UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA

The 'University of East Anglia (UEA)' is a leading campus university located in Norwich, Norfolk, England, founded as part of the British Government's New Universities programme in the 1960s. The university is a member of the 1994 Group of leading research-intensive universities.
Academically, it is one of the most successful universities founded in the 1960s, consistently ranking amongst Britain's top higher education institutions; 19th in the Sunday Times University League Table 2006 ^[2], and joint first for student satisfaction among mainstream English universities, in the 2006 National Student Survey ^[3]. Furthermore, the university was ranked 57th in Europe, and one of the top 200 universities in the world, in the 2006 World University Rankings undertaken by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University.^[4]

Contents

History and overview

Union of UEA Students

Recent developments

Future developments

Notable alumni

Academia

Politics

Literature

Media

Business

Other

Notable academics

References

External links

History and overview

UEA admitted its first students in 1963 in temporary accommodation in Earlham Hall, on the western edge of the city of Norwich about 3 miles from the city centre, while a prefabricated "University Village" was built nearby and used until the early 1980s. The permanent campus was built on the adjacent Earlham Golf Course, principally to a design by Sir Denys Lasdun.
The UEA campus exhibits some interesting architectural features: the main teaching building takes the form of a continuous wall running approximately west-east. The early student residences built in the 1960s take the form of distinctive "ziggurats", but financial cutbacks by the early 1970s meant that the full original plan for building ziggurat residences had to be abandoned, and replaced by the less inspiring north-south wall of Waveney Terrace (which was demolished in 2006). This latter residence quickly gave rise to a popular and enduring urban legend on campus that the design had been based on that of a European prison. UEA also took over the former RAF/US Air Force barracks at Horsham St. Faith airfield, and used them as residences. This outpost of campus life was formally known as "Fifers Lane" from the road it stood on, but was called "Horsham" or simply "Fifers" by its residents. It developed its own unique style of student life. Being adjacent to extant army accommodation, the on-site general shop was a branch of the NAAFI. It also reputedly featured its own ghost, the "headless airman". Fifers Lane eventually closed in 1994, when further residences, again in an advanced architectural style, were built on campus.
In the mid-1970s, extraction of gravel in the valley of the River Yare, which runs to the south of the campus, resulted in the university acquiring its own 'Norfolk Broad' or lake (known as simply 'The Broad'). At more or less the same time, a bequest of tribal art and C.20th painting and sculpture, by artists such as Francis Bacon and Henry Moore, from the Sainsbury supermarket family resulted in the construction of the striking Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the western end of the main teaching wall, one of the first major works of architect Norman Foster. In 2001 the campus gained an extensive new sports facility called the "Sportspark", built thanks to a £14.5 million grant from the Sport England Lottery Fund, and a purpose-built theatre. Because of the 1960s design, the university suffers in regard to providing access needs to all students, even though attempts have been made to improve facilities within the campus, the university's listed 1960s buildings are by law unadaptable.
Other notable features of the UEA campus are "The Square", a central outdoor meeting place flanked by concrete steps; "The Blend", a recently renovated cafe/coffee shop, "Zest" a newly refurbished student canteen and "The Street" which features a 24-hour launderette, the Union Food Outlet, Union Paper Shop, Union Post Office, a sandwich shop called "Mango", branches of NatWest, HSBC and Barclays Bank and a Waterstone's book shop.
UEA has had notable successes in terms of courses taught. Malcolm Bradbury for many years taught in the School of English and American Studies and his 1975 novel ''The History Man'' is believed to be based on his experiences there, satirising as it does life and work in a modern 1960s-built University campus. The German emigre novelist W. G. Sebald taught in the School of Literature until his untimely death, from a car accident, in 2001. The Climate Research Unit in the School of Environmental Sciences was an early centre of work on climate warming.
As at 1 December 2004, the university had 10,689 undergraduate students, 1,949 postgraduate taught students, and 1,054 postgraduate research students, giving a total of 13,692 students, of whom 73% were full-time students, 10.4% came from outside the European Union, and 63% were female. As at 31 July 2005 the university employed 2445 staff (including 517 academic staff, 368 research staff, 469 secretarial and clerical staff, 146 technical staff, and 287 administrative, senior library and computing staff). In the year ending 31 July 2005 the university's income was £124,161,000, and its expenditure was £120,040,000. ''(Statistics from the 2004-05 Annual Review).''

