Overview
Oxford Brookes has roots in
Oxford that go back to 1865 (when it was known as the Oxford School of Art).
Oxford Brookes is the eighth largest employer in Oxfordshire, providing 2,500 jobs across the University.
[1]
Oxford Brookes University pioneered the use of modular degree courses and has earned recognition for quality in
architecture [2],
art,
economics,
computer science,
automotive/motorsports engineering,
history [3],
modern languages and
publishing. The Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies is one of several programmes at Brookes that has expanded the university's reputation abroad. Similarly, the national Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) assigned the Department of History its foremost international ranking (5*).
The
Oxford Brookes Department of Architecture is one of the largest in Britain and in 2006 was named as the leading school of architecture outside London and second overall in the UK
[4]. In the most recent 2008 survey by the Architect's Journal it was ranked fourth overall.
[5]
Specialist study
The Centre for Development and Emergency Practice (CENDEP) in the School of the Built Environment was awarded the
Queen's Anniversary Prize and is well known for its programme for humanitarian practitioners. CENDEP provides an academic setting for the study of cities, humanitarianism and refugees. Singer and activist
Annie Lennox is patron of the Master's Course in Humanitarian and Development Practice.
[6]
In 2007, The MSc in Primate Conservation was awarded the highly-prestigious
Queen’s Anniversary Prize – a national honour recognising the outstanding contribution by the MSc programme team and the Department of Anthropology & Geography at Oxford Brookes.
[7]
The
Oxford Brookes School of Technology is well known for its automotive and motorsports engineering courses leading to undergraduate BEng(Hons) and MEng(Hons) degrees. Due to the close links between Oxford Brookes and several Formula 1 teams around Oxfordshire, the syllabus development for the undergraduate and post graduate courses are carried out in collaboration with F1 teams
[8]. Over the decade, the school has developed a niche for producing Formula 1 design and race engineers
[9].
[10], who go on to build championship winning cars, participating in the FIA Formula 1 Championships. The school is also home and lead institution to Motorsport Knowledge Exchange
[11] which is a Government-funded small cooperative of institutions, involved in delivering motorsport education at a variety of different levels, from technician to post-graduate.
Formula One champion Fernando Alonso provides scholarships for masters degree students to study motor sport engineering at the university
[12],
[13]. Participants, in specific will study either an MSc in motorsports engineering or in race engine design at Oxford Brookes. The university, which is based in the heart of the UK’s ‘motorsport valley’, boasts a teaching staff that includes Prof. Geoff Goddard, a former chief designer at
Cosworth [14].
Sport
Oxford Brookes has focused its strengths on six sports of excellence to help provide a springboard for sportsmen and women to achieve their best at elite levels.
Rowing
Oxford Brookes Rowing Club currently has eight student and four alumni Olympic / World medalists at varying levels. The men’s group contains eight Great Britain under-23 international athletes, and 15 athletes with Great Britain junior international experience. The club boasts 16 wins in 14 years at Henley Royal Regatta, most recently in 2006.
The university boathouse is located at Cholsey, near Wallingford, a land-based rowing facility situated at the Centre for Sport at Headington Campus.
Cricket
The
University of Oxford and
Oxford Brookes combine the best cricket players to make up the
Oxford Universities Centre of Cricket Excellence (UCCE)
[15].
Basketball
The men's team has repeatedly reached the British Universities Sports Association (BUSA) Final Eight Championship Finals. This success has led to the entry of a men's team into England Basketball's National League. Our ladies' team plays in BUSA and the Buckinghamshire and Oxford Local League. The former Great Britain captain, Ken Walton, is the head of basketball coaching at Oxford Brookes.
Climbing/Outdoor Pursuits
Brookes is well known for its climbing wall and lead tower which combine the excitement of rock climbing with a safe indoor environment. There are weekend climbing trips in the UK throughout the year and overseas trips to the French Alps and the Pyrenees.
Hockey
Oxford Brookes Hockey Club is the largest sports club at Brookes and currently runs four men’s and four women’s teams in the BUSA leagues, as well as mixed teams that play locally at weekends. The men’s first team plays in the Midlands Premier Division and are BUSA shield winners. The club has a full-time experienced coach who runs weekly training for all teams and additional fitness and skills sessions. Although the club does not play League Hockey at weekends, Brookes has close links with local clubs offering opportunities up to National League premier level, and many Brookes players take advantage of this.
Rugby
Brookes Rugby shares ground and clubhouse facilities with Oxford Harlequins and Oxford Rugby Club. Students play a high standard of competitive rugby with three men’s and one women’s team entered into the BUSA leagues. The men’s first XV plays in the BUSA Premier League South B.
Fairtrade university
Oxford Brookes university became the first university in the world to be awarded Fairtrade status in October 2003
[16]. In 2007 Oxford Brookes came fifth in a the new environmental league table of universities and received a first class rating for its environmental credentials.
