Keele University Totally Explained

Everything about Keele University totally explained

Keele University is a research-intensive campus university located near Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as an experimental college dedicated to a broad curriculum and interdisciplinary study, Keele is most notable for pioneering the dual honours degree in Britain. The University occupies a 617 acre (2.5 km²) rural campus close to the village of Keele and houses a Science Park and a conference centre. The University's School of Medicine and School of Nursing and Midwifery operate clinical courses from a separate campus at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire in Hartshill, Stoke-on-Trent.

History

Keele University was established in 1949 as the University College of North Staffordshire, at the initiative of A. D. Lindsay, then Master of Balliol College, Oxford. Lindsay was a strong advocate of working-class adult education, who had first suggested a "people's university" in an address to the North Staffordshire Workers' Educational Association in 1925.
   On 13th March 1946, Lindsay wrote to Sir Walter Moberly, chair of the University Grants Committee (UGC), suggesting the establishment of a college “on new lines”. Established practice was for new colleges to be launched without degree-awarding powers, instead taking external degrees of the University of London. Crucially, Lindsay wanted to “get rid of the London external degree”, instead forming a college with the authority from the start to set its own syllabus, perhaps acting under the sponsorship of an established university. Lindsay wrote also to the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, tentatively requesting just such sponsorship. Having secured public funding from the UGC in January 1948, the Committee acquired Keele Hall, a stately home on the outskirts of Newcastle-under-Lyme, from its owner, Ralph Sneyd. The Hall, ancestral residence of the Sneyd family, had previously been requisitioned by the War Office for military use during World War II, and was supplied with the bulk of the Sneyd estate and a number of prefabricated structures erected by the Army, for the sum of £31,000. receiving a new Royal Charter in January of that year, and adopting the name The University of Keele. This remains the official name, although Keele University is now the name used by the University itself. In achieving University status, Keele became the second of the New Universities (after Sussex, Royal Charter 1961).
   Since then, student numbers have swelled considerably. The University estimates that there are now upwards of 5,600 full-time students at Keele; 1,300 part-time students; and around 4,000 participants on professional and short courses. The University is committed to further growth, with the stated objective of increasing its numbers to 10,000 full-time students. reflects the aims of its founders: breadth of study and community atmosphere.
   Breadth of study was guaranteed by the "pioneering" four-year dual-honours degree programmes initially offered by Keele. The University's curriculum required every student to study two "principal" subjects to honours level, as well as further "subsidiary" subjects, with an additional requirement that students should study at least one subject from each of the subject groupings of Arts, Sciences and Social Sciences. The cross-disciplinary requirement was reinforced by the Foundation Year, an innovation which meant that for the first year of the four-year programmes, all students would study a common course of interdisciplinary "foundation studies". In the words of the first UCNS Prospectus, the programme offered:
Higher Education, but lack subject-specific qualifications for specific degree programmes. By contrast, the Dual Honours system at Keele remains distinctive and popular, with almost 90 per cent of current undergraduates reading dual honours.
   As an experimental community, Keele was initially founded as a "wholly residential" and it was required of the first professors appointed that they should also be in residence. With the expansion of the University, total residency has long since been abandoned, but the proportion of students and staff resident on campus remains above average: 70 per cent of full-time students currently live in campus residences.
   The University also has a reputation for political activism, especially left-wing radicalism, having been dubbed, in its early years, a "School for Socialists" and "The Kremlin on the Hill".

Teaching

National Student Survey 2006Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) last conducted an institution-wide audit of Keele's teaching between 10 and 14 May 2004. The Agency reported "broad confidence" in the management of the University's teaching quality.
The QAA discontinued the "graded profile" method of individual subject review in 2001, At that time, the highest-graded areas of teaching at Keele were: American studies, education, philosophy, politics and international relations (scoring 24 out of a possible 24); economics and psychology (scoring 23); maths and statistics, physics and astrophysics, organismal biosciences, sociology (scoring 22); and management, nursing and midwifery, biochemistry and biomedical sciences (scoring 21).
Research activities are co-ordinated by a Graduate School

and organised within seven Research Institutes:

Research Institute for the Humanities

Research Institute for Law, Politics and Justice

Research Institute for Life Course Studies

Research Institute for Public Policy and Management

Research Institute for the Environment, Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics (EPSAM)

Research Institute for Science and Technology in Medicine

Research Institute for Primary Care and Health Sciences Since 2005, an Office of Research and Enterprise has managed Keele's "enterprise activities".

