University of Huddersfield

University of Huddersfield
Established	1992 -University status 1825 -Huddersfield Science and Mechanics' Institute
Type	Public
Endowment	£293,000
Chancellor	Professor Sir Patrick Stewart
Vice-Chancellor	Professor Bob Cryan
Admin. staff	1,100 academic, 900 support
Students	19,740
Undergraduates	16,175
Postgraduates	3,570
Location	Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England
Campus	Semi-urban
Newspaper	Huddersfield Student
Colours	Blue
Affiliations	University Alliance Association of Commonwealth Universities Universities UK
Website	http://hud.ac.uk/

A View of Queensgate Campus

The University of Huddersfield is a university located in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, with additional campuses in Barnsley and Oldham.

History

The university traces its roots back to a Science and Mechanic Institute founded in 1825. Some nineteenth-century students earned qualifications as external students of the University of London.

Significant dates

1799 - 1882 - The life of Frederic Schwann
1841 - 1844 - Young Men's Mental Improvement Society
1844 - Mechanics' Institution Formed
1846 - Female Educational Institute Formed
1883 - New Technical School Holds Exhibition
1884 - 1896 - Technical School and Mechanics' Institution
1896 - Technical School and Mechanic's Institute becomes the Technical College
1958 - Technical College becomes College of Technology
1970 - College of Technology becomes Huddersfield Polytechnic
1992 - Huddersfield Polytechnic becomes The University of Huddersfield

The archives of all the University's predecessors are held in the Archives and Special Collections department at the University.

The university is a founding member of the Northern Consortium and a member of the Yorkshire Universities. The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Bob Cryan, has previously sat as chair of this regional Higher Education association.

Campuses

Queensgate Campus

Queensgate Campus

The university's main campus, Queensgate, is south-east of Huddersfield town centre. Over £70m has been invested in the campus and its resources over the last 10 years, including:

• After £1m renovation work, the Student Centre was formally opened in November 2007 by Chancellor, Sir Patrick Stewart. The centre enables students to access a range of support services – computing, library, careers, welfare support – in a single location. The four floors of the library were refurbished during 2008-09
• A £4m Students' Union building was opened in 2005 with a variety of social, leisure and retail facilities
• New drama facilities were opened in the refurbished Milton building in 2005
• A Creative Arts Building, designed by Darnton EGS, was completed in 2008. It has a recital hall, electro-acoustic research studio, new art and design studios and live recording facilities. Her Majesty The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh visited the university in May 2007 to unveil the foundation stone of the new Building.
• A new £16m business school opened to students in September 2010.

University Campus Oldham

University Campus Oldham

University Campus Oldham, located in Oldham, Greater Manchester opened in May 2005. It offers full and part-time courses at degree, diploma, foundation degree and postgraduate level.

In November 2008, the Chancellor, Professor Patrick Stewart, started a £5.5 million development to accommodate the growing body of students. The development provides specialist equipment and facilities for students on a range of courses including construction, performance, technical theatre, digital journalism, architectural technology and interior design.

Also benefiting from the investment are multimedia design, games art and digital arts practice students who now have the use of two computer suites with 40 iMacs and 10 high-end PC graphic workstations, all utilising the latest design and modelling software such as Adobe Master Suite, 3D Studio Max 2009 and Pixologic Zbrush 3.1.

The first graduation ceremony was held at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Oldham in November 2006.

University Campus Barnsley

University Campus Barnsley, located in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, was opened in 2005. The campus offers facilities for subjects such as music, art and design, journalism and media production. IT facilities include a wireless system throughout the building, video conferencing, web casting equipment and a suite of industry standard digital studios. £5.5 million has been invested with the help of the Higher Education Funding Council for England, Yorkshire Forward and Objective 1.

University Campus Barnsley

The university has a strong environmental focus and University Campus Barnsley continues this tradition. It is a total recycling facility, able to recycle all the resources that students use.

The first graduation ceremony was held at Barnsley Town Hall in November 2006, the Chancellor, Patrick Stewart, was in attendance and Darren Gough was presented with an honorary degree.

International Study Centre

The International Study Centre (ISC) at the university offers degree preparation courses for international students. The programmes are run by Study Group. The ISC is located on the University’s main Queensgate campus. Students can mix with others and also have access to the Library and other specialist IT facilities.

Chancellor

Professor Sir Patrick Stewart replaced Sir Ernest Hall as the university’s Chancellor in November 2003. When his schedule has permitted, he has also taught drama master classes to students studying at the University.

Organisation

The Creative Arts Building.

The university is organised into the following academic schools:

• Applied Sciences
• Art, Design and Architecture
• Computing and Engineering
• Education and Professional Development
• Business
• Human and Health Sciences
• Music, Humanities and Media

Research

Huddersfield has research strengths in the areas of History, Music, Social Work, Engineering and Chemistry – this was demonstrated by the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) results in these areas. The university recognises the importance of research alongside its teaching programme and has plans to continue to increase research activity across all its Schools. A wide range of flexible research degree options are available at the University.

