Name	Swansea University
Native name	Prifysgol Abertawe
Image name	Swansea University Logo 301.jpg
Motto	Gweddw crefft heb ei dawn("Technical skill is bereft without culture")
Established	1920
Type	Public
Staff	2,500
Chancellor	None; previously Professor Sir David Williams
Vice chancellor	Professor Richard B. Davies
Students	18,445
Undergrad	11,730
Postgrad	2,145
Other	4,570 FE
City	Swansea
Country	UK
Campus	Suburban/Coastal
Colours	Blue; AU colours Green and White
Affiliations	University of Wales, EUA, ACU
Website	http://www.swan.ac.uk/ }}

Swansea University () is a university located in Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom. Swansea University was chartered as University College of Swansea in 1920, as the fourth college of the University of Wales. In 1996, it changed its name to the University of Wales Swansea following structural changes within the University of Wales. The new title of Swansea University was formally adopted on 1 September 2007 when the University of Wales became a non-membership confederal institution and the former members became universities in their own right.

It is the third largest university in Wales in terms of number of students. The university campus is located next to the coast at the north of Swansea Bay, east of the Gower Peninsula, in the grounds of Singleton Park, just outside Swansea city centre. Swansea was granted its own degree-awarding powers in 2005 in preparation for possible changes within the University of Wales.

Swansea and Cardiff University compete in an annual varsity match, known as the Welsh version of the Oxbridge event, which includes the Welsh Varsity rugby and The Welsh Boat Race.

Governance and structure

Swansea received its royal charter in 1920 and like many universities is governed by its constitution that is set out in its statutes and charter. The governing body of Swansea University is its Council, which, in turn, is supported by the Senate and the Court.

The Council consists of 29 members including the Chancellor, Pro-chancellors, Vice-chancellor, Treasurer, Pro-vice-chancellors, staff and student members, city council representation and a majority of lay members. The council is responsible for all of the University's activities and has a well-developed committee structure to help discharge its powers and duties.

The Senate consists of 200 members, the majority of whom are academics but includes also representatives from both the Students' Union and the Athletic Union. The senate is chaired by the Vice-Chancellor, who is the head of the university both academically and administratively. The senate is the main academic body of the university and is responsible for teaching and research.

The Court consists of over 300 members, who represent the stakeholders in the university and stretch from local to national institutions. The court meets annually to discuss the university's annual report and its financial statements, as well as to discuss current issues in higher education

Academic structure

Swansea University's academic departments are organised into 8 schools:

The College of Arts and Humanities: American Studies, Ancient History, Egyptology, Applied Linguistics, Classics, Cymraeg/Welsh, English, French, German, History, Italian, Mediaeval Studies, Media Studies, Politics & International Relations, PPE, Screen Studies, Spanish-Hispanic Studies, Translation, War and Society

The School of Business and Economics: Accounting, Business, Economic, Finance, Management Science

The School of Engineering: Aerospace, Chemical and Biological, Civil, Electrical and Electronic, Information, Communication & Computing Technology, Materials, Mechanical, Medical, Product Design, Engineering & Technology, Sport & Exercise Science

The School of Environment and Society: Anthropology, Biochemistry, Biological Sciences, Centre for Development Studies, Geography, Marine Biology, National Centre for Public Policy, Sociology, Topographic Science, Zoology

The School of Human and Health Science: Audiology, Applied Social Sciences, Cancer Care, Childhood Studies, Clinical Physiology, Midwifery, Medical Sciences & Humanities, Nursing (Adult, Child, Mental), Osteopathy, Paramedic Science, Pre-Hospital Care, Psychology, Public Health and Health Promotion, Radiography

The School of Law: International Maritime, Trade and Commercial Law, Business & Law. Legal Practice Course, Graduate Diploma in Law, IISTL, CEELP, LLB

The School of Medicine: Graduate Entry Medicine, Centre for Health Information, Biochemistry, Genetics, Institute of Life Sciences 1 & 2, BioMedical Research

The School of Physical Sciences: Computer Science, Cosmology, Mathematics, Pure Mathematics, Physics

Research

Swansea is a highly research intensive university with 52 Centres of Research. The 2008 Research Assessment Exercise rankings for Swansea showed a doubling of world-leading research and the largest increase in internationally excellent research in the whole of the UK, resulting in Swansea University climbing 13 places in the UK rankings from 2001 to 2008. Almost 50 per cent of all research at Swansea University was assessed as world-leading or internationally excellent - 4* and 3*- the top two categories of assessment.

Within Wales, out of 31 subject areas submitted in the RAE, Swansea University came first in 17 areas, and first or second in 24 areas.

! Research area for which Swansea University is first in Wales

Allied Health Professions and Studies (Biomedicine)

American Studies and Anglophone Area Studies

Civil Engineering

Classics, Ancient History, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies

Computer Science

Development Studies

Economics and Econometrics

French

Health Services Research

German, Dutch and Scandinavian Languages

General Engineering and Mineral & Mining Engineering

History

Italian

Iberian and Latin American Languages

Metallurgy and Materials

Physics

Pure Mathematics

Social Work and Social Policy and Administration

Recent Research

Recent research interests include being part of the Bloodhound SSC land-speed record attempt in the area of Computational Fluid Dynamics and Aerodynamic design. The university was also a key partner in the successful Thrust SSC land-speed record attempt.

The university has a connection with CERN. At CERN, university staff were part of the first team to create antihydrogen and later trapping it. The current leader of the Large Hadron Collider project is a former Alumni Dr Lyn Evans.

Staff at the Clinical Haemorheology Laboratory, next to Morriston Hospital’s A&E; department, have been working with Haemair and the University’s Complex Fluids Group in the Department of Engineering on developing a patented prosthetic lung and respiratory aid It has been showcased in the Science Museum in London. It is likely to be of huge benefit to patients with chronic lung diseases including emphysema, Cystic Fibrosis and severe asthma, and could be an alternative to a lung transplant in some cases. It could also play a major role in short-term care for patients suffering temporary lung failure.The lung could be available for patients within five years.

Research Centres and Institutes

The Richard Burton Centre for Film and Popular Culture

…the centre will house Richard Burton's papers, diaries, photographs and personal effects. The collection will form part of an international centre for scholarship and research.

Multidisciplinary Nanotechnology Centre

The new Centre brings together more than 30 experts from a range of disciplines (engineering, physics, chemistry, biology and medicine) and a central suite of laboratories housing state-of-the-art facilities. The Centre is recognised as a growth area within the University that will spearhead the nanotechnology activity across the whole of Wales. Of particular interests are directions based on semiconductors, oxides, liquids, organic and biological materials. Emerging fields such as bio-electronics, nano-medicine, nano-fabrication, nano-rheology, fundamental modelling at the nanoscopic level and bio-nanotechnology have been identified as key areas to develop.

Institute of Life Sciences

…home to the School of Medicine’s rapidly expanding research enterprise and one of the most significant developments on any UK university campus. At £50million, ILS is the largest investment in research ever made at Swansea. ILS 2 is due to open November 2011 and will have cost £30million.

Boots Centre for Innovation

Boots Centre for Innovation was created in April 2007 as a non profit making partnership between Boots the Chemist, Longbow Capital, Swansea University and the Welsh Assembly Government. The Centre was created to work closely with early stage companies or lone inventors to develop innovative new products and technologies within the health and beauty sectors, and to eventually launch new consumer products for the shelves of Boots stores.

CHIRAL: Centre for Health Information, Research and evALuation

The acronym CHIRAL is short for the Centre for Health information, Research and Evaluation. Staff are committed to "hands-on" research that makes a difference, at the point of healthcare delivery, to patient and population health and well being.

CHIRAL is an integrated, multidisciplinary research centre of international standing conducting clinical trials, health services research, public health research, and population science all linked by methodological innovation in high powered computing using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The focus on health informatics is central to much of the cutting edge work carried out. The methodolgies employed are:

•Health & Bio-Informatics •Population Studies •Health Services Research •Qualitative Health Research •Trials & Complex Interventions

And the main areas of research are:

•Diabetes Research •Emergency Care Research •Gastroenterology Research •Injury & Environment Research •Mental Health Research

Welsh Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience

…a pioneering collaborative venture with the Universities of Cardiff and Bangor that researches illnesses such as strokes, dementia and brain injuries

