| Swansea University | |
|---|---|
| Prifysgol Abertawe | |
| Motto | Gweddw crefft heb ei dawn ("Technical skill is bereft without culture") |
| Established | 1920 |
| Type | Public |
| Chancellor | The Rt. Hon. Rhodri Morgan |
| Vice-Chancellor | Professor Richard B. Davies |
| Admin. staff | 2,500 |
| Students | 18,445[1] |
| Undergraduates | 11,730[1] |
| Postgraduates | 2,145[1] |
| Other students | 4,570 FE[1] |
| Location | Swansea, UK |
| Campus | Suburban/Coastal |
| Colours | Blue; AU colours = Green and White |
| Affiliations | University of Wales, EUA, ACU |
| Website | http://www.swan.ac.uk/ |
Swansea University (Welsh: Prifysgol Abertawe) is a university located in Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom. Swansea University was chartered as University College of Swansea in 1920,[2] as the fourth college of the University of Wales. In 1996, it changed its name to the University of Wales Swansea[2] following structural changes within the University of Wales. The new title of Swansea University was formally adopted on 1 September 2007 when the University of Wales became a non-membership confederal institution and the former members became universities in their own right.[3]
It is the third largest university in Wales in terms of number of students. The university campus is located next to the coast at the north of Swansea Bay, east of the Gower Peninsula, in the grounds of Singleton Park, just outside Swansea city centre. Swansea was granted its own degree-awarding powers in 2005 in preparation for possible changes within the University of Wales.[4]
Swansea and Cardiff University compete in an annual varsity match, known as the Welsh version of the Oxbridge event, which includes the Welsh Varsity rugby and The Welsh Boat Race.
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Swansea received its royal charter in 1920 and like many universities is governed by its constitution that is set out in its statutes and charter. The governing body of Swansea University is its Council, which, in turn, is supported by the Senate and the Court.
Swansea University's academic departments are organised into 6 colleges:
American Studies, Ancient History, Egyptology, Applied Linguistics, Classics, Cymraeg/Welsh, English, French, German, History, Italian, Mediaeval Studies, Media Studies (with Film and PR options), Politics & International Relations, PPE, Spanish-Hispanic Studies, Translation, War and Society
The School of Business and Economics: Accounting, Banking, Business Management, Economics, Finance, Information Systems, Marketing
The School of Law: International Maritime, Trade and Commercial Law, Business & Law. Legal Practice Course, Graduate Diploma in Law, IISTL, CEELP, LLB
Aerospace, Chemical and Biological, Civil, Electrical and Electronic, Information, Communication & Computing Technology, Materials, Mechanical, Medical, Product Design, Engineering & Technology, Sport & Exercise Science
Audiology, Applied Social Sciences, Cancer Care, Childhood Studies, Clinical Physiology, Midwifery, Medical Sciences & Humanities, Nursing (Adult, Child, Mental), Osteopathy, Paramedic Science, Pre-Hospital Care, Psychology, Public Health and Health Promotion, Radiography
Graduate Entry Medicine (4-year programme), Centre for Health Information, Biochemistry, Genetics, Institute of Life Sciences 1 & 2, BioMedical Research
Anthropology, Biological Sciences, Centre for Development Studies, Computer Science, Cosmology, Geography, Marine Biology, Mathematics, Pure Mathematics, Physics, Sociology, Topographic Science, Zoology
Swansea is a highly research intensive university with 52 Centres of Research.[5] The 2008 Research Assessment Exercise rankings for Swansea showed a doubling of world-leading research and the largest increase in internationally excellent research in the whole of the UK, resulting in Swansea University climbing 13 places in the UK rankings from 2001 to 2008. Almost 50 per cent of all research at Swansea University was assessed as world-leading or internationally excellent - 4* and 3*- the top two categories of assessment.[6]
Within Wales, out of 31 subject areas submitted in the RAE, Swansea University came first in 17 areas, and first or second in 24 areas.
| Research area for which Swansea University is first in Wales |
|---|
| Allied Health Professions and Studies (Biomedicine) |
| American Studies and Anglophone Area Studies |
| Civil Engineering |
| Classics, Ancient History, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies |
| Computer Science |
| Development Studies |
| Economics and Econometrics |
| French |
| Health Services Research |
| German, Dutch and Scandinavian Languages |
| General Engineering and Mineral & Mining Engineering |
| History |
| Italian |
| Iberian and Latin American Languages |
| Metallurgy and Materials |
| Physics |
| Pure Mathematics |
| Social Work and Social Policy and Administration [6] |
Recent research interests include being part of the Bloodhound SSC land-speed record attempt in the area of Computational Fluid Dynamics and Aerodynamic design.[7] The university was also a key partner in the successful Thrust SSC land-speed record attempt.
