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EspañolBIRKBECK, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
'Birkbeck, University of London', sometimes referred to by its former name 'Birkbeck College' or by the abbreviation 'BBK', is a constituent college of the University of London. At the undergraduate level, it aims at working people who want to study for degrees in the evenings (adult education). At the postgraduate level, it offers many Master's degree programmes that can be studied either part-time or full-time, though nearly all teaching is in the evening, whilst it also admits full-time (as well as part-time) students for PhDs. Its staff members have strong research reputations. It also offers many continuing education courses leading to extramural certificates and diplomas, as well as other short courses.
Location
Birkbeck's main building is on Malet Street in Bloomsbury, with a number of other buildings on nearby streets. Virginia Woolf fans will also be interested to know that Birkbeck's School of History of Art, Film and Visual Media is housed in Woolf's former Gordon Square residence in Bloomsbury.
Many Birkbeck classes are taught at other locations across London, including many other universities. This is due to a combination of Birkbeck's widening participation strategy to make higher education accessible and also because nearly all classes on one day are taught at the same time, resulting in heavy competition for limited space.
In 2006 it was announced that Birkbeck will be expanding into East London, in conjunction with the University of East London. Initially space will be rented as well as utilising the University of East London Stratford Campus, but the long-term aim is to construct a dedicated facility in Stratford. The project will be known as Birkbeck Stratford. [3]
History
In 1823, George Birkbeck, an early pioneer of adult education, founded the then "London Mechanics Institute" at a meeting at the Crown and Anchor Tavern on the Strand. Over two thousand people attended. [4] However the idea was not universally popular and some accused Birkbeck of "scattering the seeds of evil." [5]
Two years later the institute would move to the Southampton Buildings on Chancery Lane. In 1830, the first female students were admitted. In 1858 changes to the University of London's structure resulting in an opening up of access to the examinations for its degree. The Institute became the main provider of part-time university education.
The Institute changed its name to the "Birkbeck Literary and Scientific Institution" in 1866 and in 1885 it moved to the Breams Building, on Fetter Lane, where it would remain for the next sixty-seven years.
The early twentieth century saw further developments, with Birkbeck Students' Union being established in 1904, and in 1907 the institute's name changed once more, to "Birkbeck College". In 1913 a review of the University of London (which had been restructured in 1900) successfully recommended that Birkbeck become a constituent college, although the outbreak of the First World War delayed this until 1920. The Royal Charter for the college was granted in 1926. The college's first female professor, Dame Helen Gwynne-Vaughan began teaching botany in 1921.
During the Second World War, Birkbeck was the only central University of London college to not relocate out of the capital. In 1941 the library suffered a direct hit during The Blitz but teaching continued. In 1952, the College moved to its present location in Malet Street.
In 1988 the Department of Extra-Mural Studies of the University of London was incorporated into Birkbeck, becoming at first the Centre for Extra-Mural Studies. In later years it would go by the name of the Faculty of Continuing Education, then the School of Continuing Education.
In 2002, it dropped the word College to become simply Birkbeck, University of London. However, the term ''Birkbeck College'' is still often colloquially used, and survives on the façade of the main building itself. The following year a major redevelopment of the Malet Street building was opened.
It was announced in 2006 that Birkbeck had been granted £5 million by the Higher Education Funding Council for England to expand its provision into East London, working with the University of East London. The partnership was formally launched on November 21 2006 and will be called Birkbeck Stratford. [6]
The School of Continuing Education
The current School of Continuing Education, which specialises in extra-mural studies did not become an integral part of Birkbeck until 1988 but has a long separate history.
In 1876 the London Society for the Extension of University Education was founded, boosting the aims of encouraging working people to undertake higher education. In 1903 it became the Department of Extra-Mural Studies of the University of London and it was integrated into Birkbeck in 1988. Initially known as the Centre for Extra-Mural Studies, it has also been called the Faculty of Continuing Education before adopting its current name in 2005.[7]
Research and Teaching
The façade of the main building of Birkbeck, University of London (formerly Birkbeck College).
While part-time undergraduate teaching remains the focus and mandate of Birkbeck, the college has recently grown into a powerhouse for progressive research in the arts and humanities.
The Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities [8] was established in 2004, with the renowned but controversial Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek appointed as International Director. According to its website, the Institute aims to, among other things, "engage with important public issues of our time through a series of open debates, lectures, seminars and conferences" and "foster and promote a climate of interdisciplinary research and collaboration among academics and researchers". The launch of the Institute wasn't without controversy, provoking an article in ''The Observer'' newspaper titled "What have intellectuals ever done for the world?" [9] which criticised the ostensible irrelevance and elitism of contemporary public intellectuals.
Meanwhile, the London Consortium graduate school -- a collaboration between Birkbeck, the Tate Galleries, the Institute of Contemporary Arts, the Architectural Association, and, until 1999, the British Film Institute -- has been running since the mid-1990s, offering masters and doctoral degrees in the interdisciplinary humanities and cultural studies, resourced and jointly taught by all the participating institutions.(Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities). Its permanent and adjunct faculty include figures such as Philip Dodd, Colin MacCabe, Laura Mulvey, Steven Connor, Marina Warner, Juliet Mitchell, Stuart Hall, Roger Scruton, Salman Rushdie, as well as Zizek. Its current chair is Anthony Julius.