Teaching

In 2012 the university was the first university to be recognised by the Higher Education Academy as having all its teaching staff meet the requirements of the The UK Professional Standards Framework As a result all lecturers are entitled to use the post-nominal 'Fellow of the Higher Education Academy' (FHEA). The achievement was marked by the presentation of a commemorative plaque by the chief executive of the HEA, Professor Craig Mahoney.

Innovation

New Business School

The university is focussed on strengthening and enhancing its research facility. With this in mind, the institution has invested nearly £1.4 million in information provision in 2008/09. A further £2.75 million was invested in computing resources.

During 2008/09 there was further significant investment in facilities and equipment, including:

• A new Creative Arts Building was opened in September 2008, with a recital hall, electro-acoustic research studio, new art and design studios and live recording facilities.
• A £228,000 Nanoform 250 Ultragrind machining centre was used to investigate nano-material removal and to support research activity within the centre for precision technologies in the School of Computing and Engineering.
• A £160,000 single crystal x-ray diffractometer which uses x-rays to provide the three dimensional structure of chemical compounds. This is being used by researchers in the University’s chemistry department.
• A new business school building, which represents an investment of over £16 million was opened in September 2010. The building will provide improved facilities including a mock court room and ‘The Street’ – a contemporary social space overlooking a central courtyard. The building has been designed to be energy efficient, incorporating energy saving technology.

Sports - Societies

Basketball

The basketball club enters two men's teams into BUCS competition. The first team play in Division 3 and the second team play in Division 4. The teams are selected from an initial series of try out sessions where 30 players are selected to provide the pool of players that the two teams will be picked from. As well as the BUCS programme it also runs one of the largest recreational sports session at the university.

Boardriding Sports

The Boardriding Sports Society is known as HUBA (Huddersfield University Boardriding Association) and is one of the universities most popular societies, now in its 10th Year. It is led by a committee consisting of President and Vicepresident, Quartermaster, Expeditions, Events and Secretary, They go on regular weekends away to the coast, all for an affordable price, along with weekly snowboarding sessions, skateboarding, flowriding, and wake boarding.

Rugby Union

UHRUFC (coached by Chris Stone, playing at Lockwood Park) compete in BUCS League North 2B, after being promoted in the 2010/11 season and finishing a solid 3rd in 2011/12. They were awarded 'Sports Team of the Year' at the Students' Union Awards night in 2011, and in the same year, Rugby Union Team President Michael Aitchison won 'Sportsman of the Year'. They have won the West Yorkshire Varsity game against rivals Bradford for the last 2 years, and also the Ben Randall Memorial game for the last 3 years (a cross-codes game played against the University's Rugby League side). The university side also plays an annual memorial match in remembrance of Adam O'Toole, against the academy side of the 2007 season. The 2012/13 team will be captained by Nick Rhodes with President George Hunt and Club Captain Daniel Western.

Football

The university's 1st team play in the BUCS League, Division 4B. They are led by President and Marsden FC player Daniel Dunn. The head coach is Gérard Jones who coaches the 1st, 2nd and 3rd teams and is the former Arsenal Soccer Schools East Yorkshire Director of Coaching. The second team play in BUCS 5A and are player-managed by ex Manchester City trainee Josh Talbot.

American Football: Huddersfield Hawks

The Huddersfield Hawks are the university's American football team, created in June 2006. Under the Head Coach John Edley, former coach of the Sheffield Hallam Warriors, the team became part of the British Universities American Football League for the 2007/08 season. They finished their inaugural league campaign with a 0-8 record. For the 2008/09 season, the Huddersfield Hawks competed in Group 2 (Northern Section) under the BUAFL's new conference alignment, which when combined with the new coaching style of Richard Handby, enabled the team to prove their critics wrong with a 3-4-1 record from a season that started against the Northern Champions of the previous season. The 2009/10 season saw the Hawks improve their record to 3-5, including an impressive 46-18 win over York Centurions. The Hawks entered the 2010/11 season under a new head coach, Nathan Deeley (former Offensive Co-ordinator), with a 13-strong coaching team and high hopes for a good season. The Hawks had 9 returning players and, after a massive recruitment drive, started their season 56-strong against their old friends York Centurions giving the Hawks their first win of the season 12-2, and many players their first game. Due to the horrific weather in Huddersfield, and a minor kitting issue, every other Hawks game has been rescheduled until the new year in January.

Ice hockey: Huddersfield Ice Hawks

The Huddersfield Ice Hawks is the university's ice hockey team. The Ice Hawks compete in the British Universities Ice Hockey Association Division 2 North under the guidance of coach Adam Beevers. Its inaugural season was 2007-08. It improved further during the 2008-09 season as a sophomore team. The team train and plays its home games at Bradford Ice Rink, its home ice. The 2011-12 season saw the Hawks in its most impressive season yet, defeating Birmingham Eagles in a penalty shoot-out and securing the national championships.

