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| Motto: | Give invention light (from Shakespeare's Sonnet 38) |
| Established: | 1966 |
| Endowment: | £3.7m[1] |
| Chancellor: | Imran Khan[2] |
| Vice-Chancellor: | Prof Mark Cleary |
| Students: | 13,600[3] |
| Undergraduates: | 9,110[3] |
| Postgraduates: | 4,490[3] |
| Location: | Bradford, England, UK 53°47′30″N 1°45′44″W / 53.79167°N 1.76222°WCoordinates: 53°47′30″N 1°45′44″W / 53.79167°N 1.76222°W |
| Affiliations: | EQUIS AMBA University Alliance |
| Website: | http://www.brad.ac.uk/ |
The University of Bradford (est. 1966) is a university in Bradford, West Yorkshire in the United Kingdom. Formed from a technical college in 1966, there are three campuses: the main campus, located on Richmond Road, the School of Health, on Trinity Road, and the School of Management, at Emm Lane. According to The Times Good University Guide 2008, the University of Bradford is the 48th best university in the country.[4] It has roughly 12,000 students enrolled, of which almost a third are mature students. Almost 25% of students are international students, and come from over 100 countries. 92% of the university's domestic students come from the state sector.
The University of Bradford was the first university in the UK to establish a Department of Peace Studies in 1973, and it is currently ranked first in the world for the subject. Its School of Management is also ranked third best in the UK[citation needed]. The university is currently undergoing a £79 million redevelopment programme, to improve both its building and its accommodation, as well as its facilities for disabled students, who compose almost 6% of the total student population.
History
Early History and Founding
The university has its origins in the Bradford Schools of Weaving, Design and Building dating from 1860 which in 1882 became the Bradford Technical College. In 1957, the Bradford Institute of Technology was formed to take on the running of higher education courses. Construction of the Richmond Building, the largest building on campus, began in 1963. The Horton Building and Chesham building were subsequently added, on the opposite side of Richmond Road.
The Charter of Incorporation was granted in 1966, to create the University of Bradford; the then Prime Minister Harold Wilson became the university's first chancellor.
1980s and 1990s
Expansion of the main campus continued in the 1980s, with the addition of the Library and Computer Centre, Communal Building, Pemberton Building and Ashfield Building. An extension to the Library and Computer Centre was completed in the mid-1990s. 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 Department of Mathematics was closed to new undergraduates in 1997, with the remaining postgraduate activities and lecture support being integrated into the Department of Computing as the Mathematics Unit.
In 1987 the University became one of the twelve founding members of the Northern Consortium.
2000s and Ecoversity
The Bradford Race Riots of 2001 lead to a sharp fall in applications to the university, but the situation has improved since and in 2005 undergraduate applications from home students was up by 35% on the previous year.
In 2005, a £79 million redevelopment of the campus was announced, and a project to create the world's first 'Ecoversity' was formed. The university would strive to reduce its environmental footprint by reducing waste and using sustainable materials, and would imbue sustainability into everything that the institution does, including teaching. As part of this, Bradford became a Fairtrade University in December 2006.
As of the beginning of 2008, several of the redevelopment projects have been completed; the Richmond Building has been partially re-clad with extra insulation and a new atrium opened in December 2006, the roof of which uses ETFE, the same material used in the Eden Project.[5] The university's cancer therapeutics research centre was moved from a separate site on All Saint's Road onto the main campus, into a new building which also provides conference facilities; the buildings on the old site were demolished in February 2008.
Redevelopment of the sports facilities is underway[6], and new halls of residence are planned. Of the existing halls owned by the university, those on the Laisteridge Lane site were sold to Corporate Residential Management in 2005, and Shearbridge Green Halls were demolished in December 2006. Longside Lane halls and Kirkstone Halls are due to be demolished in 2009.
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. The university announced in June 2007 it was to use this phrase as a trademark[7]. However, the motto inscribed beneath the official coat of arms is Give Invention Light, which is taken from Shakespeare's Sonnet 38.[8] It has also used the slogans Be Inspired and Confronting Inequality, Celebrating Diversity in recent promotional material.
Reputation
In 2005 Bradford was ranked 7th, for graduate placement, by The Times Good University Guide; with the nursing and a number of ancillary medical courses placing 100% of their students, within 6 months of graduation.
94% of students are from the state sector, though overseas students may account for most of the remaining 6%, with comparatively few independent-schooled students enrolled. The student drop-out rate for the 2005-6 academic year was 7.9%, a reduction over previous years.[9]
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