Parkgate Road
Chester CH1 4BJ

Tel 01244 511 528

enquiries@chester.ac.uk

www.chester.ac.uk

Sunday Times ranking 99= (97)

Teaching excellence 50%

Student satisfaction 72%

Head teacher ranking 95= (91=)

Peer ranking 94 (102)

Research quality 7%

A/AS-level points 273

A-levels for entry 73.2%

Unemployment 4.9%

Firsts and 2:1s 44.1%

Student/staff ratio 17.3:1

Dropout rate 21% (16%)

Undergraduates 7,097 (4,181)

Postgraduates 516 (2,327)

Teaching staff 436

Applications/places 16,764/ 2,465; 6.8:1 (+15.2%)

Clearing entry 10%

Bursaries 50%: £500-£1,000

Scholarships Various: £500-£1,750

EU/overseas 1.8%/1.1%

Mature 16.6%

State school 97%

Lowest social classes 34%

Low-participation areas 19%

Live in 72% (68%) £43-£84

Chester continues to build on its long history in higher education with plenty of new developments. First established in 1839 as a teacher training college, today’s university offers a wide range of vocational courses, with education along with nursing and midwifery two of its fortes, as well as more than 50 single honours degrees. Graduate unemployment is low and applications are sharply up this year.

The university opened a second Chester campus this September to house courses in the faculty of arts and media. The main campus has a new students’ union building while facilities at the Warrington campus have also benefited from investment (£12m in the past four years); freshers this year have a new IT centre and expanded learning resources centre. The Warrington campus hosts the North West Media Centre, a flagship building, opened in 2005.

Course structures have also undergone an overhaul. Until this summer, students had to complete eight modules per year, assessed in January/February and May/June, in order to qualify to sit their exams. But they now study six modules, with all assessments and exams taking place in the summer.

Film studies and creative writing are this year’s latest degrees, while events management, health sciences, natural hazard management and public relations will all be offered in 2008.

Combined honours degrees offer hundreds of potential subject combinations and many degrees are accredited by professional bodies. Links with industry are embedded in University of Chester degrees; the university runs a scheme which allows nearly all students to work for an organisation for a number of weeks.

About half the students qualify for bursaries, which are worth £700 on average.

Open days October 6 (Chester); October 13 (Warrington).

Student view Daryl Taylor, president of the students’ union:

USP Picturesque campus with brand new students’ union building.

Worst feature The SU bar is too small.

Location Two minutes’ walk from the centre of town.

Social scene Chester has more pubs and bars than nightclubs, so it’s handy that we are only 40 minutes from Liverpool and Manchester.

Rated excellent (8) Allied health professions (dietetics, health visiting); business and management (Warrington); English; hospitality, leisure, recreation, sport and tourism (PE and sports science) (Chester); maths, statistics and operational research; nursing and midwifery; subjects allied to medicine; theology and religious studies.

Degree of student satisfaction: 72.0%

Philosophy, Theology and Religious studies 80.0; Art and Design 78.1; Education studies 74.0; Computer Science 73.9; Psychology 73.1; Other subjects allied to Medicine 69.0; Performing Arts 67.6; Media studies 61.3; Agriculture and related subjects 59.0

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