Still less than 50 years old, Brunel has recently completed a £250-million programme to upgrade and centralise its teaching, research and sporting facilities.

For the first time since its early years, the whole university is located on the main Uxbridge campus.

The building programme has added a £6.5-million outdoor sports complex and a £7-million indoor athletics and netball centre, making a fitting home for the former Borough Road College and its illustrious sporting traditions.

There is also a hugely extended university library, increased residential accommodation, more catering and social amenities and enhanced teaching and research facilities. An accommodation complex comprising 1,228 en suite rooms and 112 studio flats opened in 2008.

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There is still plenty of scope for development. The university has quadrupled in size, with more than 13,000 students sharing a spacious, but hitherto uninspiring, main campus that had an isolated feel despite affording easy access to central London.

Variety

In recent years, Brunel has introduced more variety into a portfolio of degrees that was once given over almost entirely to sandwich courses. About a third of all undergraduates still take four-year degrees that incorporate work placements, but new developments have tended to be conventional three-year arts, social science or sports programmes.

There has also been significant growth in courses specialising in new technologies, such as multimedia design and broadcast media. Other innovations include creative writing, journalism, sonic arts, aviation engineering and pilot studies, motorsport engineering, screenwriting and games design.

Work placements and the inclusion of skills modules, such as oral and written communication, business and computer literacy, in degree courses have helped maintain a consistently good record in the graduate employment market. Many courses are validated by professional institutions.

Ratings

Substantial investment in research centres and academic recruitment produced significant improvements in the latest Research Assessment Exercise, when Brunel registered one of the biggest increases in the numbers of staff entered. Almost nine out of ten academics were assessed, compared with barely more than six out of ten in 2001. Income for research has grown by 70 per cent in four years, while consultancy earnings are also up by 21 per cent.

A recent review of all aspects of learning in NHS-funded health programmes produced a ‘commendable’ rating and Brunel also scored well in an institutional audit. Sporting excellence is also being maintained, with four graduates winning Olympic medals in 2008 and several students competing in the games – notably Montell Douglas, who broke the British 100 metres record on the day before she graduated. Brunel has also been selected as a pre-training site for the 2012 Olympics and is likely to be a training base for international teams in the run-up to the London Games.

More than a third of the undergraduates are from working-class homes – significantly more than the national average for the subjects on offer – and more than half come from ethnic minorities. The level of applications to the university has been rising, despite increased entry scores, which now average 320 points, although the 2 per cent increase at the start of 2009 was below the national average. The projected total of 13 per cent leaving without a qualification is better than the UK average for Brunel’s subjects and entry grades.

Students

Student union facilities are good and students like Brunel’s intimacy, although the university has not done well in National Student Surveys. However, it moved up 20 places in the 2008 survey, with English and design registering the second most satisfied students in the country. The residential stock has been increased in recent years and new undergraduates will be guaranteed accommodation on campus in 2010. The university won an award for its provision for disabled students.

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