University of Bradford

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{{ Infobox University |name = University of Bradford |image = Image:Bradford logo.jpg |motto = Give invention light
(from Shakespeare's Sonnet 38) |established = 1966 |type = |chancellor = Imran Khan |vice_chancellor = Prof Chris Taylor |city = Bradford |country = United Kingdom |students= 10,000 Total |postgrad= 2,300 |colours = Black |affiliations = EQUIS, AMBA |website = www.brad.ac.uk |}}

The University of Bradford is a university in Bradford, West Yorkshire in the United Kingdom.

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History

The university has its origins in the Bradford Schools of Weaving, Design and Building which in 1882 became the Bradford Technical College. This was succeeded by the Bradford Institute of Technology in 1957, and in 1966 a Charter of Incorporation was granted to create the University of Bradford. In 1996 the university joined with the former Bradford and Airedale College of Health, which then became the School of Health Studies within the university. The Department of Physics was closed in the 1980s.

The Bradford Race Riots of 2001 lead to a sharp fall in applications to the university, however the situation has improved since and in 2005 undergraduate applications from home students was up by 35% on the previous year.

In 2003, a merger with the nearby Bradford College was proposed, to create a combined further and higher education institution; at the time, the university validated the college's degree courses and some resources were shared between the institutions. This plan was discarded later in the year and the two institutions resumed competition between themselves. In 2004, courses in Law and Human Resource Management were launched in direct competition with the college, leading the college to announce in 2005 that it was to seek validation of its degrees from Leeds Metropolitan University instead, of which it is now an associate college.

94% of students are from the state sector, though overseas students may count for most of the remaining 6%, leaving little room, if any, for independent-schooled students. 15% of students drop out, which is average though not low for UK universities. There are many overseas students at Bradford, especially in science subjects.

In 2005, a £79 million redevelopment of the campus was announced, which included new halls of residence, sports facilities and a cancer therapeutics research centre.

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Schools

The University of Bradford comprises eight Schools:

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The School of Archaeological, Geographical and Environmental Sciences

Consists of the Department of Archeology and Archeological Sciences and the Department of Geography and Environmental Science. It specialises in areas such as Geoarcheology and Biosciences.

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The School of Engineering, Design and Technology

Offers courses in the broad areas of Mechanical, Electrical, Civil and Medical Engineering, as well as courses which focus on technology management. Recently the Ford Motor Company invested in new facilities for its Automotive Design and Engineering courses.

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The School of Health Studies

Formerly the Bradford and Airedale College of Health, this became part of the university in 1996. It is currently located on a separate site on Trinity Road, about 10 minutes walk from the main campus, but its facilities will be moved into new purpose-built premises onto the main campus in the coming years. Specialises in courses in nursing, physiotherapy, midwifery and radiography. A specialist drug therapy course is run by Chris "Talk to Frank" Pardoe OBE.

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The School of Informatics

Consists of the departments of Computing, and of Electronic Imaging and Media Communications (EIMC). Informatics offers over 40 undergraduate degrees and postgraduate in various areas including computing, ICT, cybernetics, robotics and media. The School has a very lively research culture with over 100 students registered for MPhil/PhD. EIMC has links with the nearby National Museum of Photography, Film and Television and in 2005 opened a new Digital Arts Centre, offering an innovative degree in Computer Animation. Previous students include multi award winning Ben Smith and Jan Rigowski (Founders of Red Star Studios) as well as the following [1]. It is the second-largest school in the university.

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The School of Lifelong Education and Development

Offers mostly part-time and specialist degrees, focussing on areas such as community regeneration and social studies.

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The School of Life Sciences

Has the highest number of students of all of the schools, and offers degrees in areas such as optometry, Pharmacy and Biomedical sciences. In 2003 the Pharmacy department opened the Institute for Pharmaceutical Innovation (IPI). Bradford's Pharmacy course is also notable in the UK for being a sandwich course - instead of the usual four year course followed by a pre-registration year, Bradford students can instead opt for a five year course, with two six month placements, in the third and fifth years.

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The School of Management

Image:Bradford management campus.jpg The Bradford School of management is located 3 miles away from the main campus on a 13 acre parkland campus, Emm Lane. It teaches courses in the realm of business, finance, accountancy, management and marketing. As of 2005 the department will commence teaching an acredited LLB Law degree. It has a number of Masters degrees, MBA programmes and doctoral programmes running alongside undergraduate programmes.

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The School of Social and International Studies

Offers courses in social sciences and humanities, and is home to the internationally-renowned Department of Peace Studies. In September 2005 an undergraduate BA/BSc course in Psychology accepted its first cohort of 78 students. It has been accredited by the British Psychological Society as conferring eligibility for the Graduate Basis for Registration.

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Motto

The motto which appears on most current University of Bradford publications is "Making Knowledge Work", which relates to the institution's focus on courses that lead to employment.

In 2005 it was ranked 2nd in the country (after the University of Cambridge) by The Times University Guide for graduate employment and many of its courses have 100% records for graduates getting jobs within 6 months of graduating.

However, the motto inscribed beneath the official coat of arms is "Give Invention Light". It has also used the slogans "Be Inspired" and "Confronting Inequality, Celebrating Diversity" in recent promotional material.

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Students' union

The Union is run by an executive of 6 Officers who are all ex-students of the university. These positions are:

  • Academic Affairs Officer,
  • Communications Officer,
  • Internal Affairs Officer,
  • Sports and Societies Officer,
  • Treasurer and
  • Women's Officer.

The post of Women's Officer was originally set up to ensure there was female representation on the Executive. Though currently there is some confusion as to the sex ratio in the union, in the academic year beginning 2005 the Female Executive outnumber Male by four to two.

The University of Bradford Union is located in the Communal Building on campus. It is politically active and runs regular campaigns, as well as boycotting companies like Nestlé and Bacardi for their unethical business practices, but ironically has no qualms about selling cigarettes and alcohol. The Union also has in the past had many politics related events such as Hug the World Week and Save the Human Week. There are two venues for night time events, Escape and Colours, with Colours being much larger and greater choice. It has Ramair, one of the UK's longest running student radio stations, broadcasting on 1350AM and online. It holds the infamous Friday Night Disco (FND) each week. The student monthly magazine originally called Scrapie, (another biological reference to the Union's old symbol a sort of sheep's head) is now no longer published and has been replaced by Kinetic. The logo has reasently been 'modernized' to a row of 4 circles.

Until recently the Union ran two bars. On the first floor of the Richmond Building was the Biko Bar, named after Steve Biko, though this was closed in September 2005 due to construction work and is apparently being replaced by a new juice bar. The main Student Union bar is The Courtyard in the communal building, formerly known as JBs and before that the Mainline. In the last few years, many local bars have opened for students which have forcefully cornered the evening-entertainment market, although Bradford does not have many good nightclubs and neither does the University attract many big-name bands. For connoisseurs of beautifully-flavoured curries, Bradford is second-to-none.

The student involvement in their Union comes in the forms of the sports clubs through the Athletics Association (commonly know as the AA) and societies. There is a wide variety of both, also with sufficient interest the founding or re-opening of a club or society is not difficult. The variety of sports available is largely due to the centralised funding and membership structure of the AA, this allows for smaller clubs which would not otherwise attract enough members to remain open.

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Alumni

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External links

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News items

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