University of Chester

History

• Founded as Church of England teacher training college in 1839. Founders included W. E. Gladstone and the 14th Earl of Derby, and an Archbishop of Canterbury, John Bird Sumner. Later Chester College of HE.
• Significant dates: 1975 BA, BSc degrees introduced; 1991 Nursing/ Midwifery courses introduced; 2002 Former HE section of Warrington Collegiate Institute joined Chester College of HE as its Warrington campus; 2003 taught degree awarding powers granted.
• 2005 full university status achieved; 2007 research degree awarding powers granted.

Location and transport

• Main campus – Chester: approximately 10 minutes walking distance of the centre of one of England's finest historic cities.
• Warrington Campus: a self-contained campus at Padgate, Warrington.
• Kingsway Buildings: a second site in Chester, opened in September 2007, approximately 5 minutes driving distance or 20 minutes walking distance from the main Chester campus; the Chester base of the Faculty of Arts and Media.
• Riverside Campus: a third Chester site located in the city centre, opening in September 2010, approximately 6 minutes driving distance or 25 minutes walking distance from the main Chester campus; the Chester base of the Faculty of Education and Children's Services and the Faculty of Health and Social Care.
• Both Chester and Warrington are easy to reach by rail or road. Liverpool and Manchester airports are both relatively near.

Entry standards

• A minimum of between 200 and 300 UCAS points (180 for Foundation Degress), depending on subject, for degree courses.

Student mix

• Male: female, 33%: 67%.
• Home: overseas, 95%: 5%.
• State school: public school, 98%: 2%.
• Applications to places ratio 9:1.

Course flexibility

• Students can apply to change from single to combined honours programmes and vice versa.
• Most combinations of subjects are possible within the combined honours programme, provided that location and time-tabling constraints do not make them impracticable.
• Most programmes allow some module choice in second and third years.

Teaching standards

• High scores have been achieved in recent national student satisfaction surveys, e.g. English, Geography, Fine Art, History, and Theology.
• In addition, most subjects (e.g. Sport Sciences, Mathematics) scored well in the QAA teaching assessments.
• The Faculty of Education and Children's Services celebrated an 'outstanding' outcome from the 2010 and 2011 Ofsted inspection of Initial Teacher Training.

Research standards

• In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise a significant proportion of research was declared to be of international quality and the Department of Performing Arts, Theology, History, English, Supplementary Professions Allied to Medicine and Mathematics achieved particularly creditable scores.
• A Research and Knowledge Transfer Office has been set up, under the direction of the Dean of Research, reflecting the increasing emphasis that the University is placing upon research.

Academic strengths

• Biological Sciences, Business, Education, English, Fine Art, Geography and Development Studies, Health and Social Care, History and Archaeology, Performing Arts, Psychology, Sociology, Sport Sciences, Theology.
• An innovative Work Based Learning programme is available to all second-year students in HEFCE Faculties.

Student facilities, including Library and Computing

• Substantial investment in recent years. Library book stock is approximately 350,000 volumes, with 13,000 e-journals. There are 2,400 PCs for student use.
• Library, Computer and IT Services have recently to form Learning and Information Services.

Disability Services

Students' Union

• There are thriving Students' Union branches at Chester and Warrington
• At Warrington, an extensive £800,000 refurbishment of the union bar was completed in 2006.
• At Chester, a brand new £2-million SU building was completed in 2007.

Sport

• Sport and Exercise Sciences is a major subject department, so facilities are extensive.
• The facilities at Chester include a sports hall, a gymnasium, pitches for summer and winter games, 3G multi-use all-weather pitch, squash courts, tennis courts, swimming pool and fitness centre.
• Those at Warrington include a sports hall, a floodlit all-weather pitch, athletics track and fitness centre.

Recent/prospective new builds

• The University is due to start work on the Food Science and Technology Innovation Centre which will provide state of the art facilities that are designed to make a direct contribution to the success of the food industries in Cheshire and the North West. It is hoped that work will commence in spring 2012 and that facilities will be available early in 2013.
• In September 2011 the Riverside Innovation Centre (RIC) opened for business. Jointly funded by the European Regional Development Fund and the University, the Riverside Innovation Centre is a £6 million project, designed to generate sustainable, added-value economic impact for the local and regional economy. Its purpose-designed facilities include 15 incubation units to help encourage new small business start-ups across all sectors aimed primarily but not exclusively at graduates, modern conferencing facilities, a tele-presence suite, and a fully Wi-Fi enabled networking business lounge.
• Chester: Acquisition of County Hall in Chester city centre from the former Cheshire County Council.  Completely refurbished at a cost of £12.5m and opened in September 2010 as the Riverside campus for the Faculty of Education and Children's Services and the Faculty of Health and Social Care.
• Kingsway: £6.4m was been invested during 2010 in improvements including the new three-storey building housing a ground floor gallery and exhibition space and two further floors of staff office accommodation.
• Chester: Westminster Building (£4m), now HQ (Faculty of Business, Enterprise and Lifelong Learning), opened in 2006 and was remodeled in 2010.
• Chester: New SU Building operational from September 2007.
• Chester: former Kingsway High School developed as an additional Chester site (Kingsway Buildings) and operational from September 2007.
• Warrington: Major refurbishment of bar, 2006.
• Warrington: Broomhead Library (£2.35m) officially opened in February 2008.
• Warrington: Tucker Building (Business Centre/Teaching Accommodation, £3m) now operational.

Availability of part-time work

• A wide range of job opportunities is available.
• Careers and Employability maintain information about job opportunities.
• About 45% of full-time students say they undertake some form of paid employment during term-time.
• According to the latest Unistats figures, the University has the North West's most employable graduates.

Notable alumni

• Dave Brailsford, CBE
• Duffy
• Jim Bowen
• Rob Wotton
• Matt Greenhalgh
• Susan Earl
• Janice Phayre
• George Courtney
• Alastair Connolly
• Dave Vitty
• Paul Salt