Northumbria University


Northumbria University is a university located in Newcastle upon Tyne in the North East of England, gaining university status in 1992.

History

Northumbria University has its origins in three Newcastle colleges: Rutherford College of Technology, which was established by John Hunter Rutherford in 1880 and opened formally in 1894 by the Duke of York, the College of Art & Industrial Design and the Municipal College of Commerce.

Newcastle Polytechnic

In 1969, the three colleges were amalgamated to form Newcastle Polytechnic. The Polytechnic became the major regional centre for the training of teachers with the creation of the City College of Education in 1974 and the Northern Counties College of Education in 1976.

University status

In 1992, Newcastle Polytechnic was reconstituted as the new University of Northumbria, as part of a nationwide process in which polytechnics became new universities. It was originally styled, and its official name still is, the University of Northumbria at Newcastle but the trading name was simplified to Northumbria University in 2002. In 1995, it was awarded responsibility for the education of healthcare professionals, which was transferred from the National Health Service.

Campuses

The university has two large campuses situated in Newcastle and one in London. City Campus, located in the centre of Newcastle upon Tyne, is divided into City Campus East and City Campus West by the city's central motorway and linked by a £4 million bridge which in 2008 was officially opened by the former Minister of State for Trade and Investment, Lord Digby Jones.

City Campus

City Campus East is home to the Schools of Law, Design and the Newcastle Business School. NBS and Law are housed in one building, and the School of Design is across a courtyard.
City Campus East, designed by Atkins, opened in September 2007, winning awards from The Journal newspaper and the Low Carbon New Build Project of the Year accolade.
City Campus West is home to the Schools of Arts & Social Sciences, Built & Natural Environment, Computing, Engineering & Information Sciences and Life Sciences. Also located on this campus is the University Library, Students' Union building and Sport Central, a £31m sports facility for students, staff and the community which opened in 2010.

The Sutherland Building, formerly the Medical School of Durham University, which was a naval warehouse during World War II, and the Dental School of Durham University is the home of Administrative Departments including Finance & Planning and Human Resources, using the space vacated when the School of Law moved to City Campus East.
The Students' Union building, at City Campus West, underwent a multimillion-pound makeover with new lobby and recreational facilities, and a refurbished bar and cafe space, in summer 2010.
In September 2016 the Sandyford Building was acquired from Newcastle College.
In 2018 a £7m building for Computer and Information sciences was opened in City Campus West in place of the demolished Rutherford Hall.

Coach Lane

A second campus is located 2.6 miles outside of Newcastle, on Coach Lane, and is known as the Coach Lane Campus at Cochrane Park near the A188. It is in the Dene ward near Longbenton and round the corner from Tyneview Park; a large Department for Work and Pensions office, accessible via the Four Lane Ends Interchange.
The Coach Lane Campus is home to School of Health, Community and Education Studies. Coach Lane Campus has computing and library services; its own Students' Union, and sports facilities, including indoor courts, a fitness suite, outdoor rugby and football pitches, and an all-weather floodlit pitch. A free shuttle bus scheme runs between the two campuses.

London Campus

The London Campus offers full-time or part-time programmes, from a range of Business, Computing, Cyber, Project Management and Technology focused programmes.

Organisation and structure

Northumbria describes itself as a comprehensive university, offering 30 of Britain's 32 most frequently chosen academic disciplines. It specialises in law and business, arts and design, computing, environmental science, built environment, applied healthcare, sports science and psychology, and teacher education.
Northumbria also offers 'clinical' courses in law accredited by the Law Society and Bar Council. These allow graduates direct entry to the profession. The institution's Student Law Office is a clinical legal education enterprise, where law students participate in a legal advice and representation scheme on behalf of real clients, under the supervision of practising lawyers.
Northumbria University employs more than 3,200 people and offers approximately 500 study programmes through four Faculties:
Northumbria University Press is the university press, established in 2002. It is based in Newcastle upon Tyne and publishes a diverse range of books, including publications on language, photography, biography, travel and music.

Academic profile

Research

In the Research Assessment Exercise 2008 a small amount of research in nine of twelve areas submitted was described as "world leading". Whereas in the 2014 Research Assessment Exercise, Northumbria was one of the top 50 for research power and the university which has risen fastest up the rankings https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/news-events/news/2014/12/northumbria-powers-ahead/

Reputation and rankings

Under Vice Chancellor Andrew Wathey, Northumbria University has remained ranked between 48 and 60 for the past ten years in the Guardian University League Tables.
The Times Higher Education Supplement's World University Ranking places Northumbria University in the 401-500 range.
In the 2014 REF, along with Allied Health Professions, Dentistry, Nursing and Pharmacy, humanities and arts subjects were the best scoring Units of Assessment.

2017 testing accident

In 2017, the university was fined £400,000 after a sports science experiment gave volunteers a hundred times the safe dose. Two students volunteering in a study of the effects of caffeine were given a dose of 30g instead of 0.3g, because staff conducting the experiment tried to calculate the dose on a mobile phone calculator and misread the decimal point. Both were hospitalised and one reported loss of short-term memory. A court hearing heard that the university had not trained staff in safety and had not carried out a proper risk assessment, and that the dose was above the level known to cause risk of death.

Student life

Northumbria Students' Union is a campaigning and representative organisation. It is a charity currently exempt from registration and is led by five Sabbatical Officers and a 19-member Student Council.
The Students' Union offers a range of student activities such as NSU/Community, NSU/Media, NSU/Rag, NSU/Societies, NSU/Employability, Duke of Edinburgh awards and Fast Friends. It represents students in academic and non-academic matters through a nationally recognised School Reps and Postgraduate Research Reps Systems.
The university building contains several venues for students to socialise in a safe environment, chiefly at Habita, Domain and Reds.
In 2011, Northumbria Students' Union received the National Union of Students award for best higher education students union.
In 2016, Northumbria Students' Union received the National Union of Students award for Student Opportunities and runner up for the Education Award.
Due to the city of Newcastle's sister status with Atlanta, Northumbria University runs an annual student exchange programme with Georgia State University, offering students from both institutions the chance to experience student culture in their respective cities.

Sport

Northumbria University rugby team joined the RFU structure in 2007, under the name ‘Team Northumbria’. They won three promotions in as many years. First from Durham/Northumberland 3 in 2008, winning Durham/Northumberland 2 in 2009 and promotion from Durham/Northumberland 1 in 2010. They played at their highest level, in North 1 East until relegation in 2012. The team was then disbanded from the RFU league structure. However, they still play in the Northumberland Senior Cup, winning the cup for the first time in 2015.
Honours: