University of Greenwich

The University of Greenwich is a British, United Kingdom-based university. It has three campuses in London and Kent. These are located at Greenwich, in the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College, and in Avery Hill and Medway.

It is the greenest university in the UK in 2012 as assessed by The People & Planet Green League.

The university has ranked well in terms of student satisfaction across all 20 listed universities in London – with it topping lists of 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 consecutively. It has not left the top five since its entry in 2010. The same survey ranks Greenwich as having the second-worst graduate prospects of all London universities.

The university’s range of subjects includes architecture, business, computing, education, engineering, humanities, maritime studies, natural sciences, pharmacy and social sciences. It has a strong research focus and well-established links to the scientific community.

History

The university dates back to 1890, when Woolwich Polytechnic was founded as the second-oldestpolytechnic in the United Kingdom. In 1970, Woolwich Polytechnic merged with various other higher education institutions to form Thames Polytechnic. In the following years, Dartford College (1976), Avery Hill College (1985), Garnett College (1987) and parts of Goldsmiths College and the City of London College (1988) were incorporated.

Greenwich

Coordinates: 51°29′N 0°00′E / 51.48°N 0.00°E / 51.48; 0.00

Greenwich (ⁱ/ˈɡrɛnɪtʃ/, /ˈɡrɪnɪdʒ/, /ˈɡrɪnɪtʃ/ or /ˈɡrɛnɪdʒ/) is an early-established district of today's London, England, centred 5.5 miles (8.9 km) east south-east of Charing Cross. The town lends its name to the Royal Borough of Greenwich.

Greenwich is generally described as being part of South-east London and sometimes as being part of East London. It is also one of the five boroughs of the London Docklands, connected to areas with docks of London historically by river and today to Canary Wharf and other buildings by the East London Line.

Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian (0° longitude) and Greenwich Mean Time. The town became the site of a royal palace, the Palace of Placentia from the 15th century, and was the birthplace of many Tudors, including Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. The palace fell into disrepair during the English Civil War and was rebuilt as the Royal Naval Hospital for Sailors by Sir Christopher Wren and his assistant Nicholas Hawksmoor. These buildings became the Royal Naval College in 1873, and they remained an establishment for military education until 1998 when they passed into the hands of the Greenwich Foundation. The historic rooms within these buildings remain open to the public; other buildings are used by University of Greenwich and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

University

A university (Latin: universitas, "a whole") is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which grants academic degrees in various subjects and typically provides undergraduate education and postgraduate education. The word "university" is derived from the Latin universitas magistrorum et scholarium, which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars."

History

Definition

The original Latin word "universitas" refers in general to "a number of persons associated into one body, a society, company, community, guild, corporation, etc." At the time of the emergence of urban town life and medieval guilds, specialised "associations of students and teachers with collective legal rights usually guaranteed by charters issued by princes, prelates, or the towns in which they were located" came to be denominated by this general term. Like other guilds, they were self-regulating and determined the qualifications of their members.

In modern usage the word has come to mean "An institution of higher education offering tuition in mainly non-vocational subjects and typically having the power to confer degrees," with the earlier emphasis on its corporate organization considered as applying historically to Medieval universities.