University of Bedfordshire

The University of Bedfordshire is based in Bedford and Luton, the two largest towns in Bedfordshire, England. A campus in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire is for students studying Nursing and Midwifery. A further campus in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, teaches business studies, electronic engineering, and telecommunications. It has approximately 24,000 students. Nearly 3,000 international students study with the university. The university was created by the merger of the University of Luton and the Bedford campus of De Montfort University in August 2006 following approval by the Privy Council. In 2012 it achieved Fair Trade status.[1] History[edit] The University of Luton had its roots in the Luton Modern School, which was established in 1908 and the Luton Modern School and Technical Institute which opened in 1937. This became Luton College of Higher Education with the merger of Luton College of Technology and Putteridge Bury College of Education in 1976. It obtained university status in 1993. The Bedford campus of De Montfort University was originally the Bedford Teacher Training College, founded 1882 and Bedford Physical Training College founded 1903. The university was created by the merger of the University of Luton and the Bedford campus of De Montfort University in August 2006 following approval by the Privy Council. Campuses[edit] The university’s two main campuses are in Luton town centre and Bedford, on Polhill Avenue. Both have been recently modernised with new teaching and social facilities and new on-campus accommodations. The university has a third campus at Putteridge Bury, a neo-Elizabethan country mansion located on the edge of Luton on the A505 road to Hitchin. The campus is situated in approximately 30 acres of landscaped gardens. Putteridge Bury can be traced back to Edward the Confessor's time and has links to the Domesday Book. The current building was completed in 1911 and was designed by architects Sir Ernest George and Alfred Yeats in the style of Chequers, having had various redesigns and rebuilds over the years. The campus is home to the university's postgraduate Business School as well as the university’s Conference Centre.[2][3] A smaller fourth campus is the University Campus Milton Keynes, Bucks, became part of the university in 2012. Organisation and structure[edit] The university has four faculties: Creative Arts, Technologies and Science; Education and Sport; Health and Social Sciences; and a Business School and according to the Daily Telegraph it has “one of the most generous” scholarship programmes in the United Kingdom.[4] The university has regional representatives in several parts of India who have extensive training to give free counselling, advice and, where possible, a face to face interview to students, based in Chandigarh, Chennai, Hyderabad and Vadodara. Academic profile[edit] In 2000 the University of Luton was ranked 83 out of 93 British universities by The Times[5] in their annual university ranking, rising to 72 out of 101 two years later.[6] In 2004, the university's then high drop-out rate, and decision to allow students to progress go on to their third year of their degree even if they fail to pass their first and second year exams led the Sunday Telegraph to ask "Is this the worst university in Britain?"[7] Luton's vice-chancellor responded by drawing attention to its teaching quality, which had been rated 14th out of 121 similar institutions the previous year by The Times.[8] The Sunday Times also awarded the University of Luton the title of Best New university in 2004 (prior to the purchase of the Bedford campus and rebranding).[9] The QAA conducted a thorough institutional audit of the university as a whole in 2005 (prior to the merger of the university), which resulted in the audit team’s questioning of the academic standards of its awards and its lack of confidence in the university's quality standards.[10] However, after the audit was taken the QAA was provided with information that indicates that appropriate action was taken by the university in response to the findings of this report. As a result the audit was signed off in July 2007.[11] In 2008 Professor Les Ebdon said that he had accepted voluntary redundancy from 30 staff members. The university said that less than half were academic staff. Professor Ebdon said: "I don't know of any university in the East of England which isn't making some adjustment to staff numbers. Most of us have squeezed other expenditures as much as we can. Staffing is the area left where expenditure can be taken out, and it is the biggest cost." According to the same article "Relative to many other universities, Bedfordshire spends a low proportion of its income on staff."[12] The university has been criticised for its association with the Institute for Optimum Nutrition,[13][14] an unacredited and controversial organisation whose founder, Patrick Holford's advocacy of vitamin C as better than conventional drugs to treat AIDS was described as 'very scary' by the British Dietetic Association.[15] According to the THES in 2008 the university threatened legal action against a web site after one of its course was labelled "shocking" because of its staff-to-student ratio.[16] After the QAA audit conducted in 2009 the university was awarded a “Confidence” rating. University of Bedfordshire - Bedford Campus Centre Teaching quality[edit] In 2004 The Sunday Times awarded the university the title of 'Best New University'[17] and in 2007 the it was short-listed for the Times Higher Education Supplement's University of the Year 2007.[18] The university received top marks in the Quality Assurance Agency, the Government’s higher education quality watchdog, most recent audit (2009).The university's Language and Linguistics courses is ranked second in the latest edition of the Complete University Guide (CUG) for student satisfaction. Awards[edit] Awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise: International Trade in 2011.[19] Outstanding Finance Team winners in the Times Higher Education Leadership and Management Awards 2011.[20] ‘Gold’ award from Investors in People in 2011. Rankings[edit] In June 2012 the university was ranked 82 (out of 116) in the Complete Universities Guide, a rise of 21 places over its 2011 ranking.[21] The university is also ranked 88 (out of 116) in The Times Good University Guide, a rise of 18 places. The Times reports that the percentage of graduates gaining a first or upper second class degree has risen from 44.4 per cent last year to 53.6 per cent and there has been an increase in spending per student by the university on services and facilities, from £1,368 in 2011 to £2,004 in 2012. In The Guardian University Guide the university was ranked 102 out of 117.[22] This guide is compiled using mainly teaching data (staff/student ratio, job prospects, entrance criteria, inclusiveness), while The Times guide also includes data on research ratings and the percentage of students who complete a degree. The 2012 Guardian University Guide ranked the university’s nursing courses 11th (of 78 courses nationally), a rise of 12 places over 2011 and awarded us the maximum added value score.[23] In 2012 the university received a first class award and was ranked 36th out of 145 in the People and Planet Green League 2012 – rising 17 places from the previous year.[1] In 2012 the University also received accreditation as a Fair Trade University.[1]