Bath Spa University

Bath Spa University

Established	2005 - gained University Status 1975 - College of Higher Education
Type	Public
Endowment	£155,000
Vice-Chancellor	Prof. Christina Slade
Students	7,110
Undergraduates	4,505
Postgraduates	2,605
Location	Bath, Somerset, England 51°22′32″N 2°26′18″W / 51.37556°N 2.43833°W / 51.37556; -2.43833Coordinates: 51°22′32″N 2°26′18″W / 51.37556°N 2.43833°W / 51.37556; -2.43833
Campus	Rural
Website	www.bathspa.ac.uk

Bath Spa University is a university based in, and around, Bath, England. The institution was previously known as Bath College of Higher Education, and later Bath Spa University College. It gained full university status in August 2005.

History

The institution can trace its roots back to the foundation of the Bath School of Art in 1852, following the impact of the Great Exhibition of 1851. In 1947 Bath Teacher Training College leased the Newton Park campus. The present institution was formed in 1975 as Bath College of Higher Education by the merger of the Bath College of Education and Newton Park College of Education. In 1992, the college was granted degree-awarding powers and in 1999 adopted the name Bath Spa University College. In March 2005 the institution was granted university status, becoming Bath Spa University in August 2005. It has since consistently ranked amongst the top 100 universities in the UK, generally placing somewhere in the 80s.

Courses

Undergraduate Courses

Subjects

3D Design: Idea Material Object
Applied Art and Design (Foundation Degree)
Applied Art and Design (Work-Based)
Applied Geographical Sciences
Art
Biology
Business and Management
Ceramics
Commercial Music
Contemporary Circus and Physical Performance (Foundation Degree)
Counselling (Foundation Degree)
Creative Arts
Creative Industries: Graphic Design (Work-Based)
Creative Media Practice
Creative Music Technology
Creative Writing
Dance
Development Geography (Foundation Degree)
Diet and Health
Digital Design (Foundation Degree)
Drama Studies
Early Years (Foundation Degree)
Early Years Education (Work-Based)
Education, Leading to PGCE Primary
Education Studies (Education, Early Years, International Education, Combined)
Education Studies for Teaching Assistants (Foundation Degree)
English Literature
Environmental Science
Fashion and Textile Design Skills (Foundation Degree)
Fashion Design
Film and Screen Studies
Fine Art
Food with Nutrition
Geography
Graphic Communication
Graphic Design (Foundation Degree)
Health and Social Care Management (Foundation Degree)
Heritage
History
Human Nutrition
Human Resource Management
Management and Management Systems (Foundation Degree)
Marketing
Media Communications
Mixed Media Textiles
Music
Music Production (Foundation Degree)
Musical Theatre (Foundation Degree)
Performing Arts
Performing Arts (Foundation Degree)
Philosophy and Ethics
Photography and Digital Media
Popular Music (Foundation Degree)
Professional Musicianship (Foundation Degree)
Psychology
Publishing
Publishing: Editorial, Design and the Web (Foundation Degree)
Religion, Philosophy and Ethics
Sociology
Study of Religions
Textile Design for Fashion and Interiors
Theatre Production
Tourism Management
Tourism Management (Foundation Degree)
Visual Design

Postgraduate Courses

Bath Spa’s taught postgraduate awards provide opportunities for advanced study that are both academically challenging and vocationally relevant, leading to the awards of graduate certificate and diploma; postgraduate certificate and diploma; and master’s degree (MA, MSc, MFA, MMus or MTeach). In addition there is a lively research environment at Bath Spa, with opportunities for supervised, original research leading to the degrees of MPhil and PhD.

Subjects

Biology (Grad Certificate / Diploma)
Business and Management
Creative Sound and Media Technology
Creative Writing
Curatorial Practice
Design
- Brand Development
- Ceramics
- Fashion and Textiles
- Investigating Fashion Design
Feature Filmmaking
Fine Art
Geography (Grad Certificate / Diploma)
Heritage Management
Initial Teacher Education (Including PGCEs)
Investigating Crafts
Literature and Landscape
Performance
Performing Shakespeare
Principles of Applied Neuropsychology
Professional Master's Programme
- Education Studies
- International Education and Global Citizenship
- Specific Learning Difficulties / Dyslexia
- Counselling and Psychotherapy Practice
Professional Practice in Higher Education
Scriptwriting
Songwriting
Theatre for Young Audiences
Travel and Nature Writing
Visual Communication
Writing for Young People

Research Degrees

There is a lively research environment at Bath Spa, with opportunities for supervised, original research leading to the degrees of MPhil and PhD. The University has research activity across all of its academic schools with particular strengths, as measured in the independent Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), in Art and Design, English and Creative Writing, History, Music, and Psychology. The University is big enough to offer variety and diversity; yet small enough for a personal approach. There is space to think, create and move forward. There is also the opportunity to work with academics who are not just authoritative, but also passionate about their subject.

