Worcester has the most ambitious development plans of all the new universities created in 2005.

It is spending £120 million on a second campus in the city centre and another £60 million on a unique library and history centre that will be the first joint public and university library in Britain.

Work is already under way on the second campus to cater for an additional 4,000 students over the next five years.

Some 200 student residences are due to open in September 2009 in restored Georgian buildings and the project is due for completion by 2011.

The impact of university status is still being felt – applications were up by almost 10 per cent at the start of 2008, when the switch from six choices per applicant to five resulted in a decline elsewhere. But numbers had expanded in each of the last five years before the new title arrived.

Big increases

The demand for business courses has been particularly strong and there have been big increases, too, in physical education, sports studies, forensic science, marketing, prehospital and emergency care, journalism, social work and advertising.

First as a post-war emergency teacher training college and later as a university college, the institution has always been the only provider of higher education in Hereford and Worcester.

The university remains strong in education and also in nursing and midwifery – a mix that explains an overwhelmingly female student population. Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, trained as a teacher there.

But the six academic departments also cover applied sciences, geography and archaeology, a business school and arts, humanities and social sciences. Degrees range from animal biology to sports coaching and computing.

Sound

Education secured the best scores in an otherwise sound but unspectacular set of teaching assessments. Research grades were less impressive, although there are pockets of excellence such as the National Pollen and Aerobiology Research Unit, which produces all Britain’s pollen forecasts.

Results in the first three National Student Surveys have been generally positive. Worcester was in the top 40 in 2007, its best score coming in education. More than a third of the undergraduates come from working-class homes, but the projected dropout rate of nearly 19 per cent is higher than the national benchmark for the subject mix and entry grades.

As well as the normal range of bursaries, the university offers £1,000 scholarships for academic achievement in the first year of a course and extra-curricular activities such as voluntary work.

The existing campus occupies a parkland site ten minutes walk from the city centre. Recent improvements have included a £1-million digital arts centre and drama studio, and another 182 residential places will be added in a £10-million development that is due to open in September 2009.

Sport plays an important part in university life: a well-appointed sports centre also provides employment opportunities for students, while competitive teams are successful and the facilities for casual participants extensive. A mobile 3-D motion analysis laboratory has been used by the England Cricket Board.

Basketball

Sports scholarships are offered in partnership with Worcestershire County Cricket Club and Worcester Wolves Basketball Club, as well as in hockey. The basketball team have been national champions for three years in succession.

The new campus, which is being developed with the aid of regional and central Government grants, will occupy the site of the old Worcester Royal Infirmary. It will include teaching, residential and conference facilities, as well as the new library and learning centre.

The university has undertaken to continue improving the existing St John’s campus, which will still be the place of study for two thirds of the university when the new development is completed. It contains three halls of residence with a total of 589 rooms, most of which are allocated to first years. There will be shuttle buses and a cycle route between the two sites. The university also has a number of partner colleges around the region offering Worcester courses.

Social life revolves around the students’ union, which also has a “job pod” to help members find work experience and parttime jobs. The cathedral city is not large, but is safer than many university locations and has its share of pubs and clubs that cater for a growing student clientele.

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