More than £150 million has been spent developing London University’s East End base into a broadly based institution of 13,000 students.

Professor Adrian Smith, Queen Mary’s Principal, believes it has “punched below its weight” at times, and is trying to put that right with a higher profile and impressive new facilities.

Queen Mary is ranked among the top 150 universities in the world by Times Higher Education/QS, and now has the capital’s most extensive self-contained campus.

A new state-of-the-art learning resource centre with 24-hour access opened in 2003 and a new student village with almost 2,000 en-suite rooms followed in 2004.

More residences and an arts quarter, containing research facilities, a conference centre, drama studio and teaching space, were completed in 2006.

Development

A £15-million humanities building is due to open in September 2008 and a biosciences innovation centre is already under construction, next door to the £44-million Blizard Building – the striking new home of Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, in Whitechapel.

The modern setting is a far cry from the People’s Palace, which first used the site to bring education to the Victorian masses, but there is still a community programme as well as conventional teaching and research. The arts-based Westfield College and scientific Queen Mary came together in 1989, but it took time to mould the new institution and overcome financial difficulties.

The sale of Westfield’s Hampstead base released the necessary capital to begin to modernise the Mile End Road campus. Already London University’s fourth largest unit, Queen Mary is expected to carry on growing. It is one of London’s designated points of expansion in the sciences, although its strength is more obvious on the arts side, which boasts a clutch of high-profile academics.

Maths boost

The college is leading a national initiative to boost the number of maths graduates. Applications rose by more than 7 per cent in 2006, despite top-up fees, and there was another increase at the start of the following year. There has been consistent success in attracting overseas students, who make full use of a unit specialising in English as a foreign language.

A strategic alliance with City University covers teaching and research initiatives in areas such as engineering, health and history. Teaching ratings improved after a patchy start. Dentistry produced the only perfect score, with politics and modern languages close behind.

English, history and archaeology produced the best results in the first National Student Satisfaction survey, and the Quality Assurance Agency had already given the college a good overall report in its first institutional audit.

Strengths

Iberian and Latin American languages, law and linguistics were the only subjects rated internationally outstanding for research in the 2001 assessments, but another 13 reached grade 5, leaving almost half of the researchers in the top two categories of seven.

The proportion of academics entered for the exercise, at nine out of ten, was among the highest at any university. The majority of undergraduates take at least one course in departments other than their own, under the modular course system. Most degrees are organised in units to allow maximum flexibility.

Interdisciplinary study has always been encouraged: for example, medics can choose selected modules in English and drama. The medical school is to house a national teaching centre for clinical and communications skills.

Exchange

There is a flourishing exchange programme, which includes universities in the United States and Japan, as well as Europe. Each student has an adviser to guide them through the possibilities.

Language students can use the University of London Institute, in Paris, while students at Beijing’s University of Posts and Telecommunications can take double degrees (awarded by their own institution and Queen Mary) without leaving China.

Queen Mary attracts a socially diverse intake: almost a third of the undergraduates come from the two lowest socio-economic classes, many of them from local ethnic groups.

Social life centres on the campus, which features a newly refurbished students’ union with a subsidised health and fitness centre and a new bar, and the West End is easily accessible by tube. Students welcome the relatively low prices (for the capital) in East London, which has more to offer than many expect when they apply.

Times recommends

• Student bursary system 'penalises' the poor
• Number of part-time students doubles
• Students prefer studying to socialising, says survey