Swansea University


Swansea University is a public research university located in Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom. It was established as University College of Swansea in 1920, as the fourth college of the University of Wales. In 1996, it changed its name to the University of Wales Swansea following structural changes within the University of Wales. The title of Swansea University was formally adopted on 1 September 2007 when the University of Wales became a non-membership confederal institution and the former members became universities in their own right.
Swansea University has three faculties across its two campuses which are located on the coastline of Swansea Bay. The Singleton Park Campus is set in the grounds of Singleton Park to the west of Swansea city centre. The £450 million Bay Campus, which opened in September 2015, is located next to Jersey Marine Beach to the east of Swansea in the Neath Port Talbot area. The annual income of the institution for 2022–23 was £412.3 million of which £67.1 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £348 million.
It is the third largest university in Wales in terms of number of students. It offers about 450 undergraduate courses, 280 postgraduate taught and 150 postgraduate research courses to undergraduate and postgraduate students.

History

Foundations

The University College, Swansea,, was established in 1920, opening its doors on 5 October. At the time, it was the youngest of the four colleges of the University of Wales. It was established on the recommendations of a Royal Commission set up in 1916. The college was founded on what were perceived as the needs and the wants of the local area, and Swansea's main industries in particular.
The Park Campus houses the oldest parts of the university's estate, including Singleton Abbey, a large eighteenth-century mansion which was the ancestral home of the Vivian family, having been bought by the prominent industrialist, John Henry Vivian.
Swansea University's foundation stone was laid by King George V in July 1920, welcoming 89 students, of whom eight were female. Subjects taught from the beginning of the college were the sciences, mathematics, metallurgy and engineering. The professors were A.R. Richardson, E.J. Evans, J.E. Coates, A.E. Trueman, C.A. Edwards and F. Bacon.
The university was granted a coat of arms by the College of Heralds in 1921 with the motto Gweddw Crefft Heb Ei Dawn, translated as 'technical skill is bereft without culture.'
Arts subjects were not taught immediately in 1920, but started in the following 'session', 1921–22. The first professors in those initial departments were David Emrys Evans, W.D. Thomas, Henry Lewis, E. Ernest Hughes, F.A. Cavenagh and Mary Williams. Williams was the first woman to be appointed to a chair in the United Kingdom. This met with some reaction from senior men at the college, one of whom she would later marry.
Saunders Lewis, the well-known Welsh language writer and activist, became a member of staff in 1922 although he ran up against controversy in 1936/37 for trying to set fire to a Royal Air Force bombing school on the Llŷn Peninsula. He was tried at the Old Bailey and sent to prison for nine months.
When Singleton Abbey and its surrounding land was handed to the college in 1923, arts subjects were moved there from the college's temporary site in Mount Pleasant. Student numbers remained relatively small until the Second World War.
Swansea acquired departments of philosophy in 1925, German in 1931, economics in 1937, social policy in 1947, political theory and government in 1954 – the same year that a civil engineering and a geography department were added. In 1961 Swansea became a centre for Russian and East European studies, while Italian and Spanish joined the Department of French.
There were many notable staff members at the university in the period, including the long-serving female professor of botany, Florence Mock ridge. Another was Glanmor Williams who retired in 1982. Other well-known staff members were the author of novels such as Lucky Jim and That Uncertain Feeling, Kingsley Amis, who lectured in English in the 1950s and early 1960s; Rush Rhees, who was a member of staff from 1940 to 1966, an expert on philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein; and Kenneth O. Morgan who was a junior history lecturer from 1958 to 1966.

Post-war campus development

In 1947, John Fulton, the university principal, had designs on creating the UK's first self-contained university campus. Located in the vast expanse of Singleton Park, the university only had 2 permanent buildings; Singleton Abbey and the library.
The 1960s saw the university embark on a large campus development programme, aiming to fulfill Fulton's plan of becoming a self-contained community within the city. Along with new halls of residence, a Maths and Science Tower was built, with College House – later renamed Fulton House.