The university has a connection with CERN. At CERN, university staff were part of the first team to create antihydrogen[6] and later trapping it.[8] The current leader of the Large Hadron Collider project is a former Alumni Dr Lyn Evans.
Staff at the Clinical Haemorheology Laboratory, next to Morriston Hospital’s A&E department, have been working with Haemair and the University’s Complex Fluids Group in the Department of Engineering on developing a patented prosthetic lung and respiratory aid It has been showcased in the Science Museum in London. It is likely to be of huge benefit to patients with chronic lung diseases including emphysema, Cystic Fibrosis and severe asthma, and could be an alternative to a lung transplant in some cases. It could also play a major role in short-term care for patients suffering temporary lung failure.The lung could be available for patients within five years.[9]
The new Centre brings together more than 30 experts from a range of disciplines (engineering, physics, chemistry, biology and medicine) and a central suite of laboratories housing state-of-the-art facilities. The Centre is recognised as a growth area within the University that will spearhead the nanotechnology activity across the whole of Wales. Of particular interests are directions based on semiconductors, oxides, liquids, organic and biological materials. Emerging fields such as bio-electronics, nano-medicine, nano-fabrication, nano-rheology, fundamental modelling at the nanoscopic level and bio-nanotechnology have been identified as key areas to develop.
This is the rapidly expanding research and commercial arm of the School of Medicine and is one of the most significant developments on any UK university campus it aims to convert research carried out by the School of Medicine into commercial products. At £52million, Institute of Life Science is the largest investment in research ever made at Swansea. The second phase of the Institute Life Science opened in November 2011 and cost £29million.
Boots Centre for Innovation was created in April 2007 as a non profit making partnership between Boots the Chemist, Longbow Capital, Swansea University and the Welsh Assembly Government. The Centre was created to work closely with early stage companies or lone inventors to develop innovative new products and technologies within the health and beauty sectors, and to eventually launch new consumer products for the shelves of Boots stores.[10]
The Universities of Cardiff and Bangor have developed a pioneering collaborative venture that researches illnesses such as strokes, dementia and brain injuries. These three faculties, home to over 250 academics and researchers, have brought in approximately £11 million in grants in just the last three years.
The Welsh Assembly Government decided to build upon these strengths by investing over £5 million to establish the new multi-centre Wales Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience (WICN). The institute draws together the three psychology faculties, with investment in a shared management structure, administrative support, and additional academic appointments, as well as equipment and technical support in order to grow as one institute in the study and application of cognitive and clinical neuroscience.
| Callaghan Centre for the Study of Conflict |
| Centre for Child Research |
| Centre for Children and Young People’s Health |
| Centre for Complex Fluids Processing |
| Centre for Contemporary German Literature |
| Centre for Criminal Justice and Criminology |
| Centre for Development Studies |
| Centre for Egyptology & Mediterranean Archaeology |
| Centre for Environmental and Energy Law and Policy |
| Centre for Innovative Ageing |
| Centre For Medieval And Early Modern Research |
| Centre for Migration Policy Research |
| Centre for NanoHealth |
| Centre for Research into Iberian Stage and Screen |
| Centre for Social Work and Social Care Research |
| Centre for Sustainable Aquaculture Research |
| Centre for the Comparative Study of the Americas |
| Centre for the Study of Culture and Politics |
| Centre for Urban Theory |
| Chernobyl Tissue Bank |
| Civil and Computational Engineering |
| Climate and Land-Surface Systems Interaction Centre-CLASSIC |
| Centre for Research into the English Literature and Language of Wales-CREW |
| Electronics System Design Centre |
| EPSRC National Mass Spectrometry Service Centre |
| Future Interaction Technology Lab |
| Centre for Research into Gender in Culture and Society-GENCAS |
| Glaciology Group |
| Research Group Greenland Ice Sheet-GLIMPSE Project |
| Hywel Dda Institute |
| Institute of Environmental Sustainability |
| Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law |
| Institute of Mass Spectrometry |
| Kyknos-The Centre for Research in Ancient Narrative Literature |
| Materials Research Centre |
| National Centre for Public Policy |
| Performance Engineering Training Consortium |
| Research Group for Health, History and Culture |
| Research Institute for Arts and Humanities |
| The Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Ageing |
| Translation and Multilingualism |
| Vocabulary Acquisition Research Group |
| Welsh Centre for Printing and Coating |
| Welsh Economy Labour Market Evaluation and Research Centre-WELMERC |
| Wittgensteinian Studies [6] |
The majority of university buildings are on the Singleton Campus, based in the grounds of Singleton Park, adjacent to Swansea Bay. The campus also includes the nearby Sports Village and Hendrefoelan Student Village, about 2.5 miles away.[11]
In 2011, the university's Library & Information Services and Administrative Computing Unit merged to form Information Services and Systems. ISS provides a combined library, IT and careers service. The main Library & Information Centre on the Singleton campus has over 800,000 books and periodicals, along with access to a wide range of electronic resources including over 23,000 electronic journals. There are over 1,000 study spaces, almost half of which are equipped with networked PCs. LIS was awarded the Charter Mark in 2006, and received the new Customer Service Excellence award in 2009.
