University of Reading The
University of Reading is a leading
university in the
English town of
Reading, Berkshire.
Established in 1892, receiving its
Royal Charter in 1926, the University has a long tradition of research, education and training at a local, national and international level. It was awarded the Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education in 1998, and again in 2005.
With around 3,000 international students from 120 countries, the university adds considerably to Reading's dynamic.
History The University maintains over
1.6 km² (395 acres) of grounds, in three distinct campuses:
Whiteknights Campus, at
1.23 km² (304 acres), is the largest and includes Whiteknights Lake, conservation meadows and woodlands as well as most of the University's departments. The campus takes its name from the nickname of the
13th century knight,
John De Erleigh IV or the 'White Knight', and was landscaped in the
18th century by
Marquis of Blandford. The main University library, in the middle of the campus, holds nearly a million books and subscribes to around 4,000 periodicals.
The smaller
London Road Campus is the original University site and is much closer to the town centre of Reading. Moreover, it plays host to the University graduation ceremonies at the Great Hall and is still home to the School of Continuing Education.
The
Bulmershe Court Campus in
Woodley is home to the Institute of Education and the School of Health and Social Care. It also has the largest hall of residence of the University.
The University also owns
8.5 km² (2100 acres) of farmland in the nearby villages of
Arborfield,
Sonning and
Shinfield. These support a mixed farming system including dairy cows, ewes and beef animals, and host research centres of which the flagship is the Centre for Dairy Research.
Campuses The university had a research income of almost £24.5 million in 2003-4, of which around 10 percent of annual research income derived from industrial or commercial sponsors. Over £2 million of funding has been secured in 2004 for business development and the commercial activities at the University.
In the Research Assessment Exercise in 2001, five departments were awarded the top rate of 5* -
Archaeology,
English,
Italian,
Meteorology and
Psychology and fifteen departments were awarded the rating of 5. The Department of Meteorology was awarded a distinguished
Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education in 2005 and is internationally renowned for its training and research in weather,
climate and physical
oceanography. Research centres include the Centre for Horticulture and Landscape, the BioCentre and the
Centre for Advanced Microscopy.
Reading was the first university to win a
Queen's Award for Export Achievement in 1989. Since then several initiatives to link the academic and commercial communities have followed.
Reading Enterprise Hub, one of a network of
SEEDA sponsored
business incubators, opened on campus in 2003.
Research and Business Development The major aim of the Centre for Advanced Computing and Emerging Technologies (ACET) is to demonstrate and promote new ways of doing multidisciplinary research based on the approach of "scientific discovery through advanced computing".
ACET Centre In the 2004–05 academic year, the university had 4,024 staff and 15,326 students. The best known member of the university community is probably the
cyberneticist Professor
Kevin Warwick.
Reading University Students' Union is the affiliated student organisation which represents the students' interests. The Students' Union publishes
Spark, a bi-weekly newspaper aimed at the student population of the University, which was weekly until October 2006 (it is now published fortnightly during term-time). The university also has a number of
Junior Common Rooms that are nominally independent from the Students' Union and the University.
The Students' Union building on Whiteknights Campus contains an 1800 capacity venue, two bars, a number of retail outlets, and The HUB. The HUB is the Union's new volunteer, advice, student activity centre.
Community Student accommodation is provided in a number of halls of residence offering a good mix of partially-catered (under review) and self-catering accommodation, along with other self-catering accommodation. Most of the halls of residence lie close to the northern campus periphery and in residential areas close by.
Bulmershe Hall is located on the Bulmershe Campus.
Bridges,
Childs,
Wessex,
Whiteknights, and
Windsor Halls are located on the Whiteknights Campus.
St. George's,
St. Patrick's,
Sherfield,
Sibly,
Wantage, and
Wells Halls are located in the residential areas surrounding Whiteknights, as is the self-catering accommodation of the
Reading Student Village,
Hillside Court and
Martindale Court.
St. David's and
Mansfield Halls latterly formed part of Witan Hall (see below) on the London Road Campus, and are not currently in use. The former
St. Andrews Hall closed in 2001, and is now the home of the Museum of English Rural Life.
St. George's Hall and The Reading Student Village are leased back to the University from
UJC. The cost of leasing back the Student Village to the University, according to the University accounts, was £1.5 million for 2003–04 and £1.3 million in 2002–03.
University Halls and accommodation The University is successful at a number of sports, including
rowing,
tennis,
hockey, and
squash. In particular, they are highly successful at
Rowing and the Reading University Boat Club has won many awards and competitions, its most recent BUSA placing being second on points at the 2007 BUSA Regatta. The club won the Visitors Challenge Cup for coxless fours at
Henley Royal Regatta in 1986, and reached the final of the same event in 2007, where they were defeated by local rivals Leander Club.
RUBC attracts many international oarsmen through its links with the GB Squad training facility at Caversham Lake and the GB Rowing World Class Scheme. Current and past students to acheive international representation and success include
James Cracknell (Olympic Gold 2000, 2004), Gary Herbert (Olympic Gold 1992),
Debbie Flood (Olympic Silver 2004, World Championship Gold 2006, 2007), Tash Page (Under 23 Gold 2005), Anna Bebington (World Championship Bronze 2007), Sam Townsend (GB Men's Quad 2007), Alex Gregory (GB Men's Quad 2007), Bill Lucas (Under 23 Bronze 2007) and Charles Cousins (Under 23 Bronze 2007). The Boat Club has been the highest ranked university club at the Fuller's
Head of The River Fours for the last two years, with its Elite Men's boat finishing 4th Overall in 2006 and 3rd in 2007. In 2007, the Men's Association Football team became the highest placed in University history by winning the BUSA South East Division 1A Title and entering the BUSA Cup as one of the top 16 teams in the country. In 2007 the Men's Hockey 1st XI won the renowned British universities sports tournament,
Dublin Fest.
