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The University of Southampton is a British university situated in the city of Southampton, on the south coast of Great Britain. The university has a world-wide reputation for high-quality research, and is a member of the Russell Group of research-led British universities. According to The Sunday Times newspaper league table, Southampton is perennially in the top ten for research (its primary focus), while in 2002 it came 3rd overall (out of around 200 British institutions). Southampton is a member of the Worldwide Universities Network and has close links with MIT in the United States. The University's main buildings are situated on a large site on the Highfield Campus in Highfield, but the university has other campuses elsewhere around the city: at Boldrewood (biomedical sciences),Southampton General Hospital and on the waterfront at the National Oceanography Centre. It also has a campus in the nearby city of Winchester which is the home of the university's School of Art, known as the Winchester School of Art. The Avenue Campus houses most of the Humanities subjects taught at the University, including History, English, Philosophy and Modern Languages. The Centre for Language Study is based at Avenue Campus. Music is taught on the Highfield Campus. Southampton is probably best known as an engineering, science and social science university. In the most recent RAE assessment (2001), it has the only engineering faculty in the country to receive the highest rating (5 The University's Professor David Payne FRS CBE invented the optical amplifier, without which fibre optic cables would not work. Professor Payne is also Chairman of Photonics, a commercial company which is a spin-off of this research. Former head of the School (then Department) of Electronics and Computer Science, Professor Tony Hey CBE, is now Corporate Vice-President of Microsoft UK. Another Southampton Professor, Martin Fleischmann, Professor of Electrochemistry, came to notoriety in 1989 when, along with a research collaborator, he claimed to have produced cold fusion in a laboratory. Subsequent researchers were unable to substantiate his claims. In 2004, the inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, was appointed to the School of Electronics and Computer Science as Professor of Computer Science.
Faculties, schools, and centres
Professional Campus planned for University’s Boldrewood site The University of Southampton is planning to develop the UK’s first wholly integrated ‘professional campus’ in line with its strategy to drive innovation in the economy through its world-class research. The plans will see the transformation of the University’s Boldrewood campus which will accommodate new facilities for the School of Management. Lloyd’s Register, an independent risk management organisation, will move its London marine operations to the Boldrewood campus (see press release - Lloyd's Register announces plans to move Marine operations to Southampton), to co-locate with the University’s School of Management. The practice of corporations and business schools sharing resources and facilities is well established in some countries but this will be the first ‘professional campus’ in the UK. The Lloyd's Register Group is an organisation that works to enhance safety and to approve assets and systems at sea, on land and in the air. It will maintain its building in the City of London as the corporate office and governance of the Group will remain based there. The University of Southampton's School of Management offers a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in accounting, banking, corporate risk, finance, information systems, management, management sciences and risk management. History The University of Southampton has its origin as the Hartley Institution which was formed in 1862 from a benefaction by Henry Robertson Hartley (1777-1850). Hartley was the son of a local wine merchant, and his ambition was to set up a harem . On his death he left £103,000 to the Southampton Corporation on condition that it was invested in such manner as might best promote the study and advancement of the sciences of Natural History, Astronomy, Antiquities, Classical and Oriental Literature in the town, such as by forming a Public Library, Botanic Gardens, Observatory, and collections of objects with the above sciences. The city officials housed Hartley's books in a building in Southampton's High Street, in the city centre. The Hartley Institution was borne out of this, and became a university college in 1902. In 1919 it was renamed Hartley University College, and subsequently University College Southampton. Before 1952, the college's degrees were awarded by the University of London. Having outgrown the High Street premises, the college was set to move to greenfield land near Highfield's Back Lane (now University Road). Although the new main building was formally opened on 20th June 1914, the outbreak of the First World War occurred before any lectures could take place there. The buildings were handed over by the college authorities for use as a military hospital. In order to cope with the volume of casualties, wooden huts were erected at the rear of the building. The college continued to use these after the war, eventually replacing the makeshift extension with brick buildings. With the continuing expansion, an academic bookshop was built on the site of Church Farm and the Students' Union complex and refectory were built on the site of Sir Sidney Kimber's brickyard. In 1952, the Queen granted the University of Southampton a Royal Charter to award degrees in its own right. This conferred full university status and made Southampton independent of the University of London. Despite being one of the last of the "civic" universities, it grew rapidly and gained a reputation for a strong academic approach. It expanded rapidly during the 1960s, when a number of new "plate glass" universities were springing up; such as the University of Warwick, University of York, University of East Anglia and a number of others. In 2005, a large fire destroyed part of the Mountbatten Building, holding optical fibre research laboratories (the world-renowned Optoelectronics Research Centre, ORC) and the microchip fabrication laboratories. It is estimated that the costs for rebuilding the centre and replacing the equipment will be around £70 million.* Architecture The earliest buildings on the main (Highfield) campus date back to the 1910s; however, the centre of the campus is dominated by two imposing 1930s buildings by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott - literally in red brick - while the original 1950s masterplan and the majority of the remaining buildings are by Sir Basil Spence in a light, Mies van der Rohe style. A new masterplan for the Highfield campus was drawn up in 1998 by renowned architect Rick Mather who has also contributed some of the newer buildings. The campus has expanded rapidly over the last decade, with many notable new buildings including one designed by Norman Foster. The campus retains an area of parkland in which are scattered 20th century sculptures by Barbara Hepworth, FE McWilliams, Justin Knowles, Nick Pope and John Edwards. Students Union The University of Southampton Students' Union (SUSU), is sited in two buildings opposite the Hartley Library. One, the West Building, dates back to the 1940s in a red brick style, complementing the Hartley Library opposite; the main building was built in the 1960s in the Basil Spence masterplan. This was extended with new nightclub and cinema facilities in 2002. In May 2002 (after several attempts going back several years), it chose to disaffiliate itself from the NUS, whom SUSU believed to be 'political time-wasters' and 'bureaucratic'. The multiple award winning student radio station, Surge, broadcasts from new studios in the main Union building. Surge broadcasts throughout the year on the 1287AM and the internet and once a year on FM. The student newspaper, originally Wessex News, is now published once every three weeks as Wessex Scene following a name change in 1996. Events are held in The Cube, the Union's nightclub, and in the Stag's Head, the Union bar. National touring bands including Dirty Pretty Things, The Automatic and Fightstar play in the Garden Court in the West Building. Halls of Residence The University provides accommodation for all first year students who require it. Places in halls are also available for international and postgraduate students. Accommodation may be catered, self catered, have ensuite facilities, a sink in the room, or access to communal bathroom facilities. Each of the large sites has a Junior Common Room system that runs social activities and events throughout the term and supervises the running of the onsite bars. The two main halls of residence are: which includes:
which includes:
There are also the following satellite halls: Famous alumni Motto Strenuis Ardua Cedunt (The Heights Yield to Endeavour) Corporate slogan "At the Cutting Edge of Innovation" See also News articles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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