The Library & Information Centre also has major archive collections, based on the South Wales Coalfield Collection, several papers of Welsh writers in English and the Richard Burton Collection, which was recently donated by Burton's wife, Sally. It is hoped that the collection will form the hub of a learning resource dedicated to the actor’s life and work.
Recent developments include a major extension in opening hours, the transfer of the stock of the Morriston Hospital Nursing Library to the Library and Information Centre and the creation of the Richard Burton Archives which house his personal possessions as well as the South Wales Coalfield Collection .
Swansea University's sports centre[12] is located near the main campus on the western side of Sketty Lane. The university sports centre is separate to the adjacent King Edward V Playing fields to the west. The sports centre is used by the university for its sports degree courses as well for general student recreation. Facilities include an indoor 6-lane running track, gymnasium, sports hall, tennis courts, squash courts and a climbing wall. Outdoor facilities include an 8-lane running track and floodlit playing fields including rugby, football, lacrosse and cricket pitches.[13][14]
The Wales National Pool in the Sketty area of Swansea, Wales, is a 50 metre swimming pool built to FINA standards. The facility, which also has a 25m × 9.5m training pool and 1,200 spectator seats, is used to train Wales' world class aquatic sports athletes and houses the headquarters of the Wales Amateur Swimming Association.
The pool is one of five of British Swimming's Intensive Training Centres (ITC), used to train swimmers for the London 2012 Olympics. The facility was built with funding from Sport Wales, Swansea Council and Swansea University and is built on the site of the university's sports centre.
Xtreme Radio is the radio station of the University, run by students. It was founded in November 1968 as Action Radio, making it the third oldest student radio station in the UK and oldest in Wales.[15] It broadcasts to various areas around campus, around Swansea itself on 1431AM and worldwide on the internet. The station plays a wide variety of music, as well as having a number of specialist programmes including talk and sports shows.
Located within the Taliesin building, the Egypt Centre is a museum of Egyptian antiquities open to the public. There are over 4000 items in the collection.[16] Most of them were collected by the pharmacist Sir Henry Wellcome. Others came to the university from: the British Museum; the Royal Edinburgh Museum; National Museums and Galleries of Wales Cardiff; the Royal Albert Museum and Art Gallery and also private donors.
Egypt Centre staff regularly give lectures and talks to museum groups and other outside bodies on widening participation in university museums; social inclusion and volunteering. Schools regularly visit us to take part in a stimulating and interactive programme of events.[16]
Swansea University provides approximately 3400 places in University halls and aims to offer accommodation to over 98% of new Undergraduate students who request it. Accommodation is also available for all International Postgraduate students.
Swansea University maintains on-campus and off-campus halls of residence and the purpose built Hendrefoelan Student Village. Several new halls of residence were completed in 2004 and in 2008.
