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About the University of York
The University of York (abbreviated as Ebor. for post-nominals) is a research-intensive plate glass university located in the city ofYork, England. Established in 1963, the campus university has expanded to more than thirty departments and centres, covering a wide range of subjects.
In 2012 York joined the Russell Group in recognition of the institution's world-leading research and outstanding teaching. In the 2014 Research Assessment Exercise, York was also named as the 14th best research institution in the United Kingdom. The university also places among the top 20 in the country, top 50 universities in Europe, and ranked 131st in the world, according to the 2016 Times Higher Education World University Rankings. York is described as a "genuinely world class" institution by The Timesand The Sunday Times. The university attracts a student body with a wide range of backgrounds (with over 16,000 part-time and full-time students in 2013/14), including a large number of international students, and a relatively high number of state schoolstudents in comparison to other well-ranked universities according to The Times Good University Guide.
Situated to the south-east of the city of York, the university campus is about 200 acres (80 hectares) in size, incorporating the York Science Park and the National Science Learning Centre. Its wildlife, campus lakes and greenery are prominent, and the institution also occupies buildings in the city of York. In May 2007 the university was granted permission to build an extension to its main campus, on arable land just east of the nearby village of Heslington. The second campus, known as Heslington East, opened in 2009 and now hosts three colleges and three departments as well as conference spaces, sports village and a business start-up'incubator'.
York is a collegiate university and every student is allocated to one of the university's nine colleges. The ninth college was founded in 2014 and was named Constantine after the Roman emperor Constantine the Great, who was proclaimed Augustus in York in 306 AD. There are plans to build a tenth college in the near future.
History of the University of York
Origins
The first petition for the establishment of a university in York was presented to James I in 1617. In 1641 a second petition was drawn up however was not delivered due to the English Civil War in 1642. A third petition was created in 1647 but was rejected by Parliament. In the 1820s discussions began about the founding of a University in the North, however this did not come to fruition due to the founding of Durham University in 1832. In 1903 F. J. Munby and the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, amongst others, proposed a 'Victoria University of Yorkshire'.
Oliver Sheldon a director of Rowntree's and co-founder of York Civic Trust, was a driving force behind the campaign to found the university.
Establishment
Morell and the history of the foundations. In 1963 the university opened with 216 undergraduates, 14 postgraduates, and 28 academic and administrative staff. The university started with six departments: Economics, Education, English, History, Mathematics, Politics. At the time, the university consisted of three buildings, principally the historic King's Manor in the city centre and Heslington Hall, which has Tudor foundations and is in the village of Heslington on the edge of York. A year later, work began on purpose-built structures on the Heslington Campus, which now forms the main part of the university.
Baron James of Rusholme, the university's first Vice-Chancellor, said of the University of York that "it must be collegiate in character, that it must deliberately seek to limit the number of subjects and that much of the teaching must be done via tutorials and seminars". Due to the influence of Graeme Moodie, founding head of the Politics Department, students are involved in the governance of the university at all levels, and his model has since been widely adopted.
York's first two Colleges, Derwent and Langwith were founded in 1965, and were followed by Alcuin and Vanbrugh in 1967 and Goodricke in 1968. In 1972 this was followed byWentworth College.
The university was noted for its inventive approach to teaching. It was known for its early adoption of joint honours degrees which were often very broad such as history and biology. It also took an innovative approach to social science introducing a five year long degree in the subject.
Expansion
After 1972 the construction of Colleges ceased until 1990 with the foundation of James College. Initially James was intended to be a postgraduate only college, however the university began to rapidly expand in size almost doubling in size from 4,300 to 8,500 students, in 1993 therefore it was decided that the College should become open to undergraduates. The expansion of student numbers also resulted in the creation of more accommodation by the University which was named 'Halifax Court'; the members of Halifax Court were members of other colleges however soon formed their own Junior Common Room. In 2002 Halifax Court was made a full college of the university and was renamed Halifax College.
In 2003, the university set out plans to create a campus for 5,000 additional students, and to introduce a number of new subjects such as Law and Dentistry. For a number of years, the university's expansion plans were limited by planning restrictions on the Heslington West campus. The City of York planning conditions stipulate that only 20% of the land area may be built upon, and the original campus was at full capacity.
In 2004, plans were finalised for a 117 hectare extension to the campus, provisionally called Heslington East, designed to mirror the existing Heslington West campus. The plans set out that the new campus would be built on arable land between Grimston Bar park and ride car park and Heslington village. The land was removed from the green belt especially for the purpose of extending the university. After a lengthy consultation and a public inquiry into the proposals in 2006, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government gave the go-ahead in May 2007.
