Information about Lancaster University

Lancaster University
Motto	Patet omnibus veritas (Truth lies open to all)
Established	1964
Type	public
Chancellor	Sir Christian Bonington
Vice-Chancellor	Prof. Paul Wellings
Students	17,415 [1]
Undergraduates	13,810 <ref name="HESA" />
Postgraduates	3,610 <ref name="HESA" />
Location	Lancaster, England
Colours
Affiliations	1994 Group N8 Group Association of MBAs North West Universities Association
Website	[1]

Lancaster University (officially the University of Lancaster) is a collegiate campus university in Lancaster, England. The University is frequently placed in the top 20 UK universities in national league tables and in the top 10 for research, notably with its 6* Management School (LUMS - one of only two 6* Management Schools in the UK, along with London Business School) which has been at the top of the UK research rankings for more than a decade. The physics department has a global reputation for its research in low temperature physics and currently holds the record for the lowest maintainable temperature ever reached. Typical offers, according to The Independent range from 260 points for environmental science to 360 for business studies^[2]

History

One of a series of new British universities, Lancaster University admitted its first students in Arts subjects in 1964. The first Science students were admitted in 1965. The purpose-built campus was built on a 200 acre site donated by Lancaster City Council in 1963^[3], located three miles south of the city, at Bailrigg, near the villages of Ellel and Galgate was started in November 1965, with the first building completed a year later although the first student residences did not open until 1968^[4]. Before the new site was progressively occupied, the University occupied various buildings in Lancaster and the surrounding area. The university library was in the Shrigley and Hunt, staff offices and laboratories were in the old premises of Waring and Gillow. Student accommodation was mostly in Morecambe. Also, the Grand Theatre was used as a lecture theatre and other rooms in the St Leonard's area were used for teaching.

The main architect of the campus was Gabriel Epstein of Shepeard and Epstein^[5]. In contrast to some of the other new universities it was designed to integrate social, residential and teaching areas instead of zoning these functions. The other major features of the design was that there would not be a large central students' union building, but that individual colleges would be the centre of social and recreational facilities^[6] and the separation of vehicular and pedestrian traffic, this was achieved by the creation of a pedestrian spine running north-south through the campus, motor vehicles being restricted to a peripheral road, there is a linking underpass running east-west, this includes bus stops and is directly beneath Alexandra Square (named after the first Chancellor of the University) the central area of the campus. Car parking was arranged in cul-de-sacs running off the peripheral road. Alexandra Square contains the library in the south west corner designed in 1964 by Tom Mellor and Partners, the 1st phase opening in September 1966, the 2nd in July 1968 & the 3rd in January 1971^[7], also on the Square's west side is University House the main administrative building of the university, as well as various banks and shops, to the south east of the square is located the tallest building on campus the fourteen storey Bowland tower (which contains accommodation) which disguises the boiler room chimney. The library was extended in the late 1990's and in 1998 the Ruskin Library designed by Sir Richard MacCormac was opened. The Whitehouse Collection housed in the Ruskin Library is the largest holding of books, manuscripts, photographs, drawings and watercolours by and related to John Ruskin in the world.

One of the most distinctive of the buildings is the free-standing University Chaplaincy Centre. Opened the 2nd May 1969, the architects were the Preston based firm of Cassidy & Ashton. The building has a trefoil plan with a central spire where the three circles meet. The logo of the University is based on this spire and the University colours are 'Quaker Grey' (chosen to reflect the strong links of the city of Lancaster and its region to the Religious Society of Friends) and red.[2]

Colleges

The University originally had two colleges, Bowland and Lonsdale (with Bowland being built first and Lonsdale a year after Bowland).

It has expanded greatly since then and now has 8 undergraduate colleges, which are all named after locations from the historic county boundaries of Lancashire (three of which are now part of the ceremonial county of Cumbria):

• Bowland, named after the Forest of Bowland
• Cartmel, named after the village of Cartmel and the surrounding Cartmel Fells (now in Cumbria)
• The County, named after Lancashire County Council
• Furness, named after the Furness region of historic Lancashire (now in Cumbria)
• Fylde, named after the Fylde peninsula
• Grizedale, named after Grizedale Forest (now in Cumbria)
• Lonsdale, named after the Lune Valley (Lonsdale)
• Pendle, named after the Pendle area of Lancashire, and Lancaster's role in the Pendle witch trials.