Other Centres and Institutes

Callaghan Centre for the Study of Conflict

Centre for Child Research

Centre for Children and Young People’s Health

Centre for Complex Fluids Processing

Centre for Contemporary German Literature

Centre for Criminal Justice and Criminology

Centre for Development Studies

Centre for Egyptology & Mediterranean Archaeology

Centre for Environmental and Energy Law and Policy

Centre for Innovative Ageing

Centre For Medieval And Early Modern Research

Centre for Migration Policy Research

Centre for NanoHealth

Centre for Research into Iberian Stage and Screen

Centre for Social Work and Social Care Research

Centre for Sustainable Aquaculture Research

Centre for the Comparative Study of the Americas

Centre for the Study of Culture and Politics

Centre for Urban Theory

Chernobyl Tissue Bank

Civil and Computational Engineering

Climate and Land-Surface Systems Interaction Centre-CLASSIC

Centre for Research into the English Literature and Language of Wales-CREW

Electronics System Design Centre

EPSRC National Mass Spectrometry Service Centre

Future Interaction Technology Lab

Centre for Research into Gender in Culture and Society-GENCAS

Glaciology Group

Research Group Greenland Ice Sheet-GLIMPSE Project

Hywel Dda Institute

Institute of Environmental Sustainability

Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law

Institute of Mass Spectrometry

Kyknos-The Centre for Research in Ancient Narrative Literature

Materials Research Centre

National Centre for Public Policy

Performance Engineering Training Consortium

Research Group for Health, History and Culture

Research Institute for Arts and Humanities

The Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Ageing

Translation and Multilingualism

Vocabulary Acquistion Research Group

Welsh Centre for Printing and Coating

Welsh Economy Labour Market Evaluation and Research Centre-WELMERC

Wittgensteinian Studies

Campus

The majority of university buildings are on the Singleton Campus, based in the grounds of Singleton Park, adjacent to Swansea Bay. The campus also includes the nearby Sports Village and Hendrefoelan Student Village, about 2.5 miles away.

Library

Library & Information Services at Swansea provides a combined library, IT and Careers service. The main Library & Information Centre on the Singleton campus has over 800,000 books and periodicals, along with a wide range of electronic resources including over 23,000 electronic journals. There are over 1,000 study spaces, almost half of which are equipped with networked PCs. LIS was awarded the Charter Mark in 2006.

The Library & Information Centre also has major archive collections, based on the South Wales Coalfield Collection, several papers of Welsh writers in English and the Richard Burton Collection, which was recently donated by Burton's wife, Sally. It is hoped that the collection will form the hub of a learning resource dedicated to the actor’s life and work.

Recent developments include a major extension in opening hours, the transfer of the stock of the Morriston Hospital Nursing Library to the Library and Information Centre and the creation of the Richard Burton Archives which house his personal possesions as well as the South Wales Coalfield Collection .

Sports Village

Swansea University's sports centre is located near the main campus on the western side of Sketty Lane. The university sports centre is separate to the adjacent King Edward V Playing fields to the west. The sports centre is used by the university for its sports degree courses as well for general student recreation. Facilities include an indoor 6-lane running track, gymnasium, sports hall, tennis courts, squash courts and a climbing wall. Outdoor facilities include an 8-lane running track and floodlit playing fields including rugby, football, lacrosse and cricket pitches.

Wales National Pool / Pwll Cenedlaethol Cymru

The Wales National Pool in the Sketty area of Swansea, Wales, is a 50 metre swimming pool built to FINA standards. The facility, which also has a 25m x 9.5m training pool and 1,200 spectator seats, is used to train Wales' world class aquatic sports athletes and houses the headquarters of the Wales Amateur Swimming Association.

The pool is one of five of British Swimming's Intensive Training Centres (ITC), used to train swimmers for the London 2012 Olympics. The facility was built with funding from Sport Wales, Swansea Council and Swansea University and is built on the site of the university's sports centre.

Xtreme Radio 1431AM

Xtreme Radio is the radio station of the University, run by students. It was founded in November 1968 as Action Radio, making it the third oldest student radio station in the UK and oldest in Wales. It broadcasts to various areas around campus, around Swansea itself on 1431AM and worldwide on the internet. The station plays a wide variety of music, as well as having a number of specialist programmes including talk and sports shows.

Museum of Egyptian Antiquities (Egypt Centre)

Located within the Taliesin building, the Egypt Centre is a museum of Egyptian antiquities open to the public. There are over 4000 items in the collection. Most of them were collected by the pharmacist Sir Henry Wellcome. Others came to the university from: the British Museum; the Royal Edinburgh Museum; National Museums and Galleries of Wales Cardiff; the Royal Albert Museum and Art Gallery and also private donors.

Egypt Centre staff regularly give lectures and talks to museum groups and other outside bodies on widening participation in university museums; social inclusion and volunteering. Schools regularly visit us to take part in a stimulating and interactive programme of events.

Student accommodation

Swansea University provides approximately 3400 places in University halls and aims to offer accommodation to over 98% of new Undergraduate students who request it. Accommodation is also available for all International Postgraduate students.

