Eleven years ago, the opening of an impressive purpose-built campus alongside a marina in the centre of Lincoln brought about the most dramatic transformation of any university in recent times.

Humberside University, as it then was, even gave its new location pride of place in its title. Five years later it went a step further, selling the previous headquarters campus in Hull and becoming Lincoln University.

While not moving out of Hull entirely, the university is concentrating its activities on a much smaller city-centre site. The switch has paid undoubted dividends, helping to attract high-quality academics.

The number of professors grew from eight to 87 in four years. Student applications increased for five years in a row before the introduction of top-up fees, despite rising admission requirements, and the upward trend resumed with a 14 per cent rise at the start of 2007.

Development

New science laboratories, sports facilities, an architecture school, a new library in a converted warehouse and a students’ union and entertainment venue in a former railway engine shed have taken the cost of the development in Lincoln to over £100 million, and another £30 million has been committed to complete the main campus.

The latest developments are a £6-million performing arts centre, including a 450-seat theatre and three large studio spaces, and the Human Performance Centre – a regional facility for excellence in sport, coaching and exercise science. The various projects have won two regeneration awards.

The campus now has around 1,000 beds, while purpose-built private developments in close proximity to the university now provide well over 2,000 further residential places.

Only the School of Health and Social Care remains in Hull, following the transfer of art and design degree provision in the city to Hull College. Lincoln initially concentrated on social sciences, but the university now has a wider range of courses.

Following the acquisition of former art and design and agriculture colleges from De Montfort University in 2001, the university now has more than 8,000 students in and around Lincoln.

The School of Architecture has over 400 students. Art and design is based in the city centre, while animal, biological and equine studies are at Riseholme Park, a 1,000-acre site ten minutes outside Lincoln. Riseholme has been chosen as one of the training centres for equine events ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games.

Poor performances in both teaching and research assessments account for Lincoln’s low position in The Times ranking, although results improved in the later years of the cycle. Education achieved maximum points for teaching quality and two recent institutional audits have been complimentary.

Research

Only 21 per cent of the academics were entered for the last research ratings, when no subjects reached the top three categories of seven, but twice as many academics are now engaged in research and the income from this activity is much increased.

A top priority is to achieve a high-profile return in the Research Assessment Exercise in 2008 to match a sharp rise in the university’s research income over recent years.

All students take the Effective Learning Programme, which uses computer packages backed up by weekly seminars to develop necessary study skills and produce a detailed portfolio of all their work. Some degrees can be taken as work-based programmes, with credit awarded for relevant aspects of the jobs.

Exceptional service

Lincoln was the first university to win a Charter Mark for exceptional service, although this was not reflected in the initial rounds of the National Student Survey. Results in the survey improved considerably in 2007, with media studies performing especially well. More than a third of the undergraduates come from working-class homes and the projected dropout rate of 14 per cent is both an improvement on previous years and better than the average for the subjects on offer, given the entry standards.

Only three universities devote as much of their tuition fee income to bursaries and scholarships as Lincoln. The city is adapting to its new student population with new bars and clubs, although the social scene there is not the prime draw for students.

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