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The University of Northampton

Former names	University College Nene College of Higher Education (1975), Northampton Technical College (1924)
Motto	Transforming lives, inspiring change
Type	Public
Established	2005 (gained University status) 1975 (Nene College established)
Endowment	£0.95 m[1]
Chancellor	Rev. Richard Coles
Vice-Chancellor	Nick Petford
Administrative staff	1,048[2]
Students	12,850 (2016/17)[3]
Undergraduates	10,485 (2016/17)[3]
Postgraduates	2,365 (2016/17)[3]
Location	Northampton , Northamptonshire , UK
Website	northampton.ac.uk

The University of Northampton is a public university based in Northampton, Northamptonshire, England. It was formed in 1999 by the amalgamation of a number of training colleges, and gained full university status as the University of Northampton in 2005.

History

Northampton Technical College was opened at St George's Avenue—now the site of the Avenue Campus—in 1924. Eight years later, a new building for the College was formally opened by the Duke and Duchess of York. A School of Art opened later in 1937.^[4]

The entrance to Avenue Campus

At the beginning of the 1970s, Northamptonshire was one of the few counties in England to lack a teacher-training college. A college in Liverpool lost its home and was transferred to what is now the Park Campus. The College of Education was opened by the Secretary of State for Education and Science, Margaret Thatcher, in 1972. In 1975, this College amalgamated with the Colleges of Technology and Art to become Nene College of Higher Education, taking its name from the River Nene. In 1978, it integrated the Leathersellers College from London.

In 1993, the college incorporated St. Andrew's School of Occupational Therapy and was granted undergraduate degree awarding powers. In 1997, it took in the Sir Gordon Roberts College of Nursing and Midwifery.

It became University College Northampton in 1999 and gained full university status in 2005. To gain university status it had to convince the Privy Council that a Royal Decree banning the establishment of a university in Northampton, signed by King Henry III in 1265 following the Battle of Lewes, should be repealed. In 2005, the university also received the power to validate its own research degrees, which had formerly been validated by the University of Leicester. In the graduation ceremonies in July 2006, seven students received the first doctoral degrees validated by the University of Northampton.

In January 2010, the School of Applied Sciences was renamed the School of Science and Technology and moved into the newly refurbished Newton Building at Avenue Campus. The Newton Building was officially opened in September 2010 by HRH The Princess Anne.

Campuses

Main entrance to the Avenue Campus

The university has three sites: Avenue Campus, just north of the town centre, opposite a large open park known as the Racecourse; the new Waterside Campus, which opened in September 2018 and is now the main campus for the university and an Innovation centre opposite Northampton railway station. The former Park Campus to the north of the town is now being wound down following the opening of Waterside.

The university has various types of halls of residence on its two older campuses, with just over 1,600 rooms. Most first-year students live in halls, and few second- or third-years do so. Many of them live in the Abington area, north-east of the town centre. The main halls are now located in the student village of the Waterside Campus and include Francis Crick; Margaret Bondfield; John Clare; and Charles Bradlaugh. A former ground-floor flat in the latter is a multi-faith Chaplaincy Centre, and another in John Clare houses the Centre for Community Volunteering; Bassett-Lowke.

Simon Senlis hall

The university also offers accommodation at Belinda Ferrison House in the Mounts area of the town centre. In April 2012, Northampton Borough Council granted planning permission for a 464-room hall of residence on the site of the St John's Surface Car Park in the town centre. It opened in 2014 and mainly accommodates international and post-graduate students.^[5]

New buildings include a Santander Bank, "one-stop" student centre on Park Campus, an innovation centre at Avenue Campus for small and start-up businesses, and a complete re-fit of the editing and sound studios at Avenue Campus.

The Newton Building

The university recently took ownership of the Grade II-listed former Kingsley Park Middle School, next door to Avenue Campus. This has undergone an £11m refurbishment and now houses most of the School of Science and Technology, formerly split between Avenue Campus and Park Campus. The building has been renamed the Newton Building, after Sir Isaac Newton.