Swansea University maintains on-campus and off-campus halls of residence and the purpose built Hendrefoelan Student Village. Several new halls of residence were completed in 2004 and in 2008.

There are also a number of university managed properties in the Uplands and Brynmill areas of the city.

Hendrefoelan Student Village

Hendrefoelan Student Village is the university’s largest residence site where 1644 students live in self-catering accommodation. The Hendrefoelan estate is 2.5 miles from the campus, just off the main Swansea to Gower road, set amongst mature woodland with open grassy areas. The campus host's a mini-supermarket, launderette, bar and diner. Busses run from the campus to the University, City Centre, Swansea Stadium and various Hospitals within the city. The campus is near the Killay shopping precinct.

Campus halls

There are nine halls that make up the campus residences providing accommodation to around 1226 students. The halls offer a combination of part and self-catered rooms and a choice of standard or ensuite study rooms. Three of these halls (Caswell, Langland and Oxwich) were completed in 2004 and the original halls (Kilvey, Preseli, Rhossili and Cefn Bryn, formerly known as Sibly, Lewis Jones, Mary Williams Annexe and Mary Williams respectively) have undergone some refurbishment in recent years. Penmaen and Horton are the newest addition to the campus residences providing 351 self-catered, ensuite study rooms. Many rooms have views over the bay or across the park.

Tŷ Beck / Beck House

Six large Victorian town houses situated in the Uplands area of Swansea, approximately a mile from the Singleton campus. Predominantly provide rooms for postgraduates and students with families, as well as overseas exchange students.

Recent developments

The University has restructured in recent years, expanding popular areas such as History, English, Geography and Computer Science while The Department of Chemistry has been closed down. However, recent course additions include Aerospace Engineering as well as a partnership with Cardiff University to provide a four-year accelerated graduate-entry medical degree (MB BCh) in Swansea which was launched in 2004. In 2007 Swansea University was awarded the four year course on its own.

The Western Britain chapter of the International Conference for the Study of Political Thought was moved to the Department of Politics & International Relations from Exeter University earlier in 2006.

In July 2007 the £52 million Institute of Life Science (ILS) opened as the research arm of the university's school of medicine. The ILS is based in a six-storey building housing laboratories, business incubation suites and an IBM Blue C supercomputer. The supercomputer is used for projects including numerically-intensive analysis of viral genomes, epidemiological modelling, large clinical databases and analysis of the genetics of disease susceptibility. In July 2009, an expansion of the ILS was announced with a £30m investment from Swansea University, the Welsh Assembly Government, the European Union and Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board. ILS2 is due for completion in Summer 2011

In November 2007, the University announced a collaboration with Navitas to found an International College - International College Wales Swansea to provide foundation, 1st year degree and Pre-Masters programmes on campus. The first intake was September 2008.

Campus Expansion

In written evidence presented to the Welsh Assembly's Enterprise and Learning Committee in January 2008, the university stated that it was "at an advanced stage of discussion" about a new 'Innovation Campus' on a second site.

This 'Innovation Campus' aims to capitalise on the University’s growing research expertise and interactions with major international companies such as BP and Rolls Royce. At the same time it will create significant additional student places principally in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics to meet demand, which cannot be physically achieved within the existing Singleton Park Campus alone. More particularly it will address the deficiency in science and technology research in Wales which is an essential component in building the Welsh Knowledge Economy.

Swansea University is undergoing rapid, research-led growth fuelled by an aggressive development strategy. Long-established strengths in Engineering and Physical Sciences are complemented by the Institute of Life Science, Europe’s first centre for Nano-health, and the Institute of Advanced Telecommunications, all of which enjoy research funding support from world-leading multinational companies.

The 'Innovation Campus' will be developed on a site near Fabian Way at Crymlyn Burrows and will be home to Engineering, Computing, Telecommunications, the Business and Law Schools and a range of "research/test facilities" for large and small companies.

Outline planning permission was granted in December 2010 by Neath Port Talbot Borough Council and the final tranch of funding was guaranteed by the Welsh Assembly Government in March 2011.. The final designs are now being prepared by architects and work is expected to begin in 2012.

Meanwhile, the Singleton Park campus is to undergo renovation with vacated buildings to be adapted or demolished. The buildings earmarked for demolition are: Vivian Tower, Talbot building, Taliesin Annexe and Union House.