2007 Janet Finch pay rise controversy

Early in 2007 it was announced that the Keele University Vice-Chancellor, Janet Finch, had received a pay rise of 31.7 per cent in the previous year. This took her annual salary to £212,000 which is greater than the salaries paid to the Vice-Chancellors of universities such as Cambridge and Warwick.
   The salary increase was ten times the pay rise given to lecturers in the same year which drew concern from lecturers' unions that staff workloads were not being accurately reflected by pay increases.
   Keele University defended the pay rise citing recently successful university expansion projects. However, critics point out that despite the success of recent expansions, Keele University has suffered the fourth biggest drop in student applications of all UK universities. Students at the university have also claimed that Finch's 'success' is down to ruthless cutbacks rather than careful investment.
   Finch's pay will remain frozen until 2009.

Sport

Keele has a tradition of participation in many different sports, ranging from rugby to lacrosse, to dodgeball. Sports teams and issues raised are managed by the Athletic Union with the University having very little involvement with the on-goings of sport at the university. The Leisure Centre is one of the largest dry leisure complexes in Staffordshire. The Centre boasts two national standard sports halls, a single court gymnasium, a fitness centre, dance studio and climbing wall. Outside there's an all weather floodlit Astroturf pitch, tennis courts and extensive playing fields. It is also the first University Centre in the UK to offer a full "Kinesis" gym facility.

People

List of University officers

Principals and Vice-Chancellors

Lord Lindsay of Birker (1949-52)

Sir John Lennard-Jones (1953-54)

Sir George Barnes (1956-60)

Dr H. M. Taylor (1961-67)

Professor W. A. Campbell Stewart (1967-79)

Dr D. Harrison (1979-84)

Professor Sir Brian Fender (1985-95)

Professor Janet Finch (since 1995) Presidents and Chancellors

The Earl of Harrowby (1949-55)

HRH Princess Margaret (1956-86)

Claus Moser (Lord Moser from 2001) (1986-2002)

Professor Sir David Weatherall (since 2002)

Notable academics

Margaret Canovan - Political theorist

Samuel Edward Finer - Political scientist

Roy Fisher - British poet and jazz pianist

Antony Flew - British philosopher

Ronald Frankenberg - Anthropologist

Peter Jackson - Medieval historian

Eugene Lambert - Russianist

Roy McWeeny - Physicist

Donald Nicholl - Historian and theologian

Nicholas O'Shaughnessy - Political commentator and author

John Sloboda - Psychologist

David Southall - Paediatrician

Richard Swinburne - Philosopher

Charles Townshend - Historian

Paul Willis - Cultural theorist

Kwasi Wiredu - African philosopher

Notable alumni

Academics

Stan Beckensall - Prehistoric rock art expert

Sandra Dawson - Organizational theorist

Adam Fairclough - Historian

Sam Nolutshungu - Political scientist Arts and Media

Jo Beverley (BA History and American Studies, 1970) - Romantic novelist

Bob Dickinson - Composer

Tony Elliott - (French) founder and owner of Time Out

Jack Emery (BA English and History, 1967) - Television producer

Jem Finer (BA Computer Science and Sociology & Social Anthropology, 1977) - member of The Pogues

Robert Henderson (BA History and Politics, 1973) - Writer

Marina Lewycka (BA Philosophy and English, 1968)- Author

Keith Ovenden - Writer

David Pownall (BA English and History, 1960; DLitt, 2000) - Writer

Sue Robbie (BA English and Psychology) - Television presenter Politics

Paul Clark (BA Economics and Politics) - Labour MP

Don Foster (BSc Physics and Psychology) - Liberal Democrat MP

John Golding - Labour MP and trade union leader

Eric Joyce - Labour MP

Alun Michael (BA English and Philosophy, 1966) - Labour MP

Adelaide Tambo - South African politician

John Taylor, Baron Taylor of Warwick - British politician, first black Conservative member of the House of Lords