In May 2008 the City of York planners approved the design for the first residential college, Goodricke. In The Press on 28 July 2008, Shepherd Construction was named as the preferred contractor for the Goodricke College buildings. The proposal included landscaping the whole area, constructing a lake with marsh borders, planting light woodland and many specimen trees, and maximising biodiversity.
Construction began in 2008, with the first buildings, including Goodricke college, coming into use in October 2009. It was decided that rather than create a new College that an existing College should be moved. Goodricke College was selected for this and moved onto the new campus in 2009 with James taking over its building on Heslington West. Goodricke was officially opened by the Duke of York in April 2010. In 2012 the same process took place with Langwith moving to Heslington East and Derwent taking over its previous buildings. In 2014 Heslington College saw the establishment of the ninth college and was named Constantine after the Roman emperor Constantine the Great, who was proclaimed Augustus in York in 306 AD.
Accreditation
- Institutional Accreditation or Recognition - Privy Council
- Year of first Accreditation - 1963
Rankings
- In 2014 York was named the eighth best university under 50 years old in the world, and first within the United Kingdom, building a "reputation to rival Oxford and Cambridge".
- On 25 November 2010 York was named "University of the Year" at the Times Higher Education Awards, achieving praise from the judges for its "success in combining academic excellence with social inclusion, as well as its record in scientific discovery".
- Traditionally York has been regarded as a 'Top 10 university', having been consistently present near the top of British league tables. It is one of the youngest universities in the world to be ranked top 100 in the overall THE-QS World University Rankings, and 131st in the world according to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. In the same rankings York is listed as 34th for Life Sciences & Biomedicine.
- The Sunday Times released averages of all its tables over 10 years, ranking York as 6th in the country from 1998–2007.
- In 2000 the Sutton Trust named York as a leading university in the United Kingdom, placing it 6th overall.
Student Life @the University of York
Representation
The students' union is the University of York Students' Union and is referred to as YUSU. Its membership is currently the entire student population of the university. In 2008 YUSU was able to open its first Union-run licensed venue The Courtyard. In addition to the students' union, there is a Graduate Students' Association (the GSA) which performs many of the functions of the Students' Union for postgraduate students, including representing postgraduates on university committees and Council.
Each College has its own JCRC or students' association which provide a variety of services, including college events and student welfare services; they also organise the Freshers' Fortnight activities in their College.
Non-partisan political societies are well represented at the university, with the York Student Think Tank – which produces research in collaboration with national policy organisations such as IPPR, New Generation Society – an informal debating society, and The York Union Society – which competes in inter-varsity debating tournaments against other universities. There are also very active party political societies on campus with the University of York Labour Club, the University of York Liberal Democrat Society, the University of York Conservative and Unionist Association and the University of York Green group; campaigning on issues both on and off campus, as well as organising debates and talks by high-profile speakers. There is also a branch of People and Planet, which campaigns on environmental and ethical issues.
Provisions for lesbian, gay bisexual and trans (LGBT) students at the university are divided among two distinct organisations. YUSU LGBT is a part of the students' union and represents LGBT students within the union, as well as providing welfare support and conducting awareness raising campaigns on campus. LGBT Social organises social events aimed at LGBT students and their friends. While remaining separate, these two groups generally have strong links to each other and to the staff LGBTI forum, which offers largely similar provision to staff members of the university.
Media
York Student Television (YSTV) was founded at the university in 1967 and is England's oldest student television station. YSTV once held the world record for longest continuous television broadcast under a single director. It was named the best student television station at the 2012 and 2014 NaSTA Awards. The University of York Filmmaking Society was a student-run filmmaking group; between 1999 and 2014 its members made two feature films and many shorts, some of which were shown at national film festivals.
University Radio York (URY) is the oldest independent radio station in the United Kingdom and winner of the Student Radio Awards Best Station Award 2005.
Nouse was established in 1964 and was 2005 NUS/Mirror Student paper of the year and 2009 NUS Best Student Media. It has also won multiple Guardian Student Newspaper awards throughout the past decade, for both its pioneering website and outstanding individual journalists. Its rival newspaper, Vision, was named Guardian Student Newspaper of the Year for three consecutive years between 2002 and 2004—the only time this has occurred in the 27-year history of the prestigious awards—and won it again in 2007. In 2011, it won the award for a fifth time, making it the most awarded student newspaper in the United Kingdom. It also won Best Small Budget Publication at the 2006 NUS/Mirror National Student Media Awards.
The Lemon Press, York's satire magazine, was launched in 2009, in both print and online formats. In 2010 it won the NUS Award for Best Student Media. The Yorker is an online publication set up by students as an independent company in 2007; it was nominated for the Guardian Student media awards after running for only a few months.
