Sunderland already has one of the UK’s newest campuses, having taken advantage of urban regeneration programmes to transform its facilities. Now a second phase has been announced, with a £75-million development of the original City Campus to provide new sports and social space, a hotel and conference facility, landscaping and traffic calming measures. The main feature of the campus, right in the city centre, is the Gateway one-stop shop for student services, but there is a well-appointed science complex and design centre.

Location

The university’s other campus at St Peter’s, an award-winning 24-acre site by the banks of the Wear, houses the business school and the faculties of applied sciences and arts, design and media. The Sir Tom Cowie campus is built around a 7th-century abbey described as one of Britain’s first universities and incorporates a working heritage centre for the glass industry. A glass and ceramics design degree maintains a Sunderland tradition, while teaching and research in automotive design and manufacture serve the region’s modern industrial base. The large pharmacy department is another strength and the well-equipped Faculty of Applied Sciences is one of the largest in the UK, with over 3,000 students.

Research

Sunderland is making the most of the opportunity to link up with the multi-national companies that have arrived on its doorstep. The Institute for Automotive and Manufacturing Advanced Practice has a team of 40 researchers and consultants working with local businesses, while nearby Nissan played an important role in designing a course in automotive product development. The media centre provides students with excellent television and video production facilities.

Access

The university has a determinedly local focus, aiming to double the number of students coming from an area which has little tradition of sending students to higher education. Only one UK university recruits a higher proportion from “low participation neighbourhoods” – at nearly 25 per cent, more than twice the national average for the subjects on offer. A pioneering access scheme offers places to mature students without A levels, as long as they reach the required levels of literacy, numeracy and other basic skills. The Learning North East initiative, based on Sunderland’s successful pilot for the University for Industry, even offers free taster courses to take at home.

Almost half the undergraduates have a working-class background, and the projected dropout rate has dropped from more than a quarter to less than one in five in recent years. Provision for disabled students is excellent, with award-winning information produced for those with disabilities, trained support staff in every academic school as well as in the libraries and special modules to help dyslexics.The campus also houses the North East Regional Access Centre, which assesses the learning support requirements of students with disabilities and specific learning difficulties. There is special provision among the 2,200 residential places.

Facilities

The university is in the top half of the table for student satisfaction, with law undergraduates emerging as the most satisfied in the country in the 2008 National Student Survey. English, history and psychology also produced high scores. Sunderland was less successful in the latest Research Assessment Exercise, although more than half of the 16 subject areas contained at least some world-leading work. Communication, cultural and media studies produced by the far best grades, but history and English also did well.

Sunderland itself is fiercely proud of its identity and has the advantage of a coastal location but, despite the city title, with the exception of the impressive new football ground, it has the leisure facilities of a medium-sized town. Those in search of big cultural events or serious nightlife head for Newcastle, which is less than half an hour away by Metro.

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