London campuses – everyone’s at it
Whilst some universities have established branch campuses overseas, others have taken to setting up campuses in London. I posted a while back on the growth of London campuses and noted that the capitals was still some way off being the new UAE.
Things have moved on since then but there is still some way to go.
Times Higher recently reported on the latest to join the rush with the decision of Newcastle University to establish a campus in London:
Newcastle will become the latest UK institution to open a base in the capital this September, offering full- and part-time courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, with an “initial focus” on business programmes.
The campus will be a joint venture with private partner INTO and will operate out of the company’s premises near Liverpool Street station, where preparatory courses for City University London are already available.INTO has an existing student centre at Newcastle’s main Tyneside campus, which is home to 800 students.
The university said the London campus will offer “specific programmes aimed at international students” and will also offer opportunities for Newcastle-based students to undertake projects in the capital.
According to a recent Quality Assurance Agency report on this subject most of the campuses were established between 2009 and 2014. The longest established opened in 1999 for teacher education. Two campuses, due to open to students in September 2014, had no students at the time of the QAA enquiry. One that opened in 2010, UEA’s campus, was subsequently closed in January 2014. The QAA enquiry looked at campuses of 13 universities:
Anglia Ruskin University
Bangor University
Coventry University
University of Cumbria
University of East Anglia (closing)
Glasgow Caledonian University
Glyndŵr University
University of Liverpool
Northumbria University
University of South Wales
University of Sunderland
University of Ulster
University of Wales Trinity Saint David
But how big are these campuses? Newcastle’s new campus will eventually cater for around 1,200 students which would place it in the middle of the range of campus sizes. The QAA report notes that n the academic year 2013-14 there were 8,484 students with the largest campus having 2,328 students and the smallest 288. So, if you add them all together the resulting institution would be about the same size as Goldsmiths. Numbers therefore remain small but this does seem like a continuing trend.
But where next? Perhaps all universities outside London should be required to have a base in the capital. Maybe. But this would seem a little unbalanced and unfair on the regions so to even things up I think all London universities should be obliged to establish a campus in a city beyond the M25.
pic of old kent road