Lynda Waltho - Labour MP Public service

Kojo Annan (BA Economics and Politics, 1995) - Son of Kofi Annan, Former General Secretary of the UN

David J. Cooney (BA Politics and History) - Current Irish ambassador to the UK

Jonathan Dollimore - Cultural and literary theorist

The Right Reverend Jonathan Gledhill (BA French and German, 1972) - Bishop of Lichfield

Michael Mansfield (BA Philosophy and History, 1964; LLD, 1995) - Barrister

Lord Melchett (MA Criminology) - Former Executive Director of Greenpeace

Richard Mottram (BA Economics/History/Politics, 1968) - UK government Security and Intelligence Co-ordinator, and chair of the UK Joint Intelligence Committee)

Nick Partridge - AIDS awareness campaigner
Interesting facts and trivia

In 1998 and 1999 there was some controversy over the decision by University authorities to sell the Turner Collection, a valuable collection of mathematical printed books including some which had belonged to Isaac Newton, in order to fund major improvements to the University Library. The collection also included first printed editions of Euclid in most of the major European languages. Senior University officials authorised the sale of the collection to a private buyer, with no guarantee that it would remain intact or within the UK. Although legally permissible, the sale was unpopular among the academic community and the controversy was fuelled by prolonged negative press coverage suggesting that the £1m sale price was too low and that the collection was certain to be broken up.

The cochlear implant was developed in the Department of Communication and Neuroscience at Keele.

Many of the exterior shots for the BBC TV series "A Very Peculiar Practice" were filmed at University of Keele.

Keele University was the subject of a 1980s BBC documentary on student debt entitled A Nightmare on Keele Hill. This name was used in 1991 to 1993 by the Students Union Entertainment Committee as the name for the Friday night disco (previously called the "Mega").

In the early 1980s Keele attracted the attention of the national press and television news when some students founded a 'cuddling society' and a 'mass cuddle' was filmed in the car park outside the students union.

Keele University is built over the mine workings of Silverdale colliery.

Barnes Hall has no M block (it has A-L and N-X). This coupled with the large clear area adjacent to L block and the fact that the university is built over mine shafts led to an urban legend that the block sank into the ground due to a collapse of a mine tunnel. This is only partially true - the block became unsafe due to subsidence and was demolished.

Keele was the first UK University to sell the rental income from its student accommodation to a private company for a limited time in order to raise short-term funds.

The postmodern sculpture situated outside Keele's Library was stolen by a visiting sports team only to be later retrieved and securely fitted. In 2005 the same statue was damaged in protest of the University's policy of fining regulations against its undergraduate students.

In 2007, Keele University students were responsible for getting Keele featured as a location on the UK 'Here and Now' version of the traditional board game Monopoly. People in the UK had an opportunity to vote for which places should make the board, and Keele was the highest "wild-card" location which made it on. It even finished higher on the board than London, and takes the place of "Fleet Street" in the game .

In 2007, Keele students won a competition hosted by O2 via facebook called "The battle for the UK's favourite university", scoring over 172000 points by uploading photos, videos and making wall posts on the group. The prize for winning the comptetion was a party at their students union, hosted by O2.

In episode 20 The Almighty Underwater Chicken of the children's program Roger and the Rottentrolls the narrator imagines what Yockenthwaite (the stupidest of the Rottentrolls) would have thought had he been the cleverest of the Rottentrolls, and he's shown playing for Keele University on University Challenge. Further Information
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The Times Good University Guide 2007
Best-ranked subjects:	American Studies (10th) History (17th) Anatomy and physiology (18th) Social Policy (20th)
Sunday Times University Guide 2006
Highest score:	Biology and related Sciences (4.4)

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