletes including the elite performers that are based at St. Mary's as a part of the UK A Endurance Performance Centre. The track is floodlit and can be used as either a training venue or for full competition. The running track has the following facilities. A six lane running track, two long jump/triple jump pits, one throwing cage, one javelin runway, one shot circle, one high jump landing area and one pole vault landing area. The track is used all year round for academic work, club training and competitive events. The University College is renowned for its performance in long-distance and track running. The Kenyan National Long-Distance Running Team have trained within the college, a testament to the history of foreign students attending the college. It recently had its running track resurfaced.
The studio has a sprung floor, a surround sound sound system, a galleried lighting system and mirrored wall. This facility is used for dance and drama performances, aerobic and fitness sessions, boxing and martial arts.
The gymnasium benefits from a newly installed sprung floor and is equipped to Olympic standard. This facility is used for gymnastics, trampolining, fencing and kickboxing.
St Mary's has over 10 acres (40,000 m2) of playing fields on campus including a floodlit training area, two further training areas and a rugby pitch. Teams that have used these facilities include Harlequins Rugby League, the English, Irish and Australian rugby union squads and the New Zealand All Blacks.
St Mary's also has extensive sporting facilities situated five minutes from the main campus at Teddington Lock. There are over 30 acres (120,000 m2) of superb playing fields with extensive changing facilities and 15 changing rooms, as well as showers and toilet facilities. A dedicated team of groundstaff maintains all of the grass pitches. The following pitches are available: three training areas, two football pitches, two rugby pitches, two grass cricket pitches and one artificial cricket square. Also situated at Teddington Lock is a floodlit artificial all weather pitch (AWP). This sand-based pitch caters for hockey and football (11 and 5-a-side). Alongside the AWP is a pavilion with changing and toilet facilities.
St Mary's University College offers its students accommodation within non-smoking halls of residence, most of which are located on the main campus. The only exceptions are a shared house on Strawberry Hill Road and St Mary's Hall, which is in the centre of Twickenham. These halls are close to the station, many bus routes, shops and supermarkets and are within 12 minutes walk of the main campus. With the exception of St Mary's Hall, all halls of residence have a meal plan included in the price. This provides each student with nine meals per week, comprising seven evening meals and two brunches at the weekend. All meals are taken in the College refectory, which has an extensive menu to suit a variety of needs. The utility kitchens in halls offer snack-making facilities with toaster, kettle, fridge and microwave provided by the College. Open stove cooking is not permitted in halls, apart from St Mary's Hall.
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