University of Buckingham

The University of Buckingham (UB) is a non-profit private university in Buckingham, England and the oldest of the country's five private universities. It was founded as the University College at Buckingham (UCB) in 1973, admitting its first students in 1976. It was granted university status by royal charter in 1983. Buckingham offers bachelor's degrees, master's degrees and doctoral degrees through five "schools" (or faculties) of study.

Academic profile

The university's schools are: Education; Law; Humanities; Arts and Languages; Business; and Science and Medicine. Each of these is presided over by a dean.

The quality of the university's provision is maintained, as at other UK universities, by an external examiner system, by an academic advisory council, and by membership of the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA).

The Department of Education has two aspects, research and vocational: it conducts research into education and school provision, and also maintains various PGCE courses for teacher training. Its postgraduate certificate in education – which deals with both the state and the independent sector – is accredited with Qualified Teacher Status which means that it also qualifies graduates to teach in the state sector.

The university was created as a liberal arts college, and still describes itself as such, although in an interview with The Guardian in 2003, then Vice-Chancellor Terence Kealey remarked that it had "become a vocational school for law and business for non-British students, because that's where the market has taken us". Consequently, major humanities subjects such as history and politics are no longer offered as stand-alone degrees, instead being combined with economics as a degree in international studies. Economics, however, is available as a stand-alone degree as is English literature, as a single honors subject, and in combinations with English Language, or Journalism, and related areas. The Professor of Economics, and Dean of Humanities, Martin Ricketts, is the chair of the Institute of Economic Affairs Academic Advisory Council.

Degrees

The university offers traditional degrees over a shorter than usual time-frame. Students at Buckingham study for eight terms over two years, rather than nine terms over three, which fits a three-year degree into two years.  From September 2009, tuition fees for full-time UK and EU undergraduate students have been £8,040 per year for these two-year bachelor's degree programs. For non-EU students, fees are equivalent to £13,500 p.a.

Because Buckingham's degrees take two years to complete, students’ view its degrees as cost-effective compared to other UK university courses, once the income from an extra year's employment is taken into account. In some subject areas, notably Humanities, the university is now offering its degrees over different time-scales, i.e., the 2-year 'intensive' model, working the extra summer term per year, and the traditional 3-year model with the usual summer break each year.

Rankings

National rankings

• Complete (2021)              115
• Times / Sunday Times (2021)      108

British Government assessment

• Teaching Excellence Framework              Gold