Rugby League: Huddersfield University

Huddersfield University (full name Huddersfield University Rugby League) is the university's Rugby league team. Under Head Coach Chris Plume, the team won the Yorkshire league while losing only one game in the 2007/8 season. Billy Griffiths captains the 2011/12 lineup, which saw over half the players from the previous season either graduating or moving on. The team is sponsored by night-club chain, Tokyo's and "Dogma Bar and Kitchen", while the university is the main educational partner of the Super League side, Huddersfield Giants.

Accommodation

The Storthes Hall Park Student Village and Ashenhurst Student Houses are the preferred and approved accommodation. These residences are privately owned and operated by Digs Student, independently of the University.

Storthes Hall Park Student Village

Storthes Hall is situated in a parkland to the south of the town with 1,432 en-suite single, double or disabled bedrooms in shared flats of six to eight students.

Ashenhurst Houses

Ashenhurst Houses are located in woodlands close to the campus and Storthes Hall Park. There are 279 single bedrooms in shared houses of six to eight students, all with shared facilities including a communal lounge and kitchen/dining area.

Students' Union

The Students’ Union represents, supports and advises students on all aspects of their time at university. The union was 15th in the country in the SUEI awards (achieving a bronze award on their first attempt with the scheme).

The Students’ Union has:

• The SU Bar café bar
• The SU Cafe, a coffee cafe
• A shop
• The Student Advice and Information Centre, offering confidential and impartial support on any welfare, financial or academic issues.
• iZone, students’ information on sports clubs and societies, volunteering, one-off events and activities under the Give-it-a-Go scheme and all student media: RadioHUDD and the Huddersfield Student newspaper.

The Students’ Union also runs activities at the Barnsley and Oldham campuses throughout the year.

The Students' Union also encourage participation within the local community, through their RaG (Raise and Give) group for instance, who raise thousands of pounds a year for both national and local charities and the American Football team who do several charity events a year for local charity Kirkwood Hospice.

Surveys and rankings

Rankings

Complete (2014, national)	57
The Guardian (2014, national)	48

National Student Survey

Huddersfield has scored highly for student satisfaction in the 2005, 2006 and 2007 National Student Surveys^{citation needed}. Huddersfield was ranked joint first out of all Yorkshire universities for high quality staff and lectures in the opinion panel research survey in 2007^{citation needed}. The university achieved the highest ranking of any mainstream university in the United Kingdom for assessment and feedback in the 2011 survey

The Sunday Times Good University Guide

The Sunday Times Good University Guide, ranked the university 42nd out of 119 in the UK (2008). The ranking for 2012 was 58th out of 122 and for 2013 was 64 (equal with Sheffield Hallam University also out of 122.

People & Planet Green League

The university rose 63 places to 8th in the 2008 The People & Planet Green League, representing the highest rise by any university. Despite a standing of 71st in 2007 it achieved the second lowest CO₂ emission rate of any university in the UK, The rise to 8th in the UK was attributed to existing green activity, including the use of canal water in cooling systems and the continued low carbon emissions (13% lower than 2007), as well as new foci such as a push for improved levels of recycling and the introduction of rain water harvesting. In the 2009 Green League the university achieved 18th position and thus, despite slipping ten places, maintained its rating as first class for environmental performance. In 2010, the university had risen back into the top 10.

Summary

Year	Ranking	Classification	Score	Maximum Score Awarded for
2007	71st	3rd	21/50
2008	8th	1st	47/60
2009	18th	1st	43.5/70	Staff; Ethical Investment; Fairtrade University Accreditation; Environmental Impact of Students’ Union
2010	9th	1st	43/70	Publicly Available Environmental Policy; Sustainable Procurement and Fairtrade accreditation; Student and Staff Engagement
2011	14th	1st	43.5/70	Environmental Policies; Ethical Investment; Staff & Student Engagement
2012	21st	1st	46/70	Environmental Policies; Staff & Student Engagement
2013	46th	2.1	41/70	Waste Reduction and Recycling; Water Reduction

Source:[1]

The Guardian University Guide

In the 2011 Guide, the University ranked 2nd for Education Studies, making The School of Education and Professional Development the highest performing school within the university. The University of Huddersfield placed 54th (out of 118) overall in 2011.

The International Student Barometer

The university achieved the highest ranking in the 2011 International Student Barometer conducted by the International Graduate Insight Group

Awards

The university was announced as Entrepreneurial University of the Year at the THE awards 2012.

References

• New Chancellor for the next generation
• New Student Union building opened.

External links

• Official University of Huddersfield website
• Huddersfield Student newspaper website
• Official University of Huddersfield Students' Union website