York Student Cinema (YSC), operating since the late 1960s, show around 30 films a term using a professional 35 mm projector, an industry standard Christie CP2000 digital projector, and a full size CinemaScope screen in one of the largest rooms on campus. It has won the BFFS film society of the year award several times and celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2016.
Sports
The York's University teams play in black and gold colours. York is a member of British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) and has 65 teams participating. At the end of the 2013/14 BUCS season York came 38th out of 145 participating institutions.
As well as BUCS every summer term the university take part in the Roses Tournament, a sports competition against Lancaster University, which is the largest inter-university tournament in Europe. The venue of the event alternates each year between York and Lancaster, and involves numerous sports clubs, including the conventional (football, hockey) and the more unusual (YUCC, ultimate frisbee). As of 2015 York is leading Lancaster with 26 wins to 24, with one draw in 1974. Lancaster will be hosting the 2016 tournament.
The university has also previously also been in the White Rose Varsity Tournament, this started in 2005 against York's other university York St John, York won all six of the tournaments held. In 2011 attempts to try and increase the competitiveness of the competition resulted in York St John being replaced by the University of Hull. York won all 3 tournaments against Hull which resulted in it being scrapped in 2013.
In 2014 a new tournament was created "College Varsity" which was held between the Colleges of the University of York and the Colleges of Durham University.
Arts
The University of York Music Society and the University of York Drama Society are two of the largest student societies on campus; with each having performances and/or concerts every week during term. Central Hall Musical Society performs a number of shows and showcases every year.
Other performing societies include the Gilbert and Sullivan Society, PantSoc who stage a student written pantomime three times a year, and York ComedySoc, one of the most active comedy societies in the UK, putting on a show every week along with 3 workshops. Comedysoc send two shows to the Edinburgh Fringe each year: The Shambles, Comedysoc's in-house improv comedy troupe and Present and Correct, a sketch show.
FUSION was recently founded to promote the ever-growing urban music scene and to raise money for charity.
In 2004 a student at the university established York Carnival—a day celebrating music and the arts in the centre of York. Its original aim was to encourage links between the University of York and the residents of the historic city and to encourage participation in the arts. It has grown into a large annual event, attracting crowds of up to 5,000.
Why York?
No matter where you're from, or what you'd like to do when you graduate, the York experience will challenge, inspire, develop and support you. Through a combination of excellent teaching, a rich and varied campus life and a cultured city, you'll have the experience of a lifetime.
1. Teaching excellence
We're a leading UK university for academic excellence; ranked 103rd in the QS World University Rankings 2015. We also have ten subjects in the world top 100, five of which are among the world top 50.
Join us and you’ll work with world‐leading academics who’ll challenge you to think independently and excel in all that you do
2. Inspirational research
York is a Russell Group university and one of the world’s premier institutions for inspirational and life-changing research.
The Russell Group represents 24 leading UK universities which are committed to maintaining the very best research and an outstanding teaching and learning experience. Excellent teaching at York is informed by and builds on high quality research. Equally research is often informed by teaching. For example, research active academic staff bring vibrancy to teaching by drawing on their current research.
Our research excellence is also backed-up by the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF) - we're ranked 10th out of 155 higher education institutions in the UK for research impact.
3. Beautiful city in a great location
Lively, full of culture and beautiful, York is regularly voted one of the best places to live and visit in the UK and it's one of the UK's safest cities. York was ranked the 6th safest student city (The Complete University Guide: how safe in your city 2014).
York is easy to get to from anywhere in the world, with great public transport links and international airports nearby. It's also a great base from which to explore the rest of Europe.
4. Fantastic student experience
You'll meet people from all over the world among our community of nearly 16,000 students, which includes almost 3,000 international students from 170+ countries.
Try something new and meet interesting people through getting involved in our friendly and supportive campus life. There are over 180 social, cultural and religious student-led societies and 60+ sports clubs to choose from. We also have an International Students' Association which is a student-run society that organises a range of social events throughout the year in and around Yorkshire.
5. Global perspective
We have been ranked as one of the 100 most international universities in the world by Times Higher Education (THE). We recruit high achieving students and staff from all over the world. We also collaborate with top institutions across the globe on a variety of research projects and initiatives.
Last but not least, we aim to give all our students an international experience through study exchanges, internships, summer schools and study centres.
6. Safe and supportive environment
We recognise that studying in a foreign country can be daunting, so we have a support network in place to give you all the help you need, from English language support to careers advice. You can also relax in the knowledge that you'll be living and studying in a safe and green campus environment and student-friendly city.
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