The university celebrated its fortieth anniversary in 2006 with the opening of a distinctive atrium designed to provide a focal point for the campus and kickstart Bradford’s innovative “Ecoversity” project.

The four-storey Atrium has brought together all student support services in a single, open plan social space, while the main element of the Ecoversity will be to complete a sustainable student village for first-year and international students on the city-centre campus.

The two developments are part of a £70-million modernisation plan that includes a £7-million investment in new and upgraded teaching facilities.

Still a relatively small university of 13,000 students, Bradford has carved out a niche for itself with mature students, who now make up over a quarter of all undergraduates.

Sandwich courses

They relish the vocational slant and the accent on sandwich courses, which regularly place Bradford near the top of the graduate employment tables – it was second on this measure in last year’s Times table.

Demand for places recovered after a difficult period, although applications were down by more than the national average this year and last. Admission requirements have been rising, although they are modest compared with many old universities.

Nearly one in five of the university’s students are from overseas, many of them taught in partner institutions in locations as diverse as Warsaw, Delhi and Hong Kong. Nearer home, there are alliances with a number of further education colleges to help boost participation in a region where it is among the lowest in Europe.

Foundation

The colleges offer 10 Foundation degrees in areas such as public sector administration, community justice, engineering technology and enterprise in IT. Perhaps the best known is in health and social care, where the university was already expanding opportunities locally, bringing about a fourfold increase in enrolments by young women from South Asian families.

The relatively small, lively campus is close to the city centre. Health students have their own building a few minutes’ walk away, while a shuttle bus service runs to the highly rated management school is two miles away in a 14-acre parkland setting. The eventual aim is to develop a health and science quarter, with the School of Health Studies housed in its own building on campus.

Other projects will enhance the academic facilities and create more social space for students, beginning with improved laboratories for chemical and forensic science, more teaching accommodation and new sports facilities including a gym and climbing wall and an improved sports hall.

Nursing, pharmacy and other health studies all did well in teaching quality assessments, while politics and the interdisciplinary human studies programme, which combines psychology, literature and sociology with the study of philosophy, was awarded full marks.

Satisfaction

The university also did well in the first national student satisfaction survey, although it was down to halfway in 2007, with finance and accounting the top scorer. Research grades improved in the last assessment exercise, with European studies achieving the coveted 5* and archaeology, biomedical sciences, mechanical engineering and politics on the next rung of the ladder. Politics includes the university’s best-known offering of peace studies, which has acquired an international reputation. A £6-million Institute of Pharmaceutical Innovation opened in 2003.

Bradford has launched suites of ICT and media studies courses to add to those in e-commerce and internet computing, computer animation and special effects, interactive systems and video games design.

Computer-assisted learning is increasing in many subjects, making use of unusually extensive IT provision and a new wireless network. Some courses feature online assessment and the use of laptops in lectures. More southerners are being attracted to Bradford’s status as Britain’s cheapest student city.

Accommodation

The 1,700 places in self-catering halls are reasonably priced and all have internet connections. Many have been refurbished and more are promised in 2009. There is particularly good provision for disabled students, who account for 6 per cent of the university population.

The university’s senior management group includes a Director of Student Engagement to ensure that the student voice is heard in future developments. The students’ union operates a free late-night “safety bus” for those living within two miles of the campus.

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