Sport The University of Reading has 60 societies open to its students
See full article for the full listing
Societies Full Article Junction11 is the student radio station at The University of Reading.
Student Radio Reading University maintains four
museums and a
botanical garden. The largest and best known of these is the
Museum of English Rural Life, which has recently relocated from a location on Whiteknights Campus to a site nearer the town centre on the London Road Campus. The
Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology, the
Cole Museum of Zoology, the
University of Reading Herbarium and the
Harris Garden are all located on the Whiteknights Campus.
Museums and botanical gardens Formerly associated with Reading University was Gyosei International College, a
Japanese/
British bi-cultural institution established on part of the University's original London Road Campus. Subsequently the college's links with the Japan-based
Gyosei organisation were broken, and it became a charitably funded institution called Witan Hall. Recently this has in turn been purchased by the University of Reading, and has ceased student recruitment and will finally close in March 2008.
The University of Reading Law faculty is also associated with
Taylors College in
Malaysia. Taylors College conducts a 'twinning' program whereby students complete half of their degree in Malaysia and the other half at the University of Reading. Malaysian Law students in Reading generally achieve a second class upper average, and have set a high standard for Malaysian Law students.
Located on Reading University's Whiteknights campus is The
College of Estate Management (CEM). The College was founded in 1919 and granted its Royal Charter in 1922. It was originally based in London but moved to Reading in 1969, leading to the foundation of the Faculty of Urban and Regional Studies (URS) at the University. The College provides education and training for students and members of the property and construction professions worldwide through distance learning. Courses are delivered by the provision of printed material sent to students by post and through web-based learning.
The
Walker Institute, a pioneering centre for climate research, is based at the University of Reading. The Institute aims to exploit and integrate the climate expertise within the University and to address fundamental questions in understanding and forecasting climate variability and its impacts.
Governance The university is nominally led by a
Chancellor, who is the titular head of the university, and is normally a well known public figure. The day to day chief executive role is the responsibility of the
Vice-Chancellor, a full time academic post. The senior management board of the university is headed by the Vice-Chancellor, assisted by a Deputy-Vice-Chancellor, three Pro-Vice-Chancellors, four Deans and five Heads of Directorate. It is responsible for the day-to-day management of the University and meets fortnightly throughout most of the year.
Officers of the University Politicians Mathematicians/Scientists Musicians Sportspeople Broadcasters Writers/Artists Others Fictional alumni Anton Apriantono - food technology scientist, serving as
Indonesia's Minister of Agriculture since
2004 Edison James -
Prime Minister of
Dominica 1995-2000,
Leader of the Opposition, 1990-1995 and 2000-2007.
Mike Penning -
Conservative Member of Parliament for the
Hemel Hempstead parliamentary constituency.
Rob Wilson -
Conservative Member of Parliament for the
Reading East parliamentary constituency Sir Peter Crane - Director,
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew E. A. Guggenheim -
thermodynamicist and
chemist Dragan Marušič -
Slovene mathematician A. E. Wilder-Smith -
creationist and
chemist Roger Wayman -
chemist and
publisher Roger Stewart - Physicist
Dennis Dunn - Physicist
Arthur Brown -
rock and roll singer
Jamie Cullum -
jazz pianist and
singer Hilary James -
singer,
double bassist,
guitarist, and mando-bassist
Simon Mayor -
mandolinist,
fiddle player,
guitarist, and
composer Martin Noble - musician,
Noble in the band
British Sea Power.
Scott Wilkinson - musician,
Yan in the band
British Sea Power.
James Cracknell -
rowing champion and double
Olympic gold medallist.
Debbie Flood -
rowing champion, quadruple sculls silver medallist at the
2004 Olympics.
Gary Herbert -
rowing He won Olympic gold with Greg and Jonny Searl in the coxed pair in Barcelona
1992 Olympics.
Molly Hide, captained
English women's cricket team for seventeen years
Julian Barratt -
comedian from
BBC's
The Mighty Boosh Keith Bosley - former
BBC broadcaster and prizewinning
poet and
translator Richard Holmes - noted
military historian and
television presenter
Kaddy Lee-Preston, TV weather presenter.
Julian Richards -
archaeologist and broadcaster
Richard Sambrook - Director of the
BBC World Service Tomasz Schafernaker, TV weather presenter.
Jay Wynne, TV weather presenter.
Robert Gillmor -
ornithologist,
artist,
illustrator,
author and
editor Joan Smith - novelist and journalist
Richard Wilson -
installation artist Eve Balfour - farmer, educator,
organic farming pioneer, and a founding figure in the
organic movement Azahari Husin - leading member of the
Jemaah Islamiyah group, believed to have been involved in the
2005 Bali bombing Robin Bextor - award-winning film and television director, and father of
Sophie Ellis Bextor.
Clive Ponting -
civil servant who faced trial for the leaking information on the sinking of the
Belgrano, during the
Falklands War.
Arnold Baffin - novelist character in
The Black Prince by
Iris Murdoch Blaise Gavender - psychologist and former Reading psychology lecturer in
The Sacred and Profane Love Machine by
Iris Murdoch
Glasgow Queen Street
Reference books
See also
Model
Defensemen: 1st team - 