The University also has one post-graduate college:

• Graduate, built in 1992.

Three additional colleges were originally planned for the Bailrigg campus, but were never built, presumably for financial reasons. The following historic Lancashire "forests" have all been quoted at some point as the intended names.

• Rossendale
• Trawden
• Gisburn
• Hyndburn

These would have been sited to the south of the campus. Also a plan originally existed to have a second twin campus with another eight colleges to the east of the M6 motorway at Hazelrigg, linked with a flyover. This was abandoned during the 1970's and the land sold during a period of financial difficulties. A large scale map of the Hazelrigg plans existed in University house until the late 1970's.

The college buildings accommodate a number of academic departments, but are primarily social and accommodation facilities, each with its own bar and Junior Common Room. A selling-point of the University is that the colleges are more than mere halls of residence, offering a sense of community. Every student and member of staff is a member of a college. While this college environment thrives, however, the Lancaster organisation is slightly different to that of Oxford, Cambridge and Durham. While Lancaster's students are allocated a college, the latter three universities employ an application system by which a prospective undergraduate must apply directly to a specific college.

Campus

The campus is organised around a central walkway known as The Spine. This walkway down the middle of the campus from north to south and is covered most of the way as protection from the frequent rainfall which dominates the Lancashire climate. For most of its length one is walking due north or south.

Over recent years the University has been under ongoing regeneration work, the most notable example being the construction of Alexandra Park to the southwest of campus, which now houses Graduate, Lonsdale and Cartmel colleges. New accommodation blocks for Furness and Fylde colleges, on the east side of campus, were completed in September 2006, while the near complete rebuilding of Grizedale College and construction of further accommodation for County College at the northern edge of campus is on going as of Summer 2007.

The process has seen controversy, due to the rate of expansion, the increase in rents due to the new accommodation being en-suite, and the limited amount of new social space. The older accommodations usually consist of approximately 15 students sharing communal bathrooms and kitchens. The communal kitchens are often a source of social interaction, while the en-suite areas have fewer students per kitchen, and private bathrooms.

Facilities on campus include:

• Shops
• SPAR, a small supermarket
• LUSU Shop
• LUSU Central
• Charity shop, proceeds from which go to Cancer Care and St. Johns Hospice
• Waterstone's
• Robinsons newsagents
• a florists
• Food Outlets
• Lancaster Environment Centre (LEC) Courtyard Cafe
• a fish and chip shop
• Pizzetta Republic
• The Sultan
• Gregg's the baker
• Diggles sandwich shop
• Coffee shops in County (formerly the location of Cartmel Bar before the colleges move to Alexandra Park), Bowland, Grizedale, and Fylde colleges
• Barker House Farm food court
• Wibbly Wobblys (burger shop)
• Global Cafe, located in the Chaplaincy Centre
• Cafe 21, a cafe in Infolab21
• Hub Cafe, a cafe in the Management School
• The Venue, a slightly upmarket cafe operated by the University itself
• Wongs' Kitchen (a Chinese restaurant/takeaway in the George Fox building)
• Spicy Hut (an Indian restaurant at the north end of campus)
• Banks
• Barclays in Alexandra Square
• NatWest bank in Alexandra Square
• NatWest cash machine outside the Sports Centre
• Barclays cash machine outside Barker House Farm
• Other Facilities
• Lancaster University Chaplaincy Centre
• Endsleigh insurance
• a post office
• a travel agent (also sells rail and National Express tickets)
• the Great Hall
• the Jack Hylton room, a small concert hall
  

  Outside the Jack Hylton room.
• a sports centre and swimming pool
• an art gallery
• the Nuffield Theatre
• a dental practice
• a Health Centre, operated by local doctors
• a pharmacy
• 10 separate bars (one for each college, and one in the Nuffield Centre)
• a duck pond

The University is also home to the Ruskin Library. See the University's own campus amenities page for more information.

