University of Bradford

The University of Bradford is a public research university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. This plate glass university received its royal charter in 1966, making it the 40th university to be created in Britain, but can trace its origins back to the establishment of the industrial West Yorkshire town's Mechanics Institute in 1832.

The student population includes 7,435 undergraduate and 2,225 postgraduate students. Mature students make up around a third of the undergraduate community. 22% of students are foreign, and come from over 110 different countries. There were 14,406 applications to the university through UCAS in 2010, of which 3,421 were accepted.

It was the first British university to establish a Department of Peace Studies in 1973, which is currently the world's largest university center for the study of peace and conflict.

Faculties

• Engineering & Informatics

On 1 October 2013, the School of Engineering, Design and Technology and the School of Computing, Informatics and Media were merged to form the Faculty of Engineering and Informatics. Three schools make up this new overarching Faculty: the School of Engineering, the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the School of Media, Design & Technology.

• Engineering, Design and Technology

The university inherited several engineering courses from the Bradford Institute of Technology and some of these courses, such as Civil Engineering, are still taught today. All of the engineering courses are accredited by their relevant institute. The school also has a large number of both undergraduate and postgraduate design and technology courses. Its research areas include automotive engineering, polymers, and telecommunications and advanced materials engineering.

From the establishment of the university in 1966, the individual branches of engineering were taught in separate departments. When reorganization of the three faculties of the university took place, a single School of Engineering, Design and Technology was created and incorporated the Department of Mechanical Engineering, the Department of Civil & Structural Engineering, the Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering and the Department of Industrial Studies.

• Health Studies

It specializes in degrees in nursing, physiotherapy, midwifery, occupational therapy and radiography. A specialist drug therapy course is run by the department and there are also part-time courses in dementia care. The department's student demographics are largely female, with a higher proportion of mature students.

The physiotherapy course is ranked 9th and 3rd in the 2014 and 2017 UK complete university guide.

• Life Sciences

The Faculty of Life Sciences has the most students of all of the schools, with more than 2,000 students admitted to a variety of undergraduate courses in the areas of Biomedical Sciences, Chemical and Forensic Science, Clinical Sciences, Optometry, Pharmacy and Archaeological, Geographical and Environmental Sciences.

The Bradford School of Optometry and Vision Science (BSOVS) has its own Eye Clinic, situated on the nearby Science Park, providing Primary Care for the local community in conjunction with a student training facility. BSOVS also provides a variety of other clinical services that people may be referred to by practitioners.

The Centre for Skin Sciences is one of the largest academic centers in Britain for fundamental and translational skin and hair follicle research.

The Institute of Cancer Therapeutics has an excellent reputation for research and there is very close collaboration with staff from other divisions within the School.

• Management, Law, and Social Sciences

The Faculty of Management, Law, and Social Sciences is a recent merger. Until 2018 Social Sciences was separate. Management and Law, consisting of Bradford School of Management and the Law School was previously located 3 miles away from the main campus on a 13-acre parkland campus, Emm Lane. It teaches courses in business, finance, accountancy, management and marketing. As of 2005 the department commenced teaching an accredited LLB law degree. It has a number of master's degrees, MBA programs and doctoral programs running alongside undergraduate programs.

Its research is both international and interdisciplinary and has five main research groups covering all the main areas of management, and co-operative links and exchange agreements with 20 universities in America, Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Holland, Spain and Sweden.

The School of Management has full Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) accreditation for DBA and PhD programs, portfolio Association of MBAs accreditation for MBA programs and EQUIS accreditation.

Facilities

The university has a "leading-edge 100-seat PC cluster" for teaching, learning and computer-based assessment, and there is an art gallery, theatre and music center. The £84m investment in the campus included a major refurbishment of the laboratories in the school of life sciences, creation of a new MBA suite and library at the school of management, refurbishment of the student union building, Student Central.

The university has won its campus the award for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Sustainable Development’ in The Times Higher Education Awards two years running.

Students' Union

Membership at the University of Bradford's Students' Union (UBU) is automatic upon confirmation of enrolment. UBU has advice services, a radio station, and runs many societies and sports clubs. The union is run by an annually elected Council, which includes an executive committee of six full-time sabbatical officers and nine non-sabbatical officers. The sabbaticals are slightly unusual within the sector, in having a ‘flat structure’, lacking a Union President: the post was abolished by then President Shumon Rahman in 2001.

The Union is located in the Student Central building on campus, alongside the University bars, a cafe and shop, and the library.

Accommodation

The Green, which opened September 2011, is a £40 million purpose built student accommodation village. Designed for eco-friendly living, The Green has the highest ever BREEAM rating for any building (95.05%), awarded for sustainable building development and operation. It is also the first BREEAM 'Outstanding' student accommodation in the country.

Rankings

National rankings

• Complete (2021)              63
• Guardian (2021)               72
• Times/Sunday Times (2021)        75

Global rankings

• QS (2021)
• 601–650
• THE (2021)          601–800

British Government assessment

• Teaching Excellence Framework              Silver