Leicester has started to take off, after many years living in the shadow of the big city universities.

A string of excellent assessments for teaching and research have coincided with a £300-million campus development programme – one of the biggest in Britain – that has produced a buzz around the university.

It has been in the top five in each of the first three National Student Surveys, with French, maths, biology, genetics and geology all recording the highest satisfaction levels in the country for their subject.

Genetics recorded the most satisfied students of any department in any discipline in the UK.

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Leicester was also shortlisted for The Times Higher Education Supplement’s University of the Year in both of the award’s first two years. Rising demand for places, restored in 2007 after a dip in the first year of top-up fees, has led to many subjects raising their entrance requirements.

Even at the start of 2008, when the switch from six choices per candidate to five reduced applications nationally, Leicester experienced a healthy demand for places.

Development

Though the university celebrated its 80th anniversary in 2001, it is only now approaching the size of most of its traditional counterparts after growing by more than 60 per cent in recent years. Such is the scale of the postgraduate and distance learning programmes that little more than half of the 18,500 registered students are full-time campus-based undergraduates. Professor Robert Burgess, the Vice-Chancellor, is focusing on strengthening research and has scaled down the university’s initial enthusiasm for two-year Foundation degrees.

But efforts continue to broaden Leicester’s intake, for example through a summer school for local teenagers. Almost nine out of ten undergraduates come from state schools and a quarter come from workingclass homes. The 7 per cent projected dropout rate is below the benchmark set according to the university’s courses and entry grades. Teaching ratings were generally good: the last dozen assessments all produced at least 22 points out of 24, with archaeology, ancient history, economics, education, museum studies and psychology recording full marks. It also hosts national centres of excellence for teaching and learning in geography, genetics and physics.

Subjects

The university is a leader in space science, with Europe’s largest university-based space research facility, including the £52-million National Space Centre, and was heavily involved in the Beagle 2 mission to Mars. The medical school registered one of the best teaching quality scores for the subject and allows graduates in the health and life sciences to qualify in four years. The school has among the most modern facilities in Britain, and the siting of a medically based interdisciplinary research centre at the university was another indication of growing strength.

The genetics department, where DNA genetic fingerprinting was discovered, achieved the only 5* rating in the last research assessments. But a dozen subjects in the next category enabled Leicester to outperform a clutch of civic universities in terms of average grades per member of staff. According to Thomson Scientific, Leicester – a member of the 1994 Group of research-intensive universities – has the tenth highest number of highly cited researchers in the UK. Other than clinical medicine which is taught at the city’s three hospitals, all teaching and much residential accommodation is concentrated in a leafy suburb a mile from the city centre. Its location, adjacent to one of Leicester’s main parks, is an attraction to students. A new biomedical sciences building opened in 2004 and a £31-million library extension, doubling its size and expanding its capacity to 1,500 seats, opened in 2008.

Accommodation

The Richard Attenborough Centre has given Leicester a particular reputation for catering for disabled students. Among a number of areas to have been refurbished recently is the students’ union, which has spruced up its main bar areas and runs one of the most popular university nightclubs, the Venue. Extensive residential accommodation includes a new £21-million 600-bed en-suite development. First years are guaranteed a residential place and many second and third-year students also live in hall, although the majority choose to live in the reasonably priced private accommodation available nearby. The main sports facilities are conveniently located; in 2008–09, students paid £50 a year to use them.

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