Student activities

There are many student-run clubs and societies on campus; these include:

• Bailrigg FM, the student radio station
• Scan, the student union's newspaper
• Lancaster University Cinema, the student union's on-campus cinema. It was founded in 1965 as the Film Society. The name was changed in May 2004. It operates out of Bowland Lecture Theatre.

Various religious and cultural groups are catered for, as well as hobbies ranging from writing to dancing, and even anime and roleplaying.

Every summer the students take part in the Roses Tournament, a sports competition against the University of York. The venue of the event alternates each year between York and Lancaster. Otherwise, sporting activities are focused on inter-college competition rather than national leagues. The colleges compete for the Carter Shield and George Wyatt Cup, and in 2004 the Founder's Trophy was played for the first time between the University's two founding colleges, Bowland and Lonsdale.

LUSU, the Students' Union, owns a nightclub in Lancaster called The Sugar House. This is a major source of income for the Students' Union. They also have two shops on the campus and an administration building. However, there is no Students' Union entertainment complex on campus as other similar-sized campus universities tend to have. There are nine bars on campus, one for each college, as well as a bar in the Great Hall complex which is opened for functions.

Chancellorship

The Chancellor of the university is Sir Chris Bonington, who took office in January 2005. He succeeds Princess Alexandra of Kent, who held the post for forty years from the University's inception, making her one of the longest serving Chancellors of any British university.

There have been five Vice-Chancellors in the history of the university:

• 1964–1980: Professor Sir Charles Carter
• 1980–1985: Professor Philip Reynolds
• 1985–1995: Professor Harry Hanham
• 1995–2002: Professor William Ritchie
• 2002–Present: Professor Paul Wellings

Notable academics

• Peter Checkland - Emeritus Professor, the developer of soft systems methodology (SSM) in the field of systems thinking.
• Cary Cooper is Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health at Lancaster University Management School, Pro Vice Chancellor for External Relations
• Michael Dillon - Professor of Politics, author of Politics of Security
• Alan Dix is a Professor in the Computing department
• Norman Fairclough, a proponent of critical discourse analysis, is Emeritus Professor, and formerly Professor of Language in Social Life in the Department of Linguistics and English Language.http://ling.lancs.ac.uk/staff/norman/norman.htm
• Paul Farley, Lecturer in Creative Writing - winner of the Whitbread Prize for poetry (2002) and other awards.
• Gwilym Jenkins (until 1974) - Professor of Systems Engineering.
• Geoffrey Leech is Emeritus Professor and was Professor of Linguistics and Modern English Language.http://ling.lancs.ac.uk/staff/geoff/geoff.htm He was part of the team which, with a team based at Oxford University, compiled the British National Corpus, a 100 million word collection of a range of spoken and written texts, in the 1990s. This is an important contribution to corpus linguistics.
• Barbara Maher is Professor of Physical Geography and head of the Geography Department. Specialising in environmental magnetism and palaeomagnetism, she was the recipient of the Royal Society Wolfson Merit Research Award in 2006.
• George Pickett - Professor of Low-Temperature Physics, for which the university is world-renowned. He was one of the main designers of the adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator, which allowed the university's physics department to reach milli-kelvin temperatures and lower. He is also an author and co-author of several physics text books.
• Jeffrey Richards - Professor of Cultural History and expert on British popular culture.
• Norman Sherry - Professor of English, 1970-1983. Expert on Graham Greene.
• Ninian Smart - Foundation Professor of Religious Studies, 1967-1982.
• Lucy Suchman - Professor of Sociology, key contributor to research into human-computer interaction (HCI), author of "Plans and Situated Actions: The Problem of Human-machine Communication" (1987). Awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science in 2002.
• Stephen Taylor - Professor of Finance. World leader in Financial Econometrics. Author of the books "Modelling Financial Time Series" (1986) and "Asset Price Dynamics, Volatility, and Prediction" (2005).
• John Urry is a Professor of Sociology, noted for his work on tourism, mobility, compleity and broader social and economic change. Among his major works are The Tourist Gaze (Sage, 1990, 2nd ed 2002) Consuming Places (Routledge 1995); - The End of Organized Capitalism (1987); and Economies of Signs and Space (1994), writing with Scott Lash. He has also written important books on Global Complexity (Polity 2003) and Sociology beyond Societies (Routledge 2000). He is director of the Centre for Mobilities Research and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Notable alumni