Campuses

Newton Park

The Newton Park campus of Bath Spa University

The Newton Park campus, located to the west of Bath near the village of Newton St Loe, is the largest of the university's three campuses. It is here that the majority of courses are taught, with the exception of Art and Design and some of the PGCE courses. The campus is based in Newton Park in grounds designed by Capability Brown and leased from the Duchy of Cornwall. The site has a lake, nature reserve, woodland and farmland.

The campus has a new Students' Union building, which includes a large bar, a gym, a shop and office space. The library building, which includes a book shop and stationery shop, has been updated and enlarged and includes new IT facilities. A new refectory has opened and includes a restaurant and separate deli/coffee bar. The University Theatre has opened in new buildings on the site of the old refectory.

This campus houses the Michael Tippett Centre which is the only purpose built concert hall in Bath. As well as being used for teaching music, the centre is used for exhibitions, musical performances and plays.

Newton Park

The Newton Park Campus is home to the majority of the student accommodation, which consists of eight "halls": Harrington, Hiscocks, Pope, Langton, Hungerford, Nevill, Temple and Sydney. Harrington, Hiscocks and Pope are arguably the most sociable halls due to their kitchen layout that allows easy flow between each 'block'; however these halls have the smallest bedrooms. Langton, Hungerford, Nevill and Temple boast the largest bedrooms as well as larger kitchens, however these halls are in need of updating in comparison with the others. Temple has been upgraded to a higher standard than Langton, Nevill and Hungerford and also contains a small ex-warden's house: Temple House, which has been refurbished to high student housing standards. Sydney is the newest building whose bedrooms are ensuite and of medium size, it also has the most up to date security with modern facilities.

Sion Hill

The Sion Hill campus is in the north of Bath, in the Lansdown district. This campus houses the Bath School of Art and Design and Art and Design courses are taught here. This campus is in landscaped grounds and gardens that originally belonged to a mansion house. The building is equipped with studios, workshops, a library, a stationery and art materials shop, Students' Union offices and a refectory.

Until 2009, the University also owned the nearby Somerset Place. The sale of this listed Georgian crescent was intended to finance a new campus in the city centre. This development, alongside the Dyson School of Design Innovation, did not proceed due to planning issues relating to the chosen riverside site.

Culverhay

The third, and smallest, site is based in the Southdown area of Bath. It is situated next to Culverhay School and was formerly the school's Humanities block. The campus is the home to most of the University's Postgraduate Certificate in Education Secondary and Middle Years Education courses, including History, Music, English, Geography, Mathematics and Religious Education. Facilities at the campus are not as extensive as those found in Newton Park but there are IT facilities and a common room.

Corsham Court

The University has established a new centre in Corsham Court after an absence of more than 20 years. Corsham Court became the home of the Bath Academy of Art (now Bath School of Art and Design and part of the University) when its premises were destroyed during the Second World War. Walter Sickert, who taught in that School was also a mentor to Lord Methuen RA, owner of the Court. The centre will include development support for research projects, postgraduate and research studios and study areas for artists and designers undertaking Masters level study and Doctorates, facilities for project work for all undergraduate students, and a conference suite for the use of academic and support departments across the University.

Dartmouth Avenue

The university's School of Art and Design has established a new venture in Dartmouth Avenue. The site was developed as a series of painting and media studios as well as a project space for year two students. This was to offset the loss of space incurred with the sale of Somerset Place. The site has been expanded into an adjoining building to accommodate creative studios and a second, larger, project space (the first now being predominantly used for life drawing classes).

Transport

One of the "Bright Orange Buses" to the University

There are regular trains to Bath Spa Station which is on the main line served by, amongst others, London, Reading, Swindon, Chippenham and Bristol. From the station buses run to each of the campuses on a regular basis.

The Newton Park campus is served by the SPA1/SPA2 services (advertised by First as the "Bright Orange Buses"), which run from the University to Bath city centre every twenty minutes during the day in term time. On week-nights and Saturdays, the service runs until 3 am, allowing students to get home from Bath's nightclubs. In the evenings and on Sundays and holidays, the bus only runs once an hour.

The Sion Hill campus is served by the 700 service which runs from the bus station. For the Culverhay campus the 20a service runs from the bus station once an hour and the 10 service runs every 10–20 minutes, again from the bus station. There is also service 42 which runs from the nearby Park and Ride at Odd Down every 12–15 minutes.

Plans

Plans have been proposed for the development of the university, most notably at Newton Park Campus where over a ten year period the student accommodation is to be demolished and new accommodation built in its place. The existing buildings will be modified to deal with the influx of students expected in the next few years. The Duchy of Cornwall, the university's landlord, is objecting to these plans.

