University of Chester

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The University of Chester is a university based in the city of Chester in the United Kingdom.

History

File:Chester Old College.jpg
The original College building (still in use and now known as Old College) in 1843, a year after it opened

The University of Chester was founded as Chester Diocesan Training College by a group of leading figures in the Church of England (including future Prime Ministers William Gladstone and Lord Derby) in 1839 as the UK's first purpose-built teacher training college - making it one of the oldest higher education institutions in the country. Its first intake consisted of forty student teachers. Soon after, in 1842, Gladstone opened the College's original buildings just outside Chester's city walls on the Parkgate Road site the University still occupies today. In 1910, Chester began its association with the University of Liverpool and formally became an affiliated college of the university in 1930. Thus, Liverpool awarded Chester's qualifications and Chester's students were able to use Liverpool's facilities (as they still can today).

The 1930s saw the institution threatened with closure, but its future was secured by the then Bishop of Chester in 1933. From then on, the College continued to grow steadily. By the 1960s, the situation had turned around completely and, as the UK was massively expanding its higher education capacity in reaction to the Robbins Report, the College was touted as a candidate to be upgraded to university status. In the end, however, these proposals came to nothing.

Nevertheless, the College continued to expand. Women were first admitted in 1962 and the College's name was changed to Chester College of Education in 1963. In 1974, the number of courses was expanded beyond teaching to include Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees. To reflect its wider remit, the College was renamed again to Chester College of Higher Education.

Development continued and, in the early 1990s, the School of Nursing and Midwifery (now the Faculty of Health and Social Care) was established. At the same time the College began to offer a Bachelor of Theology degree, HNDs and more postgraduate courses, such as master's and PhDs, as well as embarking on a £10,000,000 campus improvement programme. By 1995, Chester had earned the right to call itself University College Chester. However, this name was short-lived as the government changed the requirements for university colleges in 1999 to include only those that had their own degree-awarding powers. Thus, Chester had to drop the University College tag and reverted to the title Chester College of Higher Education.

The College further expanded in 2002 by buying the higher education faculty (and campus) of the nearby Warrington Collegiate Institute. The further and adult education campuses of Warrington remained independent and are now known as Warrington Collegiate.

In 2003, Chester was granted its own degree-awarding powers, allowing it to be known as University College Chester once again.

In 2005, University College Chester was finally awarded full university status and became the University of Chester.

In 2007, the University had the right to award research degrees conferred by HM Privy Council.

Further reading on the University's history

  • Astbury, Stanley, A History of Chester Diocesan Training College (Chester: Chester College, 1946)
  • Bradbury, John Lewis, Chester College and the Training of Teachers, 1839-1975 (Chester: Chester College, 1975)
  • Dunn, Ian, The University of Chester, 1839-2005: The Bright Star in the Present Prospect (Chester: Chester Academic Press, 2005)
  • White, Graeme J (ed.), Perspectives of Chester College: 150th Anniversary Essays, 1839-1989 (Chester: Chester College, 1989)

Campuses

The University of Chester is a medium-sized institution with two campuses. The 120,000 m² (23 acre) main campus is located on Parkgate Road, just north of Chester's famous city walls. It houses most of the University's academic and non-academic departments. The campus is a mixture of old, Victorian buildings (such as Old College, which includes a chapel) and more modern buildings (like the Binks Building, opened in 2003). The campus also features all the normal facilities, such as a fitness centre, swimming pool, bar and various shops.

The University has now outgrown its campus and some departments have moved off-site (though all to locations within walking distance of the main campus). The Department of English, for example, is located in a Grade II-listed former Victorian vicarage, while the Department of History is split across the eighteenth-century Blue Coat School (which is also Grade II-listed) and the Cheshire Military Museum in Chester Castle, which is also a fully-operational museum open to the public. Chester Business School is housed in more contemporary accommodation, which used to be a hotel.

There is a substantial amount of University-owned student accommodation (primarily reserved for first year and foreign students), either in the form of halls of residence and a student village on the campus, or houses just off it.

The smaller Warrington campus, which started life as a camp for Canadian officers in World War II, is located in the Padgate area of Warrington. The campus includes the North West Media Centre, which has close ties to Granada Television.

There are also a number of even smaller bases (at, for example, hospitals for nursing students) dotted around Cheshire and The Wirral.

Organisation

The University is organised into eight faculties of study. Five of these schools are also subdivided into academic departments. The latest of which the Faculty of Life Long Learning subsumed the Centre for Work Related Studies whose remit extends across all of the Faculties, as it operates across the University. The Faculties and departments are:

In addition, a number of research centres operate alongside the departments.

Students and faculty

Most of Chester's 15,000 students are from the UK, with a quarter being mature students. There are twice as many female students as male (partially due to the number of nursing, midwifery and teaching students). There is also a small number of foreign students, primarily from an active exchange policy.

There are 569 academic staff. Many of them take part in research and often publish their work through the institution's own publishing house, Chester Academic Press.

Chester Students' Union

Chester Students' Union (CSU) provides a wide range of services and offers a number of facilities, such as running the union bars (Max 250 and The Overdraft on the main campus and Fu-Bar on the Warrington campus) as well as a shop on each campus. The Union also runs a number of sports clubs; each campus has its own teams, many of which compete in BUSA competitions. In addition to this, there are many non-sporting societies.

The Union is made up of a number of full-time staff, part-time student staff (these form the support staff for union operations) and elected volunteers (these form the Executive Committee and the Union Council), as well as three elected sabbatical officers (the president, a vice-president for the main campus and a vice-president for the Warrington campus).

The Executive Committee is elected each year and each has a different role, such as entertainments representative, welfare officer, publications representative and so on. Once elected into position, the Executive team members serve one year in office before re-elections. The Executive Committee members are the trustees of the union.

The Union is a member of the National Union of Students.

Reputation

The University of Chester generally enjoys a good reputation, with its teacher training, nursing and sports science courses being particularly recognised. Its strong links with nearby businesses and involvement with external events, such as the Chester Literature Festival, means that the University is also well-regarded within its local area.

The University's profile has been boosted by the popularity of the teen soap opera Hollyoaks, which is set at a college of higher education in Chester. This institution is often assumed to be the University of Chester, though the programme is in fact set at the fictional Hollyoaks Community College and filmed mainly in Liverpool.

Coat of arms

The University of Chester's coat of arms was granted by the College of Arms in 1954, when the institution was still known as Chester Diocesan Training College.

The arms, pictured above, are made up of an argent shield featuring the St George's cross (as the institution is located in England), on which there is a golden wheatsheaf, representing the institution's home county of Cheshire. In the upper-left portion of the shield is a clasped open book, symbolising learning. The crest features a bishop's mitre, signifying the institution's founding by the Church of England, in front on two crossed swords, which are taken from the County of Cheshire's coat of arms. The golden scroll contains the institution's Latin motto, 'qui docet in doctrina', which is taken from St Paul's epistle to the Romans and translates as 'he that teacheth, on teaching' (though the University's preferred translation is the looser 'let the teacher teach').

The coat of arms was used as the College's logo until the early 1990s when a new logo, with a depiction of the Old College building, was introduced. The coat of arms returned to the College's logo in 2002 when a simplified version became part of the logo. The University's current logo, introduced in 2005, features the shield and scroll from the coat of arms.

Notable alumni

Notable faculty

References

External links

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