University of West London

The University of West London (UWL) is a public university in the United Kingdom which has campuses in Ealing and Brentford in Greater London, as well as in Reading, Berkshire. The university has roots back to 1860, when the Lady Byron School was founded, which later became Ealing College of Higher Education. In 1992, it became a university and 18 years later it was renamed the University of West London.[4]

University of West London
Former names
Thames Valley University, Polytechnic of West London, Lady Byron School, Ealing College of Higher Education, Thames Valley College of Higher Education, Queen Charlotte's College of Health Care Studies
TypePublic
Established1992 (as Thames Valley University)
1860 (as the Lady Byron School)
Endowment£1.63 million (2015)[1]
ChancellorLaurence Geller
(since 1 August 2010)
Vice-ChancellorPeter John
(since 1 July 2007)
Students11,055 HE (2018/19)[2]
Undergraduates9,055 (2018/19)[2]
Postgraduates2,000 (2018/19)[2]
Other students
28,290 FE[3]
Location
Ealing, Brentford, and Reading
,
United Kingdom
Websitewww.uwl.ac.uk

West London comprises eight schools. These are Claude Littner Business School, the London Geller College of Hospitality and Tourism, the School of Computing and Engineering, London College of Music, the College of Nursing, midwifery and Healthcare, the School of Law and Criminology, the School of Human and Social Sciences, and the London School of Film, Media and Design.

History

The University of West London traces its roots back to 1860, when the Lady Byron School was founded at what is now University of West London's Ealing campus. The school later became Ealing College of Higher Education.

Ealing College, founded in 1860 by Lady Byron

The Slough campus was founded in January 1912 as a selective secondary school in William Street. By the 1960s, it had become Slough College of Further Education. In the 1980s it became Thames Valley College of Higher Education and in 2011 it was closed down.

In 1990, Ealing College of Higher Education, Thames Valley College of Higher Education, Queen Charlotte's College of Health Care Studies and the London College of Music were merged to become the Polytechnic of West London. Two years later, the polytechnic became a university under the Further and Higher Education Act 1992, and adopted the name Thames Valley University.

In 2004, the university merged with Reading College and School of Arts and Design (which had been founded in 1947 as Reading Technical College). Reading College's sites at Kings Road and Crescent Road became TVU sites.

Paragon Campus in Brentford (Former TVU Branding)

In 2009, the university decided to divest itself of its further education courses, together with its Kings Road site, that it had inherited from the Reading College and School of Arts and Design. In 2010 the responsibility for further education, along with the Kings Road site, were transferred to a relaunched Reading College. Although some 40 miles west of London, the university retained its other sites in Reading, including the Crescent Road site that also originated with the Reading College and School of Arts and Design.[5][6]

In May 2009, the university announced that it would be closing its Slough campus in 2010 due to the relocation of nursing students, who make up the majority of the student body there, to Reading. Other courses will be moved to one of the university's Greater London campuses, although some part-time and nursing courses will remain in Slough at a different site.[7]

In August 2010, it was announced that the university would change its name to the University of West London, with the Privy Council subsequently granting permission for the change.[4] The university unveiled a new logo in April 2011. Vice-Chancellor Peter John stated that the changes reflected the university's development since 1992 and new focus on its Brentford and Ealing campuses.

Campuses

There are two campus sites in western Greater London, located in St Mary's Road, Ealing and at Paragon House in Brentford. There is also a third site in Reading, Berkshire, which is some 31 miles / 50 km from the Ealing sites.

Walpole House in Ealing, housing the university's administration.

The University of West London has planning consent for the redevelopment of the St Mary's Road site in Ealing. The development was originally opposed by Ealing residents so a new planning permission was submitted and accepted. In 1992 the University signed an agreement to landscape the site for the community.

Organisation

The University of West London comprises eight schools. These are Claude Littner Business School, the London Geller College of Hospitality and Tourism, the School of Computing and Engineering, London College of Music, the College of Nursing, midwifery and Healthcare, the School of Law and Criminology, the School of Human and Social Sciences, and the London School of Film, Media and Design.[8]

The Graduate School[9] (based in Ealing) co-ordinates and provides support to research activities[10] and research degree courses. The University offers traditional Phd programmes and Professional Doctorates.

The university also works with the Met Film School, a private film school that is based at Ealing Studios in London, United Kingdom.[11] The school, which launched in 2003, offers two and three-year Bachelors programs as well as various master's degree programs, which are accredited through the University of West London.

Academic reputation

Academic rankings
Rankings
National rankings
Complete (2021)[12]77
Guardian (2021)[13]34
Times / Sunday Times (2021)[14]52
Global rankings
British Government assessment
Teaching Excellence Framework[15]Silver

The new Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2018 rankings placed the University of West London in 56th place nationally on 24 September 2017, thus putting UWL in the top half of UK universities. On 5 September 2020, The University of West London was ranked 34th best university (out of 130+ institutions) in the UK by the 2021 edition of the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide.