Organisation

Schools of Study

The University has six schools of study.

The Bath School of Art and Design is based at the Sion Hill and Dartmouth Avenue campus' and teaches art, fine art, graphic communication, interactive multimedia, media communication, materials based design, textile design studies and visual culture.

The Graduate School is responsible for the higher degrees.

The School of Education teaches Education Studies as an academic subject, and also has responsibility for PGCE provision and for postgraduate studies in education.

The School of Humanities and Cultural Industries has responsibility for undergraduate courses in English Literature and in Creative Writing (including Writing for Young People) and the MA in Creative Writing (MACW). It also teaches subjects such as history, cultural studies, the study of religions, media communications, and film studies.

The School of Music and the Performing Arts is responsible for courses in music, dance, drama, and performing arts.

The School of Science, Society and Management is responsible for the teaching of biology, environmental science, food nutrition, geography, tourism management, psychology, sociology, health-care and business studies.

The Wessex Partnership

The University has formed partnerships with a number of regional Further Education Colleges, known as the Wessex Partnership. Under the Partnership, students take the first year of their Higher Education course in their local college and, if successful, the rest of their course at Bath Spa University.

The partner colleges are;

Bridgwater College
Cirencester College
City of Bath College
City of Bristol College
New College, Swindon
Norton Radstock College
Weston College
Weymouth College

Student life

Rugby

Bath Spa University Rugby Football Club competes in the BUCS Western Men's Conference 3A against other south western universities such as Bournemouth, Southampton, Exeter and University of Bath's 4th team. They finished bottom of the 3A league in 2010. Overall league positions (2010), Bath Spa (rank 68), Bath (rank 10). In the 2010-2011 season a second team was organised for the first time. The players also compete in 7's competitions throughout the country, but mainly in their host competition "Jon Ball 7's", which is a charitable tournament held at the Newton Park campus every May. In the Bath Derby (for the 2010-11 season) Bath Spa 1st XV succumbed 66-0 to rival Bath Uni's 4th XV.

Noted people

Category:Academics of Bath Spa University

Joe Bennett, head of the School of Music and the Performing Arts at Bath Spa University and the organiser of the annual UK Songwriting Festival. He has written about 40 popular-music-related books, covering Music Theory, Guitar Effects and Altered Tunings, as well as over 300 articles and reviews for Total Guitar, Classic CD, the Roland Corporation, Music Tech Magazine and Future Music magazine.

Dr. Carrie Etter, an American poet, originally from Normal, Illinois, who moved to Southern CaliforniaLondon in 2001. She is an Associate Lecturer at Bath Spa University. In the UK, her poems have appeared in at the age of 19 and on to Metre, Poetry Wales, Poetry Review, Reactions, Thumbscrew, The Times Literary Supplement, and elsewhere, while in the US her poems have appeared in Aufgabe, Barrow Street, Columbia, Meridian, The New Republic, Seneca Review, and many other journals. She is also an essayist and a critic. Her reviews of contemporary poetry have appeared in The Liberal, New Welsh Review, Poetry Matters, The Times Literary Supplement, and Verse.

William Hughes, Professor of Gothic Studies at Bath Spa University. Author of Beyond Dracula (Palgrave 2000), and co-editor of the collections Contemporary Writing and National Identity (with Tracey Hill), Bram Stoker History, Psychoanalysis and the Gothic (with Andrew Smith), Fictions of Unease: The Gothic from Otranto to The X-Files (with Andrew Smith and Diane Mason) and Empire and the Gothic: The Politics of Genre (with Andrew Smith), he has also produced scholarly editions of Stoker's The Lady of the Shroud and Dracula. He is also editor of Gothic Studies, the refereed journal of the International Gothic Association, published by Manchester University Press.

Tim Liardet, an English poet and critic. He studied at the University of York and lectures in creative writing at Bath Spa University. He has published five collections of poetry, Clay Hill, Fellini Beach, Competing with the Piano Tuner, To the God of Rain and The Blood Choir, which was nominated for the T. S. Eliot Prize.

Gerard Woodward, an award-winning British novelist and poet. He was educated at Falmouth School of Art and the London School of Economics, where he studied Social Anthropology. His first collection of poetry, Householder, was published in 1991 and won the Somerset Maugham Award. His novels have been shortlisted for both the Booker and Whitbread Awards. He teaches creative writing at Bath Spa University.

Steve Voake, successful children's author. He is Senior Lecturer in Writing for Young People at the university. His novels include The Dreamwalker's Child.

Dr Nicholas Campion, cultural historian, pioneer of the study of cultural astronomy and Director of The Sophia Centre taught at Bath Spa from 2002-7. He was Senior Lecturer in the Department of History 2004-7.