Coventry University


Coventry University is a public research university in Coventry, England. The origins of Coventry University can be linked to the Coventry School of Design in 1843. It was known as Lanchester Polytechnic from 1970 until 1987, and then as Coventry Polytechnic until it gained university status in 1992.
Coventry is the larger of the two universities in the city, the other being the University of Warwick. The Coventry University Group operates campuses in Coventry, Scarborough, London and Wrocław. It has two principal campuses: one in the centre of Coventry where the majority of its operations are located, and one in Central London which focuses on business and management courses. Coventry also governs the higher education institutions CU Coventry, CU Scarborough and CU London. Its colleges, which are made up of schools and departments, run around 300 undergraduate and postgraduate courses. Across the university there are 11 research centres which specialise in different fields, from agroecology and peace studies to future of transport.
The annual income of the institution for 2022–23 was £480.6 million of which £17.5 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £483.4 million. The university holds an overall Gold rating in the 2023 Teaching Excellence Framework. Coventry is a member of the University Alliance mission group.

History

The origins of Coventry University can be traced back to the founding of the Coventry School of Design in 1843. Later renamed the Coventry School of Art, it was again renamed in the early 20th century to the Municipal Art School as part of the Education Act 1902. One final name change took place in the 1950s, when it became known as the College of Art.
In the late 1950s, to address the need for a high level of technical training which the existing Coventry Technical College could not meet, the construction of a new institution began. Opened in 1961, it was called the Lanchester College of Technology, named after the car engineer Frederick Lanchester.
In 1970, the Lanchester College of Technology and the College of Art, along with the Rugby College of Engineering Technology in the neighbouring town of Rugby, amalgamated to form Lanchester Polytechnic. The institution was designated as such in February 1971 by then Education Secretary Margaret Thatcher. The name Lanchester gave the institution a certain degree of obscurity, notably when none of the contestants on the BBC Radio 4 general knowledge show Brain of Britain could give its correct location. The polytechnic cancelled its graduation ceremony in 1974 following the Birmingham pub bombings in fear that public gatherings could be targeted; the ceremony was eventually held in 2009, 35 years later. Lanchester Polytechnic was renamed "Coventry Polytechnic" in 1987, and when the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 afforded Coventry Polytechnic university status that year, the name was changed to Coventry University.
In 2010, a campus in London was established to further attract international students to the university. In 2012 "Coventry University College" was set up within the main university campus, offering qualifications up to degree-level at a lower cost compared to typical university fees.
As of 2017 Coventry is the highest-ranked modern university in the UK in both the Guardian University Guide – in which it ranks 12th overall – and the Complete University Guide. It also places in the top 200 in the Times Higher Education Young University Rankings 2017, which ranks universities around the world that are aged 50 years or under.
In July 2017, the university announced Margaret Casely-Hayford as its new chancellor, replacing Sir John Egan.
The campus in Coventry is undergoing a £430 million investment programme for the period up to 2022, with a new £37 million science and health building and £73 million student accommodation complex – opened in 2017 and 2018 respectively – central to the development scheme.
In September 2019, Coventry purchased the 22-acre farm Ryton Organic Gardens from the charity Garden Organic, who remains on site as a tenant along with the Heritage Seed Library and a Community Supported Agriculture scheme '5-Acre CSA' sitting alongside the university's own Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience.

