历史

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

The university's origins lie in Acton Technical College, which was split into two sections in 1957 – Acton Technical College continued to cater for technicians and craftsmen, and the new Brunel College of Technology (named after Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the British engineer) was dedicated to the education of chartered engineers.

In 