The university achieved the Ecocampus Silver award in 2011.^[6]

In May 2012, the university announced plans to establish a new riverside campus in the town centre, on the site of the disused Northampton Power Station on the south bank of the River Nene^[7] and located within the Northampton Waterside Enterprise Zone (known simply as Northampton Waterside).^[8][9] The Waterside Campus opened to students in September 2018.^[10]

Organisation and administration

Governance

The Vice-Chancellor is Nick Petford, who was preceded in the post by Ann Tate (who received an honorary degree from the university in 2011) and Martin Gaskell.

On 10 February 2008, the university appointed Baroness Falkner of Margravine as its first Chancellor. In July 2017, she was succeeded by the BBC radio presenter Reverend Richard Coles.^[11]

The Board of Governors are the members of the Higher Education Corporation and act both as Governors and charitable trustees. There are 17 members of the Board of Governors. They are drawn from the private, public and voluntary sectors as well as from the staff and students of the University.^[12]

The current membership of the Board of Governors is listed below.

Credit union

The Changemaker Credit Union is a joint initiative between the university and Northamptonshire Credit Union, providing financial services to students and staff.^[13] Northamptonshire Credit Union is a member of the Association of British Credit Unions Limited.^[14]

Academic profile

The university had 12,850 students spread across its two campuses in 2016/17.^[3] It is divided into four faculties: the Faculty of Business & Law, the Faculty of Arts, Science & Technology, the Faculty of Health & Society; and the Faculty of Education & Humanities.^[15]

The Sunley Conference Centre is for management training and development and also provides a large part of the university's conference facilities.

The university offers a wide range of undergraduate degrees, foundation degrees, diplomas and a variety of postgraduate opportunities up to PhD level. It is one of only a handful of universities in the UK to offer two-year fast-track degrees (currently for management and marketing and law) and it also offers four-year extended degrees with a year in industry. The university is internationally renowned for waste management education and research. Other centres of excellence include Centre for Children and Youth (childhood and Children's Geographies), Transpersonal Psychology, leather technology and lift engineering. Degree programmes in Environmental Science subjects offer overseas fieldwork trips for undergraduate students to locations such as North America and the Canary Islands.

Reputation and rankings

In the 2012 Guardian University League Table, the university was ranked first for 'value added' in UK.^[20]

The university was awarded 'The Outstanding HEI Supporting Social Entrepreneurship Award' at the UnLtd/HEFCE ‘Dare to be Different’ national conference in June 2011.^[21] and has also been named the Midlands most 'Enterprising University of the Year' for both 2011 and 2012, in recognition of its work in social enterprise.^[22] In February 2013, the university received international recognition for its commitment to social innovation and entrepreneurship by being designated a 'Changemaker Campus' by Ashoka U.^[23] Northampton is the first Changemaker Campus in the UK and joins a global network of 21 other Changemaker Campuses.

Research

In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) the university achieved significant ratings in Business and Management; Health; Education; History; Metallurgy and Materials; English; Drama, Dance and Performing Arts; Art and Design; and Asian Studies.^[24]

Research, consultancy and knowledge transfer at the university are centred on a number of cognate research groupings. It carries out internationally renowned research into lift engineering and technology, using the Express Lift Tower in the town, reflecting the town's historic role in lift manufacturing.

The university provides numerous other business support schemes and programmes for new companies. These are often run through the university's Sunley Management Centre. Other schemes run by the university include an art loan facility for offices or conferences. The university provided lab facilities for the Channel 4 programme "How Clean Is Your House".

Learning and teaching

The Institute of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, directed by Prof. Alejandro Armellini, is a central point of support and reference for all staff and services across the University of Northampton. It focuses on three areas: intellectual capital, student experience, and learning and teaching enhancement and innovation.^[25] The Institute aims to enable transformational learning experiences through inspirational teaching. It works on developing capability in learning design, innovation and excellent teaching practice, underpinned by the latest pedagogic research.^[26]

Student life

Students' Union

The Students' Union has multiple venues across the two campuses.