Union of UEA Students

Main articles: Union of UEA Students

Connected to both "The Street" and "The Square" is one of the most popular Union venues: the "Union Pub and Bar" which underwent a massive extension and refurbishment at the cost of £1.2 million in 2002. The pub took over "Breakers", a rather low-rent eatery with a scrapyard theme which was briefly turned into an unpopular pasta place. Other bars include "The Hive" (which, due to efforts from the Student Union, was refurbished for the start of the 2004/05 year), and the "Graduate Students Club". In the same building is The LCR, known in full as either The Large [1] or Lower [2] Common Room. The LCR is home to weekly campus discos, as well as the many touring gigs. The students' union also run "The Waterfront" venue off campus in Norwich's King Street.
The UEA Union has a large range of services on offer for its students including a large selection of sports clubs and societies. These range from football and rugby clubs to a newer range of environmental societies such as 'The Campus Sustainability Initiative' who aim to set up a fund for environmental projects on campus called 'The Sustainability Initiative Fund'. Aside from the independent student newspaper ''Concrete'', there is a thriving student media across a range of areas. In the 1970s, there was a highly successful student newspaper named ''Phoenix'', which rose from the ashes of the original ''Concrete'', that ran for several years. Livewire, the campus radio station, which transmits to air on 1350AM in the vicinity of the university as well as broadcasting on the internet, was established in 1989. Nexus UTV, the campus television station broadcasting news, documentaries, comedy shows and various other types of programming, shows regularly in the bar and is one of the oldest still-running student television stations in the country, having been established in 1968.

Recent developments

Colman House opened in September 2004, creating accommodation for 400 students. The latest residences, Britten, Victory, Kett, Browne, and Paston Houses, were built around the Waveney Terrace area and were opened in September and October 2005. Half of Waveney Terrace was demolished in September 2005, and replaced with Britten House; the remaining demolition was completed in September 2006, and work is ongoing on the second half of Britten House. The residences are named after Benjamin Britten, Horatio Nelson's ship HMS Victory, Robert Kett, Sir Thomas Browne and the Paston family who wrote the Paston Letters.
A new building for the School of Nursing and Midwifery (NAM) opened in February 2006; adjacent to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, it is named after Edith Cavell. The new campus Health and Community Centre, comprising the University Health Centre, a Laundrette and a Nursery for pre-school aged children, was also completed in 2006.
The 2002 Medical School (MED) is already being expanded to provide more lecture space and research labs. Anticipated completion is in June 2007.
Norfolk and Suffolk Terraces are undergoing internal refurbishment in keeping with their Listed Building status; Suffolk Terrace was completed in the summer of 2006, with completion for Norfolk Terrace scheduled for 2008.

Future developments

INTO@ UEA is a partnership project being undertaken by INTO, Espalier and the UEA. The building will be situated between the main car park and the Health & Community Centre and will provide teaching, living, eating & social space for approximately 350 international students. The students will spend a year at INTO getting used to the British university system and culture before hopefully entering the University system at UEA. The project is anticipated to start in January 2007. Work to connect the site to electrical and other services was completed in the summer of 2006.
In partnership with the University of Essex, and with the support of Suffolk County Council, the East of England Development Agency, Ipswich Borough Council, Suffolk College, and the Learning and Skills Council, UEA has secured £15 million funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England with the aim of creating a new campus in the Waterfront area of Ipswich, called University Campus Suffolk (UCS).

Notable alumni

Academia

★ Paul Nurse: Nobel Prize winning biochemist; former chair of the department of microbiology at the University of Oxford

★ Paul Wellings: Vice-Chancellor of Lancaster University

★ Don Grierson OBE: British geneticist and Pro-Vice-Chancellor at Nottingham University

★ Gerald Gazdar: Professor of Computational Linguistics

Politics

★ Baroness Amos: former Leader of the House of Lords

★ The Right Honorable Lord Strathclyde: Conservative Leader in the House of Lords

★ Caroline Flint: Labour Member of Parliament, currently Minister of State for Public Health

★ Iain Dale: Conservative blogger, author, and presenter of 18 Doughty Street

★ Ivor Stanbrook: former Conservative Member of Parliament

★ Douglas Carswell: Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Harwich

★ Dato' Wan Hisham Wan Salleh: Malaysian Politician

★ Rosalind Scott, Baroness Scott of Needham Market: Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Communities and Local Government

★ Mark Seddon: former Labour politician and more recently Al Jazeera correspondent

★ Roger Davison: Liberal Democrat politician and former Lord Mayor of Sheffield.

