Northumbria consistently ranks among the leading new universities and a £136-million investment in its city centre campus is producing facilities to match.

The first phase was completed in 2007, when 9,000 design, law and business students moved into the new City Campus East development, which is linked to the existing main campus by an iconic new footbridge spanning Newcastle’s central motorway.

The next phase, which will take until 2010, will turn the main site into the first fully pedestrianised, green campus in a city centre.

The library has already had a £6-million refurbishment and the new development will include a £20-million sports centre, which is due to open in 2010 and will allow the university to become a pre-Olympics training centre.

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Increase

There are now 29,000 UK students and 5,000 more taking franchised courses in other countries, making Northumbria the largest university in the region.

About a third of the students are from the North-East of England. Northumbria was one of the few universities to see a significant increase in applications for courses beginning in 2008 and there had been another 12 per cent rise at the start of 2009. The demand for places has been growing for most of the decade.

Entry grades for those with A levels are among the highest in the new universities, but many older students are admitted with other qualifications or on the strength of relevant work experience.

Access

Half of the mature students enter through the Higher Education Foundation Certificate, an access course system with modules in more than 30 subjects. Free one-day taster courses run throughout the year to give local people an idea of what studying at Northumbria would be like.

Almost a third of the students come from working-class homes, 15 per cent from areas with little tradition of higher education. The projected dropout rate has been rising but, at almost 18 per cent, is only just above the benchmark for Northumbria’s courses and entry grades. Scores have improved in the National Student Survey, taking the university into the top half of that table. Accounting managed 100 per cent satisfaction in the results published in 2008, while psychology, geography and environmental science also did well.

Subjects

Health subjects have now overtaken business studies in terms of student numbers. Many degrees are available as sandwich courses, with placements of up to a year in business or industry. Education received a glowing report from the Office for Standards in Education, which places it in the top category for primary training and secondary design and technology.

The university also has a national centre of excellence in assessment, building on Northumbria’s attempts to give students more constructive feedback and teaching them how to assess themselves as future professionals. Five of the university’s academics have won National Teaching Fellowships.

The majority of subjects will continue to be based in the city centre, with health, education and community studies on the Coach Lane campus on the outskirts of the city, where £18 million has been spent upgrading facilities. Coach Lane now incorporates a learning resources centre with a fully integrated library, a clinical skills centre and new sports facilities, as well as teaching and seminar rooms.

Northumbria’s best-known feature is its School of Design, which won the top national award for fashion design in 2006 and produced some of the university’s best results in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise.

The university entered a comparatively low proportion of its academics, but more than a third of its submission was considered world-leading or internationally excellent. Architecture and the built environment, general engineering and nursing and midwifery were other high scorers.

Sport plays a growing role: Northumbria is consistently among the top ten in the British Universities and Colleges Sport rankings. The sports scholarship programme has supported over 250 athletes from over 40 sports in the past ten years, some going on to success at the highest level.

All new first years are offered places in university accommodation if they apply “in good time”, while others are assisted by the accommodation office. Two large residential developments with en-suite rooms opened in September 2005, bringing the total stock to 3,500 places, and there is a plentiful supply of privately rented flats and houses.

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