On Park Campus, there is Central Park, the daytime bar and food outlet. Upstairs there is The Attic, a 500-capacity venue that hosts club nights and numerous other student-led events. On the other side of campus there is Pavilion, which serves food and drink throughout the day and evenings, serves Starbucks Coffee and offers a range of entertainment, including live music.

The Union building on Avenue Campus was refurbished in 2011; it has a bar and diner and is home to the Union’s radio station. It is host to live music, stand-up comedy and karaoke nights.

The Students' Union also operates the UniExpress retail outlet on Park Campus and Art Shop in the Maidwell building on Avenue Campus.

The Union was awarded a national Gold award,^[27] as well as 'Best Club', in the national NUS Best Bar None awards 2011. This award confirms the Union as being a safe venue with effective policies on drink and drugs, crime prevention, fire, security and first aid.

The Students' Union is led by three full-time Sabbatical Officers, backed by hundreds of volunteers including an extended Elected Officer Team of Part Time Officers and supported by almost 200 staff – both student and career staff^[28].

In 2017 Rafael Garcia-Krailing, Students' Union President, proposed the creation of a fourth sabbatical officer to represent the interests of the student body to the University of Northampton. The proposed role would look to work collaboratively with the University in enhancing its welfare and wellbeing support services in addition to running proactive campaigns on such issues. The proposal was passed at the Union's Student Council and Board of Trustees in December of that year and ratified at the University of Northampton's Board of Governors in January 2018. The post was first appointed on 13 March 2018 with candidate Shangyin Ji.^[29]

Sports

The Students' Union has 35 sports clubs^[30] and enters 24 teams in Wednesday BUCS Leagues each week.

The University of Northampton enjoys a friendly sporting rivalry with the University of Derby, its annual Varsity Tournament contested by major sports teams from the two institutions.

The most successful clubs are rugby league, in the South BUCS Premier League, which has produced numerous participants in the Student Rugby league Home Nations tournament, and Men's Basketball, which narrowly lost the 2011 BUCS Conference Cup final. The latter also competes in the English Basketball National Leagues.

The university has a very competitive Trampolining Club, which has several members who compete at both national and international competitions and is based at the NTGA (Northamptonshire Trampoline and Gymnast Academy).

Societies

Approximately 60 student societies are affiliated to The University of Northampton Students’ Union.^[31] These range from special interest societies such as Doctor Who and Anime to faith-based societies such as the Christian Union and Islamic Society.

NUMedia, the student-led, run and managed media society, was launched in September 2011 and is responsible for the NUNews newspaper, NURadio broadcasts and NUTube video productions.

University technical colleges

The university is an academic sponsor of two university technical colleges which opened in September 2013. Daventry University Technical College specialises in engineering, construction and environmental sustainability, Silverstone University Technical College in motorsports engineering, event management and hospitality.

Notable people

Staff

• 
  Henry Bird, taught drawing at the art school; his students included the architect Will Alsop^[32]


• 
  Dave Hill, political and educational activist, professor of education (2007–12)


• 
  Robert Kirk, professor emeritus in the department of philosophy

Alumni

• 
  Andrew Collins, writer and broadcaster


• 
  Bill Drummond, artist, musician, writer and record producer


• 
  Dallas Campbell, television presenter and stage actor


• 
  Felippe Moraes, visual artist, art researcher and independent curator


• 
  Will Alsop, modernist architect, graduated from Northampton Art School


• 
  Jon Bewers, footballer


• 
  James D. Boys, academic and media consultant


• 
  Owen Paterson, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (2012–2014)


• 
  Lisa Davina Phillip, actress and singer


• 
  Daniel Middleton, YouTuber and writer


• 
  James Densley, academic and author


• 
  Dr Wilson Lim Yen Kia, academic and consultant

See also

• Northamptonshire Credit Union

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to University of Northampton.

• University website