One of the four universities designated in 2006, York St John is a Church of England foundation that dates back almost 170 years.

The eight-acre site faces York Minster across the city walls and is a five-minute walk from the city centre.

Now serving over 6,000 students, the campus has seen £60 million of development in recent years and more is planned.

The Fountains Learning Centre, which has 500 computer workstations, an internet café and lecture theatre, provides a striking entrance to the university.

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Another new teaching development, mainly for health and life sciences, opened at the end of 2008 and is intended to be a signature building linking the university quarter with the city centre.

York Diocesan Training School opened in 1841 with one pupil on the register, in whose honour the current students’ union is named. Divided between York and Ripon for most of its existence, the institution diversified beyond teacher training in the 1980s and decided at the start of this decade to concentrate all its teaching on York. Almost three quarters of the students are female and only about half come straight from school.

Faculties

Education and theology remains the biggest faculty, with 1,700 students taking programmes in teacher education, education studies, theology and religious studies. Health and life sciences are not far behind in terms of size, with 1,600 full-time students and 200 part-timers studying health courses such as physiotherapy and occupational therapy, as well as psychology and sport.

The large faculty of business and communication has a high proportion of joint honours, while the faculty of arts, which was established in 2001, is expanding, particularly in media subjects such as film and television production, one of the university’s most popular degrees.

The university was awarded a national centre for excellence in creativity, based on its work in English and theatre studies, which is working an enriched curriculum in the creative arts.

The C4C Centre, based in a renovated Victorian Gothic chapel situated on campus, provides facilities for students, staff, and creative partners to work together. Another music technology suite has been added, and a refurbishment programme has begun in the design and technology block.

Satisfaction levels varied widely in the National Student Survey published in 2008. More than 90 per cent of final-year undergraduates in theology and religious studies, education and teacher training were satisfied with their courses, but the proportion was little more than 40 per cent in cinematics and photography.

Drama, dance and performing arts was the most successful field in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise and the only one to contain world-leading research.

Applications

Applications were up by more than 10 per cent at the official deadline for entry in 2009, following a run of good figures since university status was announced. More than 93 per cent of students attended state schools of colleges, while almost three in ten are from working-class homes. The projected dropout rate had improved considerably in the latest survey and, at less than 11 per cent, is significantly below the national average for York St John’s courses and entry qualifications.

The university was one of a handful that set undergraduate charges below the £3,000 maximum when top-up fees were introduced. It charged £2,560 a year for degrees in 2007, but it has since joined almost all other universities on the top level of fees. Charges for Foundation degrees remained at the standard level of £1,225 a year in 2008-09.

Relatively high numbers of locally based mature students ease the pressure on residential accommodation. As a result, first years who want to live in university-owned accommodation are usually able to do so. More self-catering accommodation for 230 students, costing £10 million, opened in September 2008 and another 200 places are planned. Sports facilities are not extensive, but York is popular as a student city with a growing range of clubs as well as, supposedly, a pub for every day of the year.

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