University of Leicester Profile
History
•Founded in the year 1921 and gained its Royal Charter in the year 1957, Leicester is one of the Britain's older universities.
•The university site was given to make a living memorial for those who sacrificed their lives during the World War One.
Location and transport
•Leicester is in center of England, close to the M1 and M69 motorways. The railway station is near to the campus.
Student mix
•School type 89% state, 11% independent.
•Around seven applicants for each place. Around 17,000 applicants applied for 2,350 places in the year 2010.
•Leicester is an inclusive university; it meets its widening participation benchmarks for the recruitment from state schools and lower socio-economic groups.
Teaching standards
•The quality of teaching is very good and since the launch of National Student Survey in the year 2005, Leicester has consistently featured amongst top 10 universities in England for the satisfaction of student.
•Leicester has one of the best student completion rates – 91 per cent of our students leave the sector with an award in accordance to the government performance indicators.
Research standards
•The research conducted by University has a significant impact of any Midlands university measured by the citations per academic. Citation levels place Leicester amongst the top 1 per cent of universities in world and are the 7th highest in the UK.
•Leicester’s Quality Related research funding (QR) is the 19th highest of Britain’s 120 universities.
•Leicester has one of the highest proportions of staff who are research active in the UK, with about 93% of staff submitted for the national 2008 Research Assessment Exercise. Of these, Leicester has 87% of research activity deemed by RAE to be producing internationally significant research.
•Leicester is home to the department with greatest concentration of world class research of any department of any discipline in the UK – in our Department of Museum Studies.
•The DNA genetic fingerprinting was discovered here and more than 90 per cent of academic staff are research active.
Academic strengths
•Strengths stretch across the four colleges: Humanities & Law; Arts, Science & Engineering; Biological Science & Psychology Social Science & Medicine.
•It has good reputation for work in Cardiovascular Physics Medicine, and Space Science, Engineering, Law, Economics, English, Historical Studies, Mathematics, Genetics, Archaeology, and across biological sciences.
Student facilities, including library and computing
•The library offers over one million printed volumes and wide online resources, along with the self-service check-out, group study rooms, and returns, wireless connectivity and the seminar rooms.
•Halls of Residence have the provision of free broadband internet access in study bedrooms.
Sport
•The Sports Association has around 30 affiliated clubs of all the major and minor sports.
•A big new gym, aerobics room, 25m swimming pool, steam rooms and spa pool will feature.
•In outdoors there are new tennis courts, a floodlit FieldTurf five-a-side pitch, a floodlit all-weather pitch, and the superb University pitches at the Stoughton Road.
•The other gym on our main campus provides extra flexibility.
•The Sports Association has nearly 30 affiliated clubs covering all the major sports.
•The Athletes can represent Team Leicester in BUCS and in the regional competition.
•Intramural Sport runs during the year, covering major sports.
•Leicester Varsity (versus DeMontfort University) is a sporting highlight. The rugby and football matches are held in the city’s stadia, Welford Road and the King Power Stadium, in front of thousands of supporters.
Availability of part-time work
•Plentiful. The University itself employs many students in a range of roles.
The Famous alumni
•Lukwesa Barnes, the anchor of Sky News.
•Sam Barnett – Entrepreneur, founded the multimillion pound targeting advertising company Struq Ltd.
•Paul Bateman, the Chief Executive of J P Morgan Asset Management.
•Ian Bishop, Cricket commentator and ex member of the West Indian cricket team.