Official performance indicators for higher education have shown Huddersfield living up to its mission to help produce a more diverse student population, and it has opened satellite centres in Barnsley and Oldham to widen participation further.

Almost four out of ten full-time students are from working-class homes and about a quarter are from areas without a strong tradition of higher education.

Although 18 per cent are not expected to complete their degrees, this is no more than the national average for the university’s courses and entry qualifications.

Huddersfield achieved the highest possible score in an audit by the Quality Assurance Agency in 2004. Imaginative conversions and new buildings have finally allowed the university to come together on one towncentre campus.

Expansion

The university capitalised on Huddersfield’s industrial past to ease the strain on facilities that were struggling to cope with expansion which reached 13 per cent a year at its peak.

Canalside, a refurbished mill complex, has provided new space for mathematics and computing, and education occupies another mill site – this time a £4-million recreation of the original. The university is even creating “pocket parks” and a landscaped area along the reopened Narrow Canal to provide additional green space.

Human and health sciences have also acquired new premises, and an additional £4 million has been spent on a new students’ union, allowing drama courses to take over the existing union complex.

Star Trek

The new union, opened by Huddersfield’s Chancellor, Star Trek actor Patrick Stewart, includes alcohol-free social areas to encourage participation by those overseas students and ethnic minorities who would otherwise avoid the facilities.

A tradition of vocational education dates back to 1841, and the university has a long-established reputation in areas such as textile design and engineering. But there are less obvious gems such as music and social work, both of which were rated excellent for teaching and nationally outstanding for research.

Electrical and electronic engineering achieved the best score in assessments of teaching quality. The university’s own satisfaction surveys suggest that students value the friendliness and helpfulness of staff, and Huddersfield did reasonably well in the last national survey, which showed particularly high levels of satisfaction in health sciences.

Research

The university adopted a much more selective approach to the last research assessments, entering half the number of academics it did in 1996.

History matched social work and music’s grade 5, with mechanical engineering in the next category. A flourishing relationship with industry produces more private income than is achieved in many larger institutions, as well as influencing courses.

The most popular courses are in human and health sciences. Many arts and social science courses have a vocational slant. Politics, for example, includes a sixweek work placement, which often takes students to the House of Commons. A third of the students in all subjects take sandwich courses, one of the highest proportions in Britain, and more than 4,000 have some element of work experience.

The approach has been paying off with consistently good graduate employment figures and applications. Most residential accommodation is now concentrated in the Storthes Hall Park student village, but additional accommodation is available at Ashenhurst, just over a mile from the campus.

Accommodation

Recent developments mean the 1,712 residential places are enough to guarantee accommodation to first years, and private housing is cheap and plentiful in Huddersfield. Students are also encouraged to follow a structured fitness programme at the upgraded campus sports centre.

Town–gown relations are good and the cost of living low. Most students like the town’s friendly atmosphere, although they tend to base their social life on the students’ union. It is not far to Leeds for those in search of serious clubbing.

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