★ Dr. Rihab Taha: Iraqi Biological Weapons Chief, AKA ''Dr. Germ

Literature

★ Kazuo Ishiguro: author of ''Remains of the Day'', Whitbread and Booker Prize winner

★ Ian McEwan: Booker Prize winning author

★ Christopher Catherwood: author and academic

★ Tash Aw: Whitbread and Booker Prize winning author

★ Rose Tremain: Whitbread Award winning author and academic

★ Naomi Alderman: novelist

★ Tracy Chevalier: historical novelist

★ Toby Litt: novelist

★ Simon Scarrow: author

★ Hwee Hwee Tan: novelist

★ John Fraser: journalist and academic

★ Owen Sheers: author, poet and playwright

★ John Boyne: novelist

★ Andrew Miller: novelist

★ Larissa Lai: novelist

★ Panos Karnezis: novelist

★ Andrew Jefford: journalist and author

★ Todd Swift: poet

★ Sid Kipper: author and humorist

★ Stephen Finucan: short story writer

★ David Almond: childrens author

Media

★ Paul Whitehouse: comedian (''The Fast Show'')

★ Charlie Higson: comedian (''The Fast Show'') and author

★ David Cummings: musician and writer (''The Fast Show'')

★ Arthur Smith: author and comedian

★ Jack Davenport: actor; Pirates of the Caribbean

★ John Rhys-Davies: actor; The Lord of the Rings

★ Tim Bentinck: actor and 12th Earl of Portland

★ Geraint Vincent: ITV News presenter

★ Selina Scott: broadcaster

★ Asheem Singh: screenwriter

★ Jonathan Powell: former Controller of BBC One

★ Jane Root: former Controller of BBC Two

★ Jenny Abramsky: BBC executive

★ Simon Nicholls: BBC comedy producer

★ Darren Bett: BBC Weather forecaster

★ Penny Tranter: BBC Weather forecaster

★ Martin Tyler: football commentator

★ Rebecca Lowe: BBC sports reporter

★ Susanne Manning: musician

★ Colin Griffiths: broadcaster

★ Matt Tong: drummer of Bloc Party

★ Nina Conti: actress and comedian

★ James Frain: actor

★ Greg James (DJ): BBC Radio 1 DJ

Business

★ John William Ward economist and opera administrator

★ Ed Sellers: entrepreneur

★ Layo Paskin: DJ, producer and night-club owner

★ Marcus Morrell: entrepreneur, founder of Big Picture TV

Other

★ Benedict Allen: explorer

★ Sir Robert Fulton: British Royal Marines career military officer and Governor of Gibraltar

★ John Armine Wodehouse: 5th Earl of Kimberley

★ Alan Whiteside: former United Nations Commissioner for HIV/AIDS

★ Rear Admiral Neil Morisetti RN: Commander UK Maritime Forces

★ Santokh Badesha: Noted Xerox Scientist and Inventor

Notable academics

★ Christopher Bigsby – Professor of American Studies

★ Malcolm Bowie – lecturer in French

★ Malcolm Bradbury – Professor of American Studies, founder of the UEA Creative Writing Course

★ Angela Carter – writer in residence

★ John Charmley – Professor of Modern History

★ Amit Chaudhuri – tutor in Creative Writing

★ Mike Douglass – lecturer in Development Studies

★ Anthony Edward Dyson – Reader in English Literature

★ Richard J. Evans – lecturer in Modern History

★ Ian Gibson – Dean of Biology, honorary Professor

★ Garry L. Hagberg – Professor of Philosophy

★ Richard Hodges – Professor and Director of the Institute of World Archaeology

★ Patricia Hollis – lecturer and Reader in Modern History (1967–1990)

★ Hubert Lamb – founder and Director of the Climatic Research Unit

★ Phil Jones – Professor of Environmental Sciences, Director of the Climatic Research Unit

★ Ludmilla Jordanova – Professor of the History of Arts and Science

★ Paul Kennedy – Professor of History (1970–1983)

★ Michael Laskey – lecturer in Creative Writing

★ Paul Magrs – lecturer in Creative Writing

★ Andrew Motion Professor of Creative Writing

★ Julian Myerscough – lecturer in Law

★ Shirley Pearce – Professor of Health Psychology, Dean of the Institute of Health

★ David Pearl – Professor of Law

★ Carlos A. Peres – lecturer in Environmental Sciences

★ Brian Runnett – lecturer in Music

★ Lorna Sage – Professor of English Literature

★ W. G. Sebald – Professor of German Literature, founder of the British Centre for Literary Translation

★ Steve Smith – Director of the Centre for Public Choice Studies

★ Lawrence Stenhouse – founder member of the Centre for Applied Research in Education

★ Peter Trudgill – lecturer, honorary Professor of Sociolinguistics

★ Angus Wilson – lecturer in Creative Writing

★ John Wymer – Senior Research Associate in Archaeology

★ Solly Zuckerman – Professor of Anatomy (1969–1974)

References

1. Higher Education Statistics Agency online statistics
2. The Sunday Times 2006 University League Table
3. The University of East Anglia has been ranked joint first for student satisfaction among full-time mainstream English universities.
4. Academic Ranking of World Universities conducted by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University

External links

★ University of East Anglia website