Campus

For most of its history, Swansea University operated exclusively from the Singleton Park Campus. However, owing to rapid expansion, the university developed a 65-acre, £450 million beachfront science and innovation Bay Campus which opened in September 2015. Since then, Swansea University has operated as a dual-campus university with the 'Park Campus' located in its traditional Singleton Park grounds, and the Bay Campus, at Crymlyn Burrows.
The Bay campus has been developed on a 65-acre beachfront site between Fabian Way and Jersey Marine beach at Crymlyn Burrows. It houses much of the Faculty of Science and Engineering and the School of Management, a Great Hall seating 800, a library offering views over a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and student accommodation, as well as several research institutes.

Sports

Swansea Bay Sports Park facilities include, five minutes' walk from the Singleton Park Campus, the 50-metre Wales National Pool Swansea, eight-lane outdoor athletics track, six-lane indoor track and training centre, floodlit playing fields including rugby, football, lacrosse and cricket pitches, artificial hockey pitches, a sports hall, tennis and squash courts, a climbing wall and spin room. Facilities at the Bay Campus include a sports hall, multi-use games area, and gym. The university also owns training pitches in the north of the city, in Fairwood, which it has developed alongside Swansea City A.F.C.
During the 2012 Summer Olympics, the university hosted the training camps for the Mexican and New Zealand paralympic teams and the Ireland triathlon team. In 2014, it hosted the IPC Athletics European Championships. Furthermore, in 2015 it hosted the training camps of the Canada national rugby union team and the Fiji national rugby union team in preparation for the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
Sports science at the university ranks 13th in the Complete University Guide Sports Science Rankings 2023. The department has links with Swansea City A.F.C., Ospreys and Welsh Athletics. Former scholars include Wales rugby union player Alun Wyn Jones, Olympic swimmer Georgia Davies, Paralympian swimmer Liz Johnson and Paralympian boccia player David Smith. Swansea is in the top quarter of the British University's sporting leagues. It competes with Cardiff University in the Welsh Varsity tournament, the largest student sports event in Wales. This includes The Welsh Boat Race and the showcase rugby union varsity match which attracted 16,000 students to Swansea's Liberty Stadium in 2015.

Wales National Pool

The Wales National Pool, next to the Singleton Park Campus, is a 50-metre pool built to FINA standards. The facility, which also has a 25m × 9.5m training pool and 1,200 spectator seats, is HQ of Swim Wales.
The pool, one of five of British Swimming's Intensive Training Centres, was used to train swimmers for the London 2012 Olympics was built with funding from Sport Wales, Swansea Council and Swansea University.
It is home to the Swim Wales National Performance Centre, a hub for elite and performance swimming in Wales. This has included disability swimming under renowned coach Billy Pye who has trained several Paralympians in Swansea, including Ellie Simmonds and Liz Johnson. University sports science researchers provide back-up to the hub. The centre is also home to Swansea University Swimming and City of Swansea Aquatics.

Museum of Egyptian Antiquities (The Egypt Centre)

Located in the Taliesin building, the Egypt Centre is open to the public. More than 7,000 items are in its collection. Most were collected by the pharmacist and entrepreneur Sir Henry Wellcome. Others came from the British Museum, the Royal Edinburgh Museum, National Museums and Galleries of Wales Cardiff, the Royal Albert Museum and Art Gallery, and private donors.
Staff lecture museum groups and other outside bodies on volunteering, social inclusion and how to widen community participation with university museums. School parties regularly visit for interactive events.

Organisation and administration

Governance

Swansea received its royal charter in 1920 and like many universities is governed by its constitution that is set out in its statutes and a charter. The governing body of Swansea University is its council, which is supported by the Senate and the court.
  • The Council consists of 29 members including the chancellor, pro-chancellors, vice-chancellor, treasurer, pro-vice-chancellors, staff and student members, city council representation and a majority of lay members. The council is responsible for all of the university's activities and has a well-developed committee structure to help discharge its powers and duties.
  • The Senate is the main academic body of the university and is responsible for teaching and research. Most of its 200 members are academics but it also includes representatives of the Students' Union and the Athletic Union. The Senate is chaired by the vice-chancellor, who is the head of the university both academically and administratively.
  • The Court consists of more than 300 members representing stakeholders from local to national institutions. It meets annually to discuss the university's annual report, its financial statements and issues in higher education.
List of vice-chancellors
Principal
Vice-Chancellor