There are also a number of university managed properties in the Uplands and Brynmill areas of the city.[17]
Hendrefoelan Student Village is the university’s largest residence site where 1644 students live in self-catering accommodation. The Hendrefoelan estate is 2.5 miles from the campus, just off the main Swansea to Gower road, set amongst mature woodland with open grassy areas. The campus hosts a mini-supermarket, laundrette, bar and diner. Buses run from the campus to the University, City Centre, Swansea Stadium and various Hospitals within the city. The campus is near the Killay shopping precinct.[17]
There are nine halls that make up the campus residences providing accommodation to around 1226 students. The halls offer a combination of part and self-catered rooms and a choice of standard or ensuite study rooms. Three of these halls (Caswell, Langland and Oxwich) were completed in 2004 and the original halls (Kilvey, Preseli, Rhossili and Cefn Bryn, formerly known as Sibly, Lewis Jones, Mary Williams Annexe and Mary Williams respectively) have undergone some refurbishment in recent years. Penmaen and Horton are the newest addition to the campus residences providing 351 self-catered, ensuite study rooms. Many rooms have views over the bay or across the park.[18]
Six large Victorian town houses situated in the Uplands area of Swansea, approximately a mile from the Singleton campus. Predominantly provide rooms for postgraduates and students with families, as well as overseas exchange students.[19]
The University has restructured in recent years, expanding popular areas such as History, English, Geography and Computer Science while The Department of Chemistry has been closed down. However, recent course additions include Aerospace Engineering as well as a partnership with Cardiff University to provide a four-year accelerated graduate-entry medical degree (MB BCh) in Swansea which was launched in 2004. In 2007 Swansea University was awarded the four year course on its own.[1]
The Western Britain chapter of the International Conference for the Study of Political Thought was moved to the Department of Politics & International Relations from Exeter University earlier in 2006.
In July 2007 the £52 million Institute of Life Science (ILS) opened as the research arm of the university's school of medicine.[21] The ILS is based in a six-storey building housing laboratories, business incubation suites and an IBM Blue C supercomputer.[22][23] The supercomputer is used for projects including numerically-intensive analysis of viral genomes, epidemiological modelling, large clinical databases and analysis of the genetics of disease susceptibility.[24] In July 2009, an expansion of the ILS was announced with a £29m investment from Swansea University, the Welsh Assembly Government, the European Union and Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board.[25] ILS2 was completed in November 2011.[26]
In November 2007, the University announced a collaboration with Navitas to found an International College - International College Wales Swansea to provide foundation, 1st year degree and Pre-Masters programmes on campus. The first intake was September 2008.
In written evidence presented to the Welsh Assembly's Enterprise and Learning Committee in January 2008, the university stated that it was "at an advanced stage of discussion" about a new 'Innovation Campus' on a second site.
This 'Innovation Campus' aims to capitalise on the University’s growing research expertise and interactions with major international companies such as BP and Rolls Royce. At the same time it will create significant additional student places principally in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics to meet demand, which cannot be physically achieved within the existing Singleton Park Campus alone. More particularly it will address the deficiency in science and technology research in Wales which is an essential component in building the Welsh Knowledge Economy.
Swansea University is undergoing rapid, research-led growth fuelled by an aggressive development strategy. Long-established strengths in Engineering and Physical Sciences are complemented by the Institute of Life Science, Europe’s first centre for Nano-health, and the Institute of Advanced Telecommunications, all of which enjoy research funding support from world-leading multinational companies.
The 'Innovation Campus' will be developed on a 100-acre (0.40 km2) site near Fabian Way at Crymlyn Burrows[27] and will be home to Engineering, Computing, Telecommunications, the Business and Law Schools and a range of "research/test facilities" for large and small companies.[28]
Outline planning permission was granted in December 2010 by Neath Port Talbot Borough Council and the final tranch of funding was guaranteed by the Welsh Assembly Government in March 2011.[29] The final designs are now being prepared by architects in conjunction with the Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment and work is expected to begin in 2012.
Meanwhile, the Singleton Park campus is to undergo renovation with vacated buildings to be adapted or demolished. The buildings earmarked for demolition are: Vivian Tower, Talbot building, Taliesin Annexe and Union House.[30]
The Times university 2008 Top 100 league table listed the university as the 46th best university in the UK, up from 50th position in 2004 but down from 42nd in 2005. The university picked up the 2005 Times Higher Education Supplement Award for the UK's "best student experience".[31][32] However, the survey was criticised by some, as it was carried out by the Student Panel making the sample self-selected and therefore unscientific. The university is also listed as one of the top 500 universities in the World at 401 to 500 in the 2006 Shanghai Jiao Tong University World Rankings.[33] Additionally, the 2008 Times Higher Education Supplement of World University Rankings places Swansea as 347th in the world, up from 401-500 in 2007.[34]
In July 2011, Vice-Chancellor Richard Davies unveiled at the Honorary Fellows’ Dinner a strategy agreed between Swansea University, the Welsh Assembly Government and the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) to achieve Swansea’s ambitions to become a World top 200 institution.
The Times Good University Guide 2005 places Swansea second to Cambridge out of 45 universities for Civil Engineering.[35]
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