University rankings

The Times university 2008 Top 100 league table listed the university as the 46th best university in the UK, up from 50th position in 2004 but down from 42nd in 2005. The university picked up the 2005 Times Higher Education Supplement Award for the UK's "best student experience". However, the survey was criticised by some, as it was carried out by the Student Panel making the sample self-selected and therefore unscientific. The university is also listed as one of the top 500 universities in the World at 401 to 500 in the 2006 Shanghai Jiao Tong University World Rankings. Additionally, the 2008 Times Higher Education Supplement of World University Rankings places Swansea as 347th in the world, up from 401-500 in 2007. In July 2011, Vice-Chancellor Richard Davies unveiled at the Honorary Fellows’ Dinner a strategy agreed between Swansea University, the Welsh Assembly Government and the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) to achieve Swansea’s ambitions to become a World top 200 institution.

The Times Good University Guide 2005 places Swansea second to Cambridge out of 45 universities for Civil Engineering.

Notable alumni

Science, Engineering and Technology

Sir Terry Matthews OBE technological entrepreneur

Dr Lyn Evans, CBE, Project Leader, Large Hadron Collider, CERN

Alan Cox (shared with University of Wales, Aberystwyth), Linux pioneer

Robin Milner, Computer Scientist

Professor Olgierd Zienkiewicz, pioneer of computational methods for engineering

Colin Pillinger CBE, Planetary Scientist

Andy Hopper CBE FRS, co-founder of Acorn Computers Ltd

Sir John Meurig Thomas, Chemist

Business

Martin Coles, President of Starbucks Coffee International

Ron Jones, Director of Tinopolis plc.

Politics

Sylvia Heal, former MP and Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons

Lord Anderson of Swansea, former MP

Peter Black, AM for South Wales West

Andrew Davies, AM for Swansea West and former Minister for Finance and Public Service Delivery, Welsh Assembly Government

Hywel Francis MP, Aberavon

Sian James, MP for Swansea East

Val Lloyd, AM for Swansea East

Anne Main, MP for St Albans

Rod Richards, former MP for North West Clwyd and former AM for North Wales

Mark Tami, MP for Alyn and Deeside

Isatou Njie-Saidy, Vice President of The Gambia

Academia

Geoffrey Thomas, President of Kellogg College, Oxford

Andy Hopper CBE FRS, Head of Computing at Cambridge University

Professor Dame Jean Thomas, first female Master, St Catharine's College, Cambridge

Professor Colin H. Williams sociolinguist

D.Z. Phillips, philosopher

Jon Latimer, historian

Sporting

Rob Howley, Wales and British Lions rugby union international

Alun Wyn Jones, Welsh rugby union international

Simon Jones, Hampshire and England cricketer

Ian Hammond, bronze medallist in 20k walk at the Montreal Olympic Games, 1976

John McFall, Paralympic sprinter

Sam Barnett, Runner up in the Caber Toss, Cowal Highland Gathering (Dunoon, Scotland), 1981

Benjamin Graham, former professional American Footballer

Dwayne Peel, Welsh rugby union international

Mike Hooper, Former Liverpool Goalkeeper

Daniel Caines, Athlete

Jazz Carlin, British Olympic Swimmer

Arts

Sir Kingsley William Amis, CBE

Annabelle Apsion television and film actress

Richey Edwards and Nicky Wire of rock group Manic Street Preachers

Jonathan Hill, Presenter Wales Tonight on ITV Wales

Paul Moorcraft (writer)

Stuart Forster, Travel journalist and photographer

Chris Roberts, author of Heavy Words Lightly Thrown: The Reason Behind the Rhyme

Charlie Williams, author of The Mangel Trilogy

Liam Dutton, BBC weather forecaster

Sarah Hendy, television presenter on Price-drop tv and E4 Music

Mavis Nicholson Television Broadcaster

Urien Wiliam Welsh language novelist and Playwright

Nicholas D. Cooper English actor

Ludwig Wittgenstein Philosopher; spent some months in 1941 writing at Swansea University

See also

Academic dress of the University of Wales

List of universities in Wales

List of educational establishments in Swansea

Singleton Abbey

Swansea

Welsh Varsity

The Welsh Boat Race

Swansea University Students' Union

University of Wales

References

External links

Swansea University

Swansea University Student Union (SUSU) website

* Swansea University Student Union Web Portal

Swansea University Athletic Union (SUAU) website

Egypt Centre

Category:University of Wales * Category:Swansea Bay Category:Organisations based in Swansea Category:Association of Commonwealth Universities Category:Educational institutions established in 1920 Category:1920 establishments in Wales

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