Statistics & Ratings
College
Birkbeck is often not included in British Newspaper University league tables, since these are usually based on the statistics for full-time undergraduates (of which Birkbeck had none in 2005-20062), but Birkbeck was ranked 13th in ''The Guardian''
Departmental
''The Guardian''
Birkbeck's School of English and Humanities was rated 5
★ in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise, as were the School of History, Classics and Archaeology, the School of Crystallography, and the section for Spanish and Latin American studies within the School of Languages, Linguistics and Culture -- ranking these departments with, and in some cases above, Oxford and Cambridge.
Organisation
The college is divided into four faculties, the Faculty of Arts, the Faculty of Social Sciences, the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Continuing Education, which are sub-divided into 20 schools. The current President of the college is the historian Eric Hobsbawm.
Student life
As Birkbeck is primarily for part-time courses, often in the evenings, student life is less centralised than in other universities. It does not offer its own halls of residence, for instance, though Birkbeck students do have access to the University of London's intercollegiate halls.
Birkbeck Students' Union offers a number of societies for students, as well as a football club that competes in the University of London league. It also provides student representation and support, a student magazine, a student shop and a bar. Birkbeck students also have access to the societies and clubs of the University of London Union. Accordingly, London Student distributes at the Union.
The college arms include a lamp and an owl, symbolising the college's motto ''In nocte consilium'' ("advice in the night"). Because of this, the student magazine is called ''Lamp and Owl''. Since 2007 it was relaunched as The Lampanelle.
The college has entered teams in ''University Challenge'' over the years with very varied results. In 1997 a team scored just 40 points - at that stage the lowest score since the series had been revived, though this has since been broken by New Hall, Cambridge, the University of Bradford and the ''University Challenge: The Professionals'' team of Members of Parliament. [10] 1998 saw a reversal of fortunes when Birkbeck reached the final, losing to Magdalen College, Oxford. In 2003 Birkbeck again reached the final, facing another team of mature students from Cranfield University. On this occasion Birkbeck won.
Fellows of Birkbeck
★ Edward Davey Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Kingston and Surbiton
★ Julia Goodfellow Chief Executive of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
★ Leonard Wolfson, Baron Wolfson
Notable Birkbeck people
; ★ Georgios Alogoskoufis Minister of Economy and Finance of Greece ★ Richard Melville Ballerand strategic policy adviser ★ Antony Beevor historian ★ J. D. Bernal pioneer of X-ray crystallography ★ Annie Besant prominent theosophist ★ Tessa Blackstone Member of House of Lords, former U.K. government minister, vice-chancellor of University of Greenwich ★ David Bohm quantum physist ★ David Cox English statistician ★ Andrea Christofidou philosophy academic ★ Steven Connor professor ★ Diana Coole social scientist ★ Bernard Crick political theorist ★ Jennifer Donnelly writer ★ H. R. Ellis Davidson academic ★ John Driffill professor of economics ★ Tracey Emin artist ★ T.S. Eliot Nobel Laureate for Literature, 1948 ★ Richard J. Evans lecturer ★ Millicent Fawcett ★ Orlando Figes professor ★ Rosalind Franklin researcher ★ Hugh Gaitskell lecturer ★ Julia Goldsworthy Liberal Democrat MP for Falmouth and Camborne ★ A. C. Grayling prominent philosopher ★ Kenneth Hare Master of the College ★ Eric Hobsbawm professor and President of the College ★ Paul Hirst professor ★ C. E. M. Joad professor | ; ★ William Joyce (aka Lord Haw-Haw), student ★ Peter J. King professor ★ Aaron Klug researcher ★ Ramsay MacDonald first Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom ★ John McDonnell MP Politician ★ Leonard Mandel nuclear physicst ★ John Redcliffe Maud, master of the college ★ Mark Mazower professor ★ Louis Mordell researcher ★ Laura Mulvey professor ★ Nikolaus Pevsner professor ★ Ben Pimlott, professor ★ Ernest Rogers Millington student ★ Nissim Ezekiel student ★ Arthur Wing Pinero student ★ J. Philippe Rushton student ★ Richard Sambrook student ★ Roger Scruton professor ★ Helen Sharman chemist and cosmonaut ★ Ron P. Smith pro vice master and professor of economics ★ Martin Sola professor ★ Laurie Taylor student ★ Kitty Ussher student ★ Sidney James Webb, 1st Baron Passfield founder of the London School of Economics ★ George Albert Wells professor ★ Ralph Vaughan Williams lecturer ★ Barbara Wootton lecturer ★ Samir El-Youssef writer |
References
1. Translation used by Birkbeck. Centre for Learning and Professional Development - Communication Skills
2. Table 0a - All students by institution, mode of study, level of study, gender and domicile 2005/06
3. Birkbeck projects win £8.7m HEFCE funding for innovative higher education provision in London
4. The History of Birkbeck
5. Birkbeck, University of London Continuing Education Courses 2002 Entry, , , , Birkbeck External Relations Department, 2002,
6. Birkbeck/UEL Partnership at Stratford launched
7. Birkbeck, University of London Continuing Education Courses 2004 Entry, , , , Birkbeck External Relations Department, 2004,
8. Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities
9. What have intellectuals ever done for the world?
10. New Hall, Cambridge in 1998 and University of Bradford in 2004 both scored 35 points. In the special series ''University Challenge: The Professionals'' the Members of Parliament achieved 25 points - the lowest score in the modern era. The score of 40 has also been achieved by Oxford Brookes University (1998), the University of St Andrews (2002 & 2005), Keele University (2002) and Queen's University Belfast (2005). Statistics for the original incarnation of the series are not known, though the lowest score achieved was by the University of Sussex in 1972 with a score of 10. University Challenge - Lowest Scores .
External links
★ BBK.ac.uk - The official Birkbeck website
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