[17]
Academic Reputation
Oxford Brookes has been named as the leading modern university in the UK by the
Sunday Times [18] 7 times in the last 10 years.
|
| 2009
| 2008
| 2003
|
| Times Good University Guide
| 55th [19]
| 49th [19]
| 48th [21]
|
| Guardian University Guide
| 57th [22]
| 53rd
| 24th
|
| Sunday Times University Guide
|
| 53rd [19]
| 58th
|
| The Independent
| 59th [24]
| 53rd
|
Campuses
Oxford Brookes University has three main campuses:
Headington Campus
is located in
Headington, a residential area of
Oxford, one
mile from the city centre. It consists of the Gipsy Lane site, which is the main teaching site, the Marston Road site, being the school of Health and Social Care, and the
Headington Hill site across the road from Gipsy Lane, where the Students' Union and main halls of residence are located.
Wheatley Campus
is set near
Wheatley in the Oxfordshire countryside, seven miles south-east of the city centre, and is where
business,
IT,
mathematics and more recently engineering subjects are taught.
Harcourt Hill Campus
is situated on
Harcourt Hill on Oxford's western perimeter, two and a half miles from the city centre.
Education,
Philosophy,
Theology,
Media and Communication and many other subjects are taught here, in a landscaped setting overlooking the city. It was formerly the site of
Westminster College, Oxford, the only independent
Methodist higher education institution in Europe, which specialised in Teacher Training and Theology and whose students were awarded their
degrees by the
University of Oxford upon successful completion of their course.
The 'campus' was purpose-built for the College's move from
London to
Oxford in the 1950s and was leased to Brookes by the
Methodist Church. The College lives on in the Westminster Institute of Education at Oxford Brookes University, which is the school responsible for those subjects taught at the Harcourt Hill Campus by Brookes.
All three main campuses offer a range of sports and recreational facilities that can be used by all the students. Harcourt Hill and Wheatley provide catering whereas the rest offer excellent catering facilities, a library with an extensive range of reference books and journals, and 24 hour computer rooms along with numerous other facilities.
Future plans
Oxford Brookes is currently redeveloping its campuses in cooperation with
RMJM architects (joint architects of the new
Scottish Parliament). Plans include extensive rebuilding--a new School of Technology (housing Brookes’ Motorsport Engineering Centre) and a recently completed Research Centre at Gipsy Lane are two examples of an ambitious "masterplan" that promises to revamp the entire campus.
[25]
Professor Janet Beer, the former Pro Vice Chancellor at Manchester Metropolitan University, has recently been appointed as Vice Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University.
[26]
Halls of residence
Oxford Brookes has nine halls of residence: Crescent Hall,
Cheney Student Village, Clive Booth Hall, Warneford hall,
Cotuit Hall, Clive Booth Non-Onsuite (formerly Morrell Hall), Paul Kent Hall, Lady Spencer Churchill Hall at Wheatley campus and Harcourt Hill Hall at Harcourt Hill.
Global partnership
Oxford Brookes University's partnership with
Association of Chartered Certified Accountants allows
ACCA students to study for a BSc (Hons) in Applied Accounting while taking their ACCA examinations.
Tsinghua University will recognise the Oxford Brookes University
BSc Applied Accounting degree, which has been successfully developed in conjunction with ACCA and which enables students who have completed two parts of the ACCA qualification to apply for the Oxford Brookes degree.
Munich Business School is the German partner institution of the university.
The University is also in partnership with the Budapest (Hungary) based institution of
International Business School (Budapest) (Nemzetközi Üzleti Foiskola). IBS students can attend courses which, besides the Hungarian degree also provides OBU BA degrees in different subjects, such as Marketing, Communications, etc.
The University is also affiliated with Nilai University College in Malaysia. Affiliated subjects are computing, accounting & finance, business management, marketing management and hospitality management. All the subjects mentioned above are 3+0 programs.
Notable alumni
References
- Current Job vacancies
- [1]
- BBC News article: Oxford's history blow
- Journal 4 May 2006 page 84
- [1]
- Annie Lennox
- SSL News » Blog Archive » MSc in Primate Conservation awarded prestigious Queen’s Anniversary Award
- RBS Williams Formula 1
- Times UK Online
- Guardian UK
- Motorsport Knowledge Exchange
- F1 | ITV Sport
- Times Higher Education - Oxford Brookes in pole position for F1 success
- The Official Formula 1 Website
- Sport — Oxford Brookes University
- Fairtrade policy — Oxford Brookes University
- People & Planet - People & Planet Green League 2007
- http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/sunday_times_university_guide/article24962
- Times University Guide
- Times University Guide
- The Table Of Tables
- The Guardian University Guide
- Times University Guide
- The Good University Guide
- Initial Masterplan document
- Oxford Brookes University — Oxford Brookes University