• Richard Allinson – BBC Radio 2 DJ
• Antony Burgmans – Chairman of Unilever
• Alan Campbell – Labour MP
• Martin Close and Peter Whalley – Coronation Street writers
• Robert Fisk – journalist
• Martin J. Goodman (PhD Creative Writing, 2007) – journalist and novelist^[8]
• Irving Hexham – Professor of Religious Studies
• Justin Hill (MA Creative Writing, 2000) – novelist<ref name="CreativeWriters" />
• John Hull – Professor of Finance
• Ralph Ineson – actor
• D. F. Lewis – fiction writer
• James May – Top Gear presenter
• Alan Milburn – Labour politician
• Andrew Miller (PhD Creative Writing, 1997) – novelist<ref name="CreativeWriters" />
• Jacob Polley (MA Creative Writing, 1997) – poet<ref name="CreativeWriters" />
• Jason Queally – Olympic cyclist
• Andy Serkis – actor
• Ranvir Singh – presenter, and reporter, for BBC's North West Tonight
• Nahed Taher – CEO of Gulf One Investment Bank
• Gary Waller – Conservative politician

Chancellors Wharf

Chancellors Wharf is the name of the university's off-campus accommodation for students. It consists of three buildings by the canal within the city. The location is near to The Water Witch pub, which is often voted as one of the best in the country, central bus routes, the local infirmary and the city centre. Residents remain members of various colleges, with Chancellors Wharf itself being only a hall of residence.

The three buildings, named after three local rivers: Kent, Lune, and Wyre, each have three floors, with four flats on each floor. Each flat has 5 to 10 single bedrooms with a kitchen and several bath/shower rooms and toilets. Most rooms above ground floor have access to a small, shared balcony.

It has its own porters lodge and is maintained by university staff. It is designed as a residence for second and third years, as well as post-graduate students, and allows for groups of friends to choose to remain together in the same flat.

Nuffield Theatre

The Nuffield Theatre is a versatile black-box theatre located at the north end of the campus. It has welcomed a wide range of theatre over the years - from contemporary theatre and avant garde to full student-written plays.

Controversy

George Fox Six

These are six members of the local community, including University students, who were prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service, for causing Aggravated Trespass during a corporate venturing meeting at the university in September 2004. Speakers at the conference were drawn from one of the largest companies in the North West, BAE Systems, as well as others including Shell. The protesters criticised these companies for involvement in the arms trade and the abuse of human rights and the environment. Other speakers at the conference included the controversial government science minister, Lord Sainsbury. It is not disputed that six protestors entered a lecture theatre in the university's George Fox building, rather than remaining outside. The protesters and their supporters say this was to hand out leaflets and engage delegates of the conference, a networking meeting for multinational corporations and the university, in conversation. The University says their aim was to aggressively disrupt the conference. Security and other members of the university staff removed the protestors from the lecture theatre whilst some of the audience talked with some of the protesters. The demonstration then continued outside, with their video showing them peacefully protesting for several minutes, followed by a sudden cut to one of the protesters being wrestled to the ground by a police officer. Almost six months later, all six received a court summons for Aggravated Trespass. This is a criminal offence under the 1994 Criminal Justice Act and is defined as trespass 'with intent to intimidate, obstruct or disrupt'. This carries a maximum sentence of three months imprisonment. However, trespass itself is a civil offence, which means that the police needed the University to state that the protesters were trespassing in order for charges to be brought against the group. On 30 September, 2005, the six were found guilty of Aggravated Trespass: specifically of intending to disrupt the conference and were ordered to each pay £300 costs and were given a 2 year conditional discharge.

