Newcastle University

Newcastle University (formally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a public research university in Newcastle upon Tyne in the North East of England. The university can trace its origins to a School of Medicine and Surgery (later the College of Medicine), established in 1834, and to the College of Physical Science (later renamed Armstrong College), founded in 1871. These two colleges came to form one division of the federal University of Durham, with the Durham Colleges forming the other. The Newcastle colleges merged to form King's College in 1937. In 1963, following an Act of Parliament, King's College became the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Newcastle University is a red brick university and is a member of the Russell Group, an association of prestigious research-intensive UK universities. The university has one of the largest EU research portfolios in the UK. The annual income of the institution for 2017–18 was £495.7 million of which £109.4 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £483.3 million.

Teaching and research are delivered in 24 academic schools and 40 research institutes and research centres, spread across three Faculties: the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; the Faculty of Medical Sciences; and the Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering. The university offers around 175 full-time undergraduate degree programmes in a wide range of subject areas spanning arts, sciences, engineering and medicine, together with approximately 340 postgraduate taught and research programmes across a range of disciplines. Newcastle University has also been awarded a prestigious Gold in Teaching by the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), currently, it is one of only eight Russel Group universities to achieve Gold TEF rating.

Faculties

• Architecture, Planning and Landscape
• Arts and Cultures
• Newcastle University Business School
• Combined Honours Centre
• Education, Communication and Language Sciences
• English Literature, Language and Linguistics
• Geography, Politics and Sociology
• History, Classics and Archaeology
• Law
• Modern Languages
• Medical Sciences
• Biomedical Sciences
• Dental Sciences
• Medical Education
• Pharmacy
• Psychology
• Science, Agriculture and Engineering
• Computing
• Engineering
• Mathematics, Statistics and Physics
• Natural and Environmental Sciences

English Requirements

Undergraduate students:

• IELTS:   6.0 (No subtest below 6.0)
• TOEFL:   64 – 78

No subtest below:

• R: 13 - 18
• L: 12 - 19
• S: 18 - 19
• W: 21 – 23

DAAD: 4 stars in all 3 areas

Postgraduate students

• IELTS      6.5
• TOEFL    83 - 93

No subtest below:

• R: 19 - 23
• L: 20 - 22
• S: 20 - 24
• W: 24 - 26

DAAD:  5 stars in all 3 areas

Rankings

The university is a member of the Russell Group of the UK's research-intensive universities. It is ranked in the top 200 of most world rankings, and in the top 25 of most UK rankings. It is ranked 146th by QS, 114th by Leiden and joint 171st by Times Higher Education globally in 2018, while nationally, it is ranked 21st by the Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide, 22nd by the Complete University Guide and 27th by the Guardian for 2018. The majority of its undergraduate courses are ranked in the top 20 by the Complete University Guide in the country with a number of subjects ranked in the top 10 such as Dentistry (3rd), Medicine (9th), Architecture (5th), Linguistics (3rd) Art and Design (1st) and Communication and Media Studies (1st). Newcastle University achieved the best possible outcome in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) - a Gold Award. The Times Higher Education Europe Teaching Rankings place Newcastle University joint 9th in Europe. It was awarded 5 QS stars in 2013. Newcastle won the Sunday Times University of the Year award in 2000 and is ranked 12th best in the UK by the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities. According to the university, its library is the only one in the UK to have been awarded the government's Charter Mark for excellent customer services five times in a row. Also, the university said it has a good track record for graduate employment in the country, and the Careers Service has won seven national careers awards in recent years by the Institute of Career Guidance.

In 2016, Newcastle University became one of 16 universities in the world, and only two in the UK, to achieve Five Plus Stars from Quacquarelli Symonds. The university was awarded the perfect score of five Stars in all of the standardised assessment fields of Research, Internationalization, Facilities, Innovation, Inclusiveness, Specialist criteria and Student Employability (Newcastle University also made it to the Top 100 of QS Worldwide Employability Rankings in 2016)

Student life

The university has many student organizations. Newcastle University Students' Union (NUSU), known as the Union Society until a 2012 rebranding, includes student-run sports clubs and societies.

The former leader of the Liberal Democrats Tim Farron was President of NUSU in 1991–1992. The Students' Union also employs around 300 people in ancillary roles including bar staff and entertainment organizers.

The Courier is a weekly student newspaper. Established in 1948, the current weekly readership is around 12,000, most of whom are students at the university. The Courier has won The Guardian's Student Publication of the Year award twice in a row, in 2012 and 2013. It is published every Monday during term time.

Newcastle Student Radio is a student radio station based in the university. It produces shows on music, news, talk and sport and aims to cater for a wide range of musical tastes.

NUTV, known as TCTV from 2010–17, is student television channel, first established in 2007. It produces live and on-demand content with coverage of events, as well as student-made programmes and shows.

Student accommodation

Leazes Terrace, a Grade I listed building, designed by Thomas Oliver and built by Richard Grainger, in 1829–34; now student accommodation.

Newcastle University has many catered and non-catered halls of residence available to first-year students, located around the city of Newcastle. Popular Newcastle areas for private student houses and flats off campus include Jesmond, Heaton, Sandyford, Shieldfield, South Shields and Spital Tongues.

In 2008 a survey conducted by an independent website ranked Newcastle as the number one student city in the UK, with a score of 63% across the categories of going out, shops, transport, community and facilities. Newcastle is also considered one of the world's friendliest cities. In another 2008 survey, by MSN Travel, Newcastle was named as the number one university.

St Mary's College in Fenham, one of the halls of residence, was formerly St Mary's College of Education, a teacher training college.