In the 2015 edition of the major rankings of British universities the university was placed 97 out of 116 in The Guardian university guide,[16] and the University has been in the top half position of 58 in 2017.[17] The University rank in the latest league table in The Sunday Times in 2017 shows a good progress with rank 56.[17]

A lecture at the University of West London, Ealing Campus

The University of West London has recorded the best results of any university in Greater London in the annual National Student Survey (NSS) in 2016, with students' responses showing it to be the best University in Greater London for student satisfaction.[18] In the NSS 2016, there were 100 per cent overall satisfaction rates for nine courses across the University's eight schools, ranging from Midwifery to Business Studies and Music Technology to Hospitality Management. Among these 100 per cent overall satisfaction rates, the University recorded the best overall satisfaction rates in the UK for Civil Engineering and Building courses in the NSS 2016.[18]

Teaching standards

In 2009, the university was the only university to win the Queen's Anniversary Prize for outstanding achievement and excellence in hospitality education – and it regularly wins awards from major industry bodies.[19] University of West London Careers and Employment Service is a member of the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services and has been awarded the Matrix Standard for Quality.[19]

Student life
The new UWL Students' Union, opened in 2013

Students' Union

The University of West London Students' Union (UWLSU) is the recognised student organisation of the University of West London. It was ranked the best student union in Greater London in 2016.[18] The Students' Union represents the 47,000 students at all its sites. UWLSU is affiliated to the National Union of Students.

The union has the ground floor of the North Building at the St. Mary's Road campus at which the Coffee Shop, Freddie's Bar and Gym are located, with a secondary site at the Paragon campus. The union aims to bring students the biggest events, ways to take up a new activities or sports, support and advice services, and a place to socialise.

The official radio station for the university is Blast Radio, based on campus in 'The Heartspace'.

Student accommodation
The University of West London Campus at St Mary's Road, Ealing.

Prior to 2006 the university operated halls of residence only at the Reading campus, although a number of private houses in the Ealing area were rented by the university and allocated to students studying there. In September 2006 the university began to offer halls of residence accommodation to students from the Ealing and Slough campuses at a student and keyworker accommodation site named Paragon. The site won the 'Major Housing Project of the Year' category at the 2007 Building awards, and is in Brentford, approximately two miles away from the Ealing campus.

Paragon is home to the tallest building to be completed using Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) in the UK, which serves as a 130,000 sq ft (12,000 m2) academic facility for the university's human sciences facility.

The student accommodation at Paragon has been criticised by its residents for being too expensive, costing the highest of all Greater London universities' halls of residence along with SOAS in the 2007–2008 year. TVU defended the costs, asserting that the halls are of an especially high standard.[20]

Controversies

In the mid-1990s, its high-profile Vice-Chancellor, Mike Fitzgerald, ushered through a networked "New Learning Environment" for undergraduate students, involving a shift to online delivery and assessment. The NLE was discontinued in this form, and Fitzgerald resigned in 1998 following a negative Quality Assurance Agency report stating there were "significant management failures" in the delivery of this model.[21] The University suffered severe financial shortfalls in the years that followed.

Notable people

Staff

Alumni
Freddie Mercury, lead vocalist of the band Queen was a student in the 1960s.

In Media, Music & Film Industry

Several alumni at the University of West London are world-famous artists, musicians, Oscar nominees and winners:

Business and other media

In Politics

References
  1. http://www.uwl.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Departments/About-us/UWL4500_Annual%20Report_2015_AW_LORES.pdf
  2. "Where do HE students study?". Higher Education Statistics Agency. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
  3. "Table 0a – All students by institution, mode of study, level of study, gender and domicile 2006/07" (Microsoft Excel spreadsheet). Higher Education Statistics Agency. Retrieved 12 April 2008.
  4. "University set to get new name". Press Association. UK: Google News. 3 August 2010. Retrieved 3 August 2010.
  5. "About Reading College". Reading College. Archived from the original on 17 August 2010. Retrieved 23 August 2010.
  6. Hewitt, Adam (31 December 2009). "Oxford college 'preferred bidder' for TVU". Reading Chronicle. Berkshire Media Group. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 23 August 2010.
  7. "News & events". Archived from the original on 17 August 2009. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  8. "Our Academic Schools | University of West London".
  9. "TVU: Graduate School". Archived from the original on 22 February 2007. Retrieved 27 March 2007.
  10. "TVU: Research". Archived from the original on 7 March 2007. Retrieved 27 March 2007.
  11. Rosser, Michael. "Met Film School: starter for 10". Screen Daily. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
  12. "University League Table 2021". The Complete University Guide. 1 June 2020.
  13. "University league tables 2021". The Guardian. 5 September 2020.
  14. "The Times and Sunday Times University Good University Guide 2021". Times Newspapers.
  15. "Teaching Excellence Framework outcomes". Higher Education Funding Council for England.
  16. "University league table 2015 - the complete list". The Guardian. London. 2 June 2014.
  17. "University league tables 2017". The Guardian. 23 May 2013. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
  18. UWL News. "University of West London number one in London for student satisfaction | University of West London". www.uwl.ac.uk. Retrieved 18 September 2016.
  19. "University of West London". Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  20. Proctor, Lucy "TVU halls leave students broke". Ealing Gazette, 2 November 2007 (retrieved on 18–11–07)
  21. Webster, 2000
  22. "News & events". Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  23. "Graduate Rebecca honoured for film The Silent Child". Ealing Times. 6 March 2018.
  24. "4. Freddie studied at Ealing Art College, where his contemporaries included Peter Townshend and Ronnie Wood. It was here that he started thinking about pursuing a career in music". Odd Stuff Magazine. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  25. https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/HLT/company-people/executive-profile/41749811

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