University of Chester Information

The University of Chester is a public university located in Chester, England. The university originated as the first purpose-built teacher training college in the UK.As a university, it now occupies a massive five campus sites in and around Chester, one in Warrington, and a University Centre in Shrewsbury. It offers a range of foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate courses, as well as undertaking academic research.

The university is a member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the Cathedrals Group, the North West Universities Association and Universities UK.

The university was founded as Chester Diocesan Training College in 1839 by a distinguished group of local leading figures in the Church of England, including future Prime Ministers William Ewart Gladstone and the 14th Earl of Derby. It was the UKs first purpose-built teacher training college, which makes it one of the longest established higher education institutions in the country. In 1842, Gladstone opened the colleges original buildings for its first intake of ten male student teachers on the Parkgate Road site, (just outside the City Walls), that the university occupies today.

In 1921, Chester formally became an affiliated college of the University of Liverpool, which meant that the University of Liverpool awarded Chesters qualifications and Chesters students were able to use Liverpools facilities.

The institution was threatened with closure in the 1930s, but its future was secured by the Bishop of Chester in 1933. From then on, the college continued to grow steadily. By the 1960s, as the UK was massively expanding its higher education capacity in reaction to the Robbins Report, the college was considered as a possible candidate for university status. These proposals, however, were not followed through.

The college continued to expand and women were first admitted in 1961. In 1963, the government renamed teacher training colleges to colleges of education, so Chesters name became Chester College of Education. In 1974, the number of courses was expanded beyond teacher education to include Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees. To reflect its wider remit, the college was renamed Chester College of Higher Education.

In the early 1990s the School of Nursing and Midwifery (now the Faculty of Health and Social Care) was established. The college also began to offer a Bachelor of Theology degree, HNDs and more postgraduate courses, such as masters degrees and PhDs. It also embarked on a £10 million campus improvement programme. By 1996, Chester had earned the right to call itself University College Chester. This name, however, was short-lived as the government changed the requirements for university colleges in 1999 to include only those that had their own degree-awarding powers. Thus, Chester had to drop the University College tag and reverted to the title Chester College of Higher Education, though the more descriptive Chester, a College of the University of Liverpool was frequently used in publicity material.

The college expanded in 2002 through the acquisition of the higher education faculty and campus of Warrington Collegiate Institute. (The further and adult education campuses of Warrington remained independent and was known as Warrington Collegiate, until in August 2017, when it merged with Mid Cheshire College.))

In 2003 Chester was granted its own degree-awarding powers, allowing it to be known as University College Chester once again. Due to its long (and well-advertised) association with the University of Liverpool, Chester continued to award Liverpool degrees until the 2005 intake of students.

In 2005, University College Chester was awarded full university status and became the University of Chester. This was followed by the right to award its own research degrees in 2007, ending Chesters last validation arrangement with Liverpool.

Following the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, some of the universitys research was declared to be of international quality, with a proportion of World Leading research in History (15% of submitted research), English, Sports Studies, and Drama (each 5% of submitted research).

In 2010, the Centre for Work Related Studies (CWRS) received a commendation by the UK quality body, for its radically flexible and high quality negotiated work based learning framework - enabling professionals to customise their own qualifications, learn through work, and enable rapid accreditation of commercial training provision. At the same time, the funding body showcased CWRSs flexible approach to accrediting workplace learning.

The university has expanded in recent years, grabbing many temporarily unused buildings all over the city and building lots of student flats.In 2013 the university took over the Shell Technology Centre in Thornton, in nearby Ince, creating the Thornton Science Park. In 2014, Chancellor George Osborne opened the universitys new Science Park in Thornton. The campus was used for a variety of science and engineering based courses and allows students to be involved in high-level research using the campuss industry-standard facilities gifted by Shell.In 2018 the local authority, taking account of guidance from the Health and Safety Executive, refused a retrospective planning application for continued use for educational purposes on safety grounds, due to the location close to Stanlow refinery. This is being appealed by the university.[permanent dead link]

In 2014, Loyd Grossman, who holds an honorary degree from the university, officially opened the North West Food Research Development (NoWFOOD) Centre.

The University of Chester has six campuses and a University Centre in Shrewsbury. The 32-acre (130,000 m2) Parkgate Road Campus, Chester, is located on Parkgate Road, just north of the City Walls. It has a mixture of Victorian buildings (such as Old College, left, which includes a chapel built by some of the original students in the 1840s) and modern buildings (such as the Students Union). The Parkgate Road Campus also features a fitness centre, sports hall, swimming pool, science and language laboratories, bar, bookshop and bank.

Some departments are housed offsite at locations within walking distance of the main campus, for example, the Department of English is located in a Grade II-listed former Victorian vicarage, while the Law School is based at 67 Liverpool Road. The former County Hall, which is located in the city centre near the racecourse, houses the Faculty of Education and Childrens Services and the Faculty of Health and Social Care and is known as the Riverside Campus.

The university has also developed the Kingsway Campus in Newton with the addition of a three-storey teaching block, ground floor exhibition space and art gallery, learning resource centre and changing rooms. The site features a number of green innovations, such as ground source heating.

The university acquired a former Lloyds Bank corporate headquarters in Queens Park, Handbridge, Chester in 2015. This houses the Faculty of Business and Management and the Chester Business School. The university has modernised the facilities in Bridge House and Churchill House to cater for 2,700 students.

In the autumn of 2015, the university opened a sister institution in the Guildhall and Rowleys House, Shrewsbury, Shropshire as part of a joint venture with Shropshire Council to establish University Centre Shrewsbury.

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