The most successful of the first wave of new universities, Warwick was derided by many in its early years for its close links with business and industry.

Few are critical today. Gordon Brown described it as “one of the great universities, absolutely central to the industrial, scientific and technological future of our country.”

Research was very highly rated in the 2008 assessments, but the university’s mission statement still stresses the extension of access to higher and continuing education and community links.

There is a smaller proportion of independent school students than at most of the leading universities – less than a quarter – although this does not translate into large numbers of working-class undergraduates. The share of places going to students from the lowest social classes and the representation from areas sending few young people to higher education are both lower than the national average for Warwick’s subjects and entry qualifications. But the mix helps to produce one of the lowest dropout rates in Britain. Warwick puts almost a third of its income from top-up fees into bursaries and financial support – one of the highest proportions among the old universities.

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Ratings

Almost two-thirds of the work submitted for the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise was considered world-leading or internationally excellent, placing Warwick among the top ten universities. Film and television studies achieved one of the top scores for any subject at any university, the Institute of Horticultural Studies was ranked top for agriculture, while pure maths, French and Italian were in the top three. There were particularly high grades, too, for economics, applied maths and theatre, performance and cultural studies.

The university was a late starter in the National Student Survey, due to opposition from the students’ union, but is now in the top 20. Literary studies, biology, French, physics and astronomy, area studies and maths, operational research, statistics and economics also produced good scores. Warwick was awarded a national teaching centre in theatrical performance, in partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and is collaborating with Oxford Brookes University on another centre to “reinvent” undergraduate re-search.

The science park, one of the first in Britain, is among the most successful.

The university invested shrewdly in business, science and engineering and there is now a thriving graduate entry medical school, with more than 2,000 students and new professional courses in implant dentistry. Warwick is also one of the few leading universities to embrace two-year Foundation degrees, running courses in education and community enterprise, the latter taught by a local further education college.

With nearly ten applicants for every place on conventional degree courses, many departments stick rigidly to offers averaging more than an A and two Bs at A level. Applications have been buoyant, showing a 4 per cent increase at the start of 2009. Warwick has been building up its numbers in science and engineering, as other universities have struggled to fill their places. The business school has also been growing rapidly, with a new £15-million extension now complete, while computer science has acquired new, upgraded facilities.

Development

Hundreds of millions of pounds have been spent on the campus, which has often resembled a building site. However, a second significant extension to student union facilities will open in time for start of the 2009-10 academic year. Work is also almost complete on a £7-million extension to the university's already extensive Warwick Arts Centre, which attracts over 250,000 visitors a year. There is a new £12.5-million building to house a “digital laboratory” for manufacturing and engineering research and a new indoor tennis centre opened in 2008.

The 750-acre campus is three miles south of Coventry, where many students choose to live, and three times as far from Warwick. University accommodation is plentiful and the sports facilities are both extensive and conveniently placed on campus, where there is a new sports centre with 25-metre swimming pool and a range of other facilities. In summer 2009 the university will host the UK Transplant Games.

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