Birmingham set itself the target of becoming the “Oxbridge of the Midlands”, which may have been ambitious, but its position in The Times ranking is a good starting point.

A consultants’ report in 2004 found the university had a boring image, but that is being addressed.

And, despite offering an unusually wide range of subjects, its teaching and research ratings seldom slip. Students come to Birmingham from more than 150 countries, but the university enjoys particularly high prestige in its own region.

From October 2008 it will be made up of five colleges.

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Entry standards are high, averaging the equivalent of more than ABB at A level. With nearly eight applicants for each place, they are likely to remain so, but aspiring students still flock to the largest open days in Britain each June. There is also an additional open day for upper sixth-formers in September.

Applications were down at the start of 2008, although only by about the national average with the decline in the number of choices available to each applicant. The university’s enduring reputation is based on its research, with two thirds of its departments considered nationally or internationally outstanding in the last assessments.

A dozen 5* ratings tripled the number awarded in 1996, with languages doing particularly well: French, German, Italian and Russian all reached the top level, as did chemical engineering and metallurgy and materials. Many of the teaching scores were impressive, too, with mathematics, biological sciences, physiotherapy, sociology, and electrical and electronic engineering all recording maximum points. Birmingham also did well in the 2007 National Student Survey, finishing ahead of most of the big city universities. Economics, maths, geography and European languages produced the best results.

Development

In recent years, Birmingham has added an £11.8-million student facilities building at the Medical School, a new £16.4-million home for Sport and Exercise Sciences and a £10-million learning centre, and spent £47.5 million on refurbishing student accommodation as part of an investment programme in staff, buildings and equipment that is costing a total of £225 million. Engineering has been reorganised, following a year-long review, to promote an interdisciplinary approach, responding to employers’ wish for more flexibility.

Students can enter either a BA or BSc degree programme, combining technology with subjects ranging from Latin or modern Greek to the management of floods and other natural disasters The 230-acre campus in leafy Edgbaston is dominated by a 300-foot clocktower, which is one of the city’s bestknown landmarks, and boasts its own station.

Dentistry is located in the city, while the Department of Theology and part of the School of Education are in Selly Oak, a mile from the Edgbaston campus. Drama is also located there, along with the BBC Drama Village, which is part of a strategic alliance between the university and the corporation.

Most of the halls and university flats are conveniently located in an attractive parkland setting near the main campus. There are around 5,000 university-owned beds, following a ten-year programme of expansion, and private sector accommodation is also plentiful.

Student scene

The campus is less than three miles from the centre of Birmingham, but the area has plenty of shops, pubs and restaurants of its own. With its own nightclub among the facilities on campus, some students do not even stray that far, but the city is acquiring a growing reputation among the young, which is helping to make the university even more popular. Some 40 per cent of Birmingham graduates choose to make the city their home.

Student facilities are on a par with the best in the country, with many restaurants and bars, a live music venue, an art gallery, a medical practice on campus, and an outdoor pursuits centre on Coniston Water, in the Lake District. Birmingham has always been concerned with the body as well as the mind; compulsory exercise was only abandoned in 1968. The Active Lifestyles Programme, the voluntary modern-day equivalent, attracts 4,000 students to 150 different courses. Tutors with national qualifications run classes from beginner to advanced level. In addition, Birmingham has ranked in the top three in British Universities competitions for the past 15 years.

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