Brunel University

Brunel University is one of the new British universities, having been founded within the last half century.

History of Brunel University

Brunel is one of a number of UK universities created in the 1960s following the Robbins Report on higher education (often called the plate glass universities).

Originally Acton Technical College, based in Acton on the outskirts of London, it was decided in 1957 that the college should split into two sections – Acton Technical College continued to cater to technicians and craftsmen, whereas Brunel College of Technology (named for Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the British engineer) was dedicated to the education of technologists.

In 1961 it was awarded the status of College of Advanced Technology, and it was decided that Brunel College should expand at another site in order to accommodate the extra buildings that would be needed.

Uxbridge, Hillingdon was chosen to house the new buildings, and work hadn’t even started before the Ministry of Education had officially changed the College’s status. From April 1 1962 it was officially named Brunel College of Advanced Technology – it was only the 10th Advanced Technology College in the country, and the last to be awarded this title.

The first buildings were due to be finished in 1967. However, in 1963 it was decided that the College should become a technological university, and after the many hurdles and pitfalls had been overcome the Royal Charter was awarded on the June 9 1966 giving university status. Uxbridge was now a campus of Brunel University.

The University continued to use both campuses until 1971, when it was eventually able to evacuate the Acton site, and for the next nine years used only the Uxbridge campus.

In 1980 the University merged with Shoreditch College of Education, located at Cooper's Hill, Runnymede since 1951. This became Brunel's second campus, and is still owned by the University, although as of the academic year 2004/05, it now only comprises halls of residence. It wasn’t until 1995 that the University expanded again, integrating the West London Institute of Education, giving campuses in Osterley and Twickenham.

This increased the number of courses that Brunel University was able to offer – traditionally the strengths of the College / University had been engineering, science, technology and social sciences. With the addition of the West London Institute, departments such as arts, humanities, geography, earth science, health and sports science were available to the students, which now numbered over 12,000.

Brunel has put together a Masterplan to merge all the campuses into Uxbridge, some building work has already begun on this (the library has recently been extended, a new sports centre has been built, the students' union building renovated, work is ongoing on a new building for the Heath Department and more halls of residence are under construction to accommodate the swell of extra students).

Halls of residence

Many of the halls of residence around the Uxbridge campus are named after bridges that Isambard Kingdom Brunel either built or helped to design. Other halls are named either directly after him, or after other notable scientists.

Clifton Halls (named for the Clifton Suspension Bridge)
Chepstow Halls (named for the bridge across the River Wye at Chepstow)
Saltash Halls (named for the Royal Albert Bridge that cross the River Tamar at Saltash)
Galbraith Hall (named for W R Galbraith, who designed the Kew Railway Bridge)
Fleming Halls (named for Sir Alexander Fleming)
Faraday Halls (named for Sir Michael Faraday)
Bishop Hall
Isambard Close Flats
Mill Hall
Kilmorey Hall
Lacy Hall
St. Margaret's Hall

University league tables

In the 2006 Guardian University Guide, Brunel placed 32nd overall. A drop of 4 places from the 2005 rankings. The fall was caused by a change in formula used by the Guardian.

However, the university placed significantly higher in some of its traditional subjects. For example, Brunel placed 15th in mechanical engineering (the university is named after one of the world's most famous mechanical engineers). This placed it above some Red Brick universities such as the University of Birmingham and University College London.

Runnymede

At Runnymede, the halls of residence built in the Shoreditch College era were named after staff (Scrivens, Marshall, Bradley, Reed, Rowan). Existing buildings were named in the Royal Indian Engineering College era, such as President Hall (where the College president resided) and College Hall. These fine Victorian buildings were built by Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt, who had been Isambard Kingdom Brunel's architect for Paddington Station in London, and also for the famous Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge (now the Judge Institute). Corridors in President and College Halls were named after prominent British and Anglo-Indian figures, such as George Canning, Warren Hastings, Richard Wellesley and Charles Cornwallis.

Because of Runnymede's Brunel Design graduates' eminence in many new media and web industries in east London (particularly Shoreditch and Hoxton), the term "Shoreditch College" has sometimes become applied as a back-formation nickname for Brunel's Design school, perhaps independently of historical knowledge about the origins of the design school, but probably reinforced by the pre-existence of the name.

Formula Student

Brunel was one of the first UK universities to enter the Formula Student engineering competition. It is an annual event in which universities from around the world compete in static and dynamic events using formula style racing car's designed and manufactured by students.

The Brunel Racing team is composed of undergraduate and postgraduate students, each being allocated an area of the car to develop. The students on MEng Mechanical Engineering courses act as team leaders and manage BEng students throughout the year to ensure a successful completion of a new car each year.

Brunel Racing were UK Class 1 Formula Student Champions in 2002, and were the leading UK team at Formula ATA 2005, the Italian Formula Student event. In 2006 Formula Student Event, Brunel Racing were also the highest finishing UK competitor using E85 (fuel comprising of 85% ethanol and 15% petrol.)

The university also runs a second racing team, comprising exclusively of post-graduate students from the MSc Automotive and Motorsports Engineering course, called Brunel Masters Motorsports. The 20 students on this course are from 10 different countries, with various cultural backgrounds and a with a wide range of industry experience.

The BMM team were the UK Class 2 Formula Student Champions in their first year, 2005.

Brunel's Formula Student teams have won prizes at the annual competition every year since they first entered in 1999.

Interesting facts: Uxbridge

Some scenes from A Clockwork Orange were filmed on the Uxbridge campus. Lecture Theatre 'E' was used for the 'aversion therapy' scene. The campus has also featured in an episode of The Comic Strip Presents first series entitles Summer School, where the area in front of the Lecture Theatre is turned into an Iron Age settlement. It was also used as the location for a number of episodes of 1970s police drama series The Sweeney. An eposide of Inspector Morse used the Chemistry building and the lecture theatre as a hospital.

Interesting facts: Runnymede

Several films used the Runnymede campus as an outside location, particularly in the 1940s-1960s. The Boulting Brothers' A French Mistress, 1960, made extensive use of the campus as a boys' boarding school where an attractive new French mistress causes frictions and hilarity. It is often claimed that The Belles of St Trinian's was entirely filmed at Runnymede, but on watching the film it is evident that the main school building is not, in fact, President Hall, but Oakley Court in Water Oakley (just the other side of Windsor) - also seen in many a Hammer horror classic. However, a number of other locations in the film are at Runnymede, including the Mews being seen (from Cooper's Hill Lane) as a dairy. The hockey match takes place on the field between Chestnut Walk and the workshop buildings.

The privacy, stunning architecture with a majestic approach, and the proximity to several West London studios aided its appeal to film-makers; sadly, with the addition of a lot more concrete student residences through the '60s, much of this appeal was diluted. Being, for so many years, a creative student hothouse, there have also been many short films made on the campus in more recent years.

Sir George Chesney, founder and first president of the Royal Indian Engineering College - who had initially seen the empty buildings on Cooper's Hill whilst boating on the Thames at Runnymede - is believed to have written his influential proto-science fiction short story 'The Battle of Dorking' (1871) whilst in residence at the College.

As the buildings at Cooper's Hill were owned by the London County Council (despite being in Surrey) in the mid-20th century, they have hosted a number of non-education related undertakings over the years, including the storage of the Statue of Eros from Piccadilly Circus during the Second World War along with the Post Office's motor vehicle licensing department. Because Cooper's Hill is the first significant piece of high ground along the Thames west from London, radio transmitter relays for the London Ambulance Service and London Transport buses are housed in the loft space above College Hall.

Famous alumni

External links

Universities in England | Universities in London | Hillingdon

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