Campuses

Coventry campus

Coventry currently occupies a purpose-built campus in Coventry City Centre adjacent to Coventry Cathedral and the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum. It occupies a mix of new purpose-built buildings, converted structures, and those inherited from its predecessor institutions.
The centrepiece of the campus is The Hub which opened in August 2011. The Hub is the home of the Coventry University Students’ Union, student support services, a bar/nightclub, a food hall and food outlets which are catered by Sodexo In September 2012, a new £55 million engineering building was opened, with facilities such as a full-scale Harrier jump jet, a wind tunnel and flight simulators. The Hub was awarded a BREEAM 'excellent' rating and between them The Hub and the engineering building feature sustainable initiatives such as grey-water harvesting, a biomass boiler and a green roof. The opening of the buildings marks the first stage of a £160 million redevelopment plan of the campus phased over 15 years.
Coventry's £20 million library opened in 2000 and is on the outskirts of the campus. It was officially opened by Princess Anne in September 2001 and contains over 2,000 print periodicals, 350,000 monographs, and more than 6,000 video tapes, audio tapes and films. The library has a distinctive turreted exterior and has won awards for its interior design which features a light distribution system to make the most of natural light throughout the building.
There are two converted buildings on the campus. A former car engine factory built in 1910 located next to the university's library now houses the Coventry Business School, and a cinema built in 1880 on Jordan Well is currently home to the School of Media and Performing Arts, now part of the College of Arts and Society, and formerly part of the Coventry School of Art and Design.
To the south of the main campus is the Coventry University Technology Park, a business park owned by Coventry University Enterprises Limited, a commercial subsidiary of the university, and through which several of the university's commercial subsidiary operations provide business services to local and national organisations. Tenants of the park are small businesses which receive support from the university and are allowed access to the university's library. The park is also home to conference facilities at the TechnoCentre building, the Coventry and Warwickshire New Technology Institute, which works with companies to address skills shortages in ICT and advanced technology, and a digital lab for serious game and other technology development.
Coventry has adopted a policy of naming its buildings after people or organisations with a significant local or regional impact. These include former Coventry-based automotive company Armstrong Siddeley; Shakespearean actress Ellen Terry; Coventry-based automotive pioneer Frederick Lanchester; Victorian novelist, critic and poet George Eliot; the father of the bicycle industry James Starley ; former MP for Coventry East and political journalist Richard Crossman; artist Graham Sutherland, whose building was later demolished and replaced by a new building named after composer Delia Derbyshire, who is best known for composing the theme song to the BBC series Doctor Who; and founder of the Morris Motors automotive manufacturer William Morris.
The College of Engineering, Environment & Science has a former RAF Harrier T.4 aircraft, tail number XW270, used as a teaching aid.

CU Coventry

campus openedon Mile Lane, Coventry in 2012.

CU London

Dagenham was established as a new campus in 2017 located in the former Dagenham Civic Centre.
CU London Greenwich opened in 2020 and operates from a new campus at 6 Mitre Passage, on the Greenwich Peninsula.

CU Scarborough

located in North Yorkshire opened in 2016.

Coventry University London

Coventry University's London campus was opened in 2010. The campus is located in University House, 109–117 Middlesex Street in the City of London.

Coventry University Wrocław

Coventry University Wrocław campus opened in September 2020, offering courses taught in English. It is the first foreign university in Poland.

Structure and organisation

Governance

Coventry University is headed formally by the Chancellor, a largely ceremonial role, currently Eng Ahmed El Sewedy. The Chancellor is supported by six Pro-Chancellors and is appointed by the university's Board of Governors. Terms for the Chancellor and Pro-Chancellors are five years in length; the number of terms a Chancellor can serve is unrestricted while Pro-Chancellors are limited to two. The university is led on a day-to-day basis by the Vice-Chancellor, who is supported by four Deputy Vice-Chancellors and three Pro Vice-Chancellors. The position of Vice-Chancellor has been occupied, currently, by John Latham since March 2014.
Coventry is a member of the University Alliance mission group, of which Latham is a former chair.

Colleges and schools

Coventry is divided into three colleges, each divided into different schools, and 1 independent school. In 2023, Coventry University de-established the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, whilst reorganising the remaining 3 faculties into Colleges
College of the Arts and Society
College of Business and Law
  • Coventry Business School
  • Coventry Law School
College of Engineering, Environment and Science
  • Civil Engineering, Architecture and Building
  • Geography, Environment and Disaster Management
  • Mathematics and Physics
  • Mechanical, Automotive and Manufacturing Engineering
  • Aerospace, Electrical and Electronic Engineering
  • School of Sciences
School of Health and Care
The School of Health, formerly part of the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, was renamed, and sits outside of the college structure.
  • Allied Health Professionals
  • Nursing, Midwifery and Health