The group lodged an appeal against the conviction which was heard at Preston Crown Court between Monday March 13, 2006 and Friday March 17, 2006. The result of the appeal was that the convictions were upheld by Judge Baker, with the group being ordered to pay an extra £300 in costs each, on top of the prior £300 ordered by the Magistrates court.

University expansion

The university's decision to expand onto what is now known as 'South West Campus' was met with protest due to various problems with the site. Some of the complaints against the expansion were that it would drive up accommodation prices, both on and off campus; it was a greenfield site, with residents of nearby Galgate being worried about "the impact of the new buildings"; flooding of the local area due to increased run-off from the site; and increased traffic flow on the A6 and other local roads. Along with complaints about the South West Campus development, the development of 'InfoLab 21' was also objected to, with the proposed building being described as a "Dalek Factory".[3]

Pendle Bar

In January 2007, word began to spread that Pendle College's bar may be closed when the current licensee leaves, removing the social centre of the college. Some students saw this as the university administration's first move towards removing the collegiate system, and felt strongly that this would seriously hurt university life. A public meeting has been called in the bar to discuss the issue, with both JCRs and SCRs from other colleges pledging their support.

Travellers

During the night of 13 May 2007, a group of travellers moved onto the Rugby pitches of the university campus. They refused to leave the land when asked, and legal action to secure an eviction order was undertaken by the university.^[9]

References

• History of Lancaster University by Lancaster University History Department (date unknown)
• George Fox Six - The GF6 support group website
• http://www.lums.lancs.ac.uk/ - Lancaster University Management School

External links

• Lancaster University website
• Lancaster Students Unofficial Guide

Coordinates:

•  • [ e] Colleges of The University of Lancaster
Bowland • Cartmel • County • Furness • Fylde • Grizedale • Lonsdale • Pendle • Graduate

•  • [ e] Universities in the United Kingdom
England	Anglia Ruskin University of the Arts Aston Bath Bath Spa Bedfordshire Birmingham UCE Birmingham (Birmingham Conservatoire) Bolton Bournemouth Bradford Brighton Bristol Brunel Buckingham Cambridge Canterbury Christ Church Central Lancashire Chester Chichester City Coventry Cranfield Cumbria De Montfort Derby Durham East Anglia East London Edge Hill Essex Exeter Gloucestershire Greenwich Hertfordshire Huddersfield Hull Imperial Kent Keele Kingston Lancaster Leeds Leeds Metropolitan Leicester Lincoln Liverpool Liverpool Hope Liverpool John Moores London (Birkbeck Central School of Speech and Drama Courtauld Institute of Art Goldsmiths Heythrop Institute of Cancer Research Institute of Education King's London Business School LSE LSHTM Queen Mary Royal Academy of Music Royal Holloway Royal Veterinary College St George's SOAS School of Pharmacy UCL) London Metropolitan London South Bank Loughborough Manchester Manchester Metropolitan Middlesex Newcastle Northampton Northumbria Nottingham Nottingham Trent Oxford Oxford Brookes Plymouth Portsmouth Reading Roehampton Royal College of Art Salford Sheffield Sheffield Hallam Southampton Southampton Solent Staffordshire Surrey Sunderland Sussex Teesside Thames Valley Warwick UWE Westminster Winchester Wolverhampton Worcester York York St John
Scotland	Aberdeen Abertay Dundee Edinburgh Glasgow Glasgow Caledonian Heriot-Watt Napier Paisley Queen Margaret Robert Gordon St Andrews Stirling Strathclyde
Wales	Aberystwyth Bangor Cardiff Glamorgan Lampeter Newport NEWI Swansea SIHE Trinity UWIC Wales
Northern Ireland	Queen's Ulster
Non−geographic	Open University

•  • [ e] The 1994 Group of smaller British research universities
Bath • Birkbeck • Durham • East Anglia • Essex • Exeter • Goldsmiths College • Lancaster • Leicester • Loughborough • Queen Mary • Reading • Royal Holloway • School of Oriental and African Studies • St Andrews • Surrey • Sussex • Warwick • York

•  • [ e] N8 Group of Northern England research universities
Durham • Lancaster • Leeds • Liverpool • Manchester • Newcastle • Sheffield • York

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