Chester Health Spa
Chester Health Spa
The University of Chester is a university based in the city of Chester in the United Kingdom. The university, based on a main campus in Chester and a smaller campus in Warrington, offers a range of foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate courses, as well as undertaking academic research.
History
The University was founded as Chester Diocesan Training College in 1839 by a group of local leading figures in the Church of England, including future Prime Ministers William Ewart Gladstone and Lord Derby. It was the UK's first purpose-built teacher training college, which makes it one of the oldest higher education institutions in the country. Its first intake consisted of forty male student teachers. In 1842, Gladstone opened the College's original buildings just outside the city walls on the Parkgate Road site the University occupies today.
In 1910, Chester began its association with the University of Liverpool and in 1930 formally became an affiliated college of the university. Thus, the University of Liverpool awarded Chester's qualifications and Chester's students were able to use Liverpool's facilities.
The institution was threatened with closure in the 1930s, but its future was secured by the 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 possible candidate for university status. These proposals, however, weren't followed through.
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 Chester College of Higher Education.
In the early 1990s, The School of Nursing and Midwifery (now the Faculty of Health and Social Care) was established. The college also began to offer a Bachelor of Theology degree, HNDs and more postgraduate courses, such as master's degrees and PhDs. It also embarking on a £10,000,000 campus improvement programme. By 1995, Chester had earned the right to call itself University College Chester. This name, however, 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, though the more descriptive Chester, a College of the University of Liverpool was frequently used in publicity material.
The College expanded in 2002 through the acquisition of the higher education faculty and campus of 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 awarded full university status and became the University of Chester. This was followed by the right to award its own research degrees in 2007.
Campuses
The University of Chester is a medium-sized institution with two campuses. The 32-acre (130,000 m 2 ) main campus is located on Parkgate Road, just north of the city walls. It houses most of the University's academic and non-academic departments. The campus has a mixture of Victorian buildings (such as Old College, right, which includes a chapel) and modern buildings (like the Binks Building, opened in 2003). The campus also features a fitness centre, swimming pool, bar and various shops.
The University has now outgrown the main campus site and some departments have moved off-site 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 Grade II-listed eighteenth-century Blue Coat School and the Cheshire Military Museum in Chester Castle, which is open to the public. Chester Business School is housed the more contemporary buildings of the former Plantation Inn hotel.
The University-owned student accommodation is primarily reserved for first year and foreign students. This consists of halls of residence, a student village on campus and houses just off campus.
The smaller Warrington campus, which was constructed as a camp for Canadian officers in World War II, is located in the Padgate area of Warrington. This campus includes the North West Media Centre, which has close ties to Granada Television.
The University also has a number of smaller bases, for example, at hospitals for nursing students dotted around Cheshire and The Wirral.
Proposed expansion
The University is currently in the process of two major expansions to its main campus. It has purchased and taken possession of Cheshire County Hall, which is located in the city centre near the racecourse, for use by the Faculty of Education and Children’s Services and the Faculty of Health and Social Care, catering for up to 1,300 students. It is reported, that the sale cost £29 million, with a refurbishment cost of £2 million, and due to open in 2011 known as the Riverside Campus. The University is also planning to build 1,000 new student bedrooms in a student village on a field located next to the existing campus at a cost of around £30 million, which is due to open in 2012
The university is also planning on expanding its Kingsway Campus with the addition of a new office block which will also contain a new exhibition centre for use by the students based at Kingsway.
Organisation
The University is organised into eight faculties of study. Five of these are also subdivided into academic departments. The Faculties and departments are:
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Faculty of Applied and Health Sciences
- Department of Biological Sciences
- Department of Computer Science and Information Systems
- Department of Mathematics
- Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences
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Faculty of Business, Management and Law (Chester Business School and the University of Chester School of Law)
- Department of Business
- Department of Law
- Department of Leadership and Management
- Department of Marketing, Tourism and Events Management
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Faculty of Arts and Media
- Department of Fine Art
- Department of Graphic Design
- Department of Media
- Department of Performing Arts
- Faculty of Education and Children's Services
- Faculty of Health and Social Care
-
Faculty of Humanities
- Department of English
- Department of History and Archaeology
- Department of Languages
- Department of Theology and Religious Studies
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Faculty of Social Sciences
- Department of Geography and Development Studies
- Department of Psychology
- Department of Social and Communication Studies
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Faculty of Life Long Learning
- The Professional Development Unit
- Department of Work Based Learning
- Learning & Enterprise Centre
In addition, a number of research centres operate alongside the departments.
Students and staff
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). The small number of foreign students are mainly participants in the university's active exchange policy. There are approximately 1500 members of staff 569 of whom are academic. Many of them take part in research and often publish their work through the institution's own publishing house, Chester Academic Press.
Dr Peter Blair and Dr Ashley Chantler edit Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine , a major literary periodical, which publishes stories and reviews of up to 360 words by writers from around the world. Contributors include: Ama Ata Aidoo, Roberta Allen, Beryl Bainbridge, Elleke Boehmer, Dave Eggers, David Gaffney, Rodge Glass, Michael Cawood Green, Allan Kolski Horwitz, Liesl Jobson, James Kelman, J. Robert Lennon, Kobus Moolman, Ewan Morrison, Dan Rhodes, Matt Thorne, Alan Wall, and Gee Williams.
Chester Students' Union
Chester Students' Union (CSU) offers services and provides facilities for students. The union is a member of the NUS. Three sabbatical officers are elected each year: the president; the vice-president for the main campus; and the vice-president for the Warrington campus. Sabbatical officers serve a maximum of two years. The Executive Committee are the trustees of the union. They are elected each year before the end of March and each member has a different role, such as entertainments representative, welfare and campaigns representative, publications representative and so on. The support staff for union operations consists of a number of full-time employees, part-time student staff and volunteers from the elected Executive Committee and the Union Council.
The union runs two bars (CH1 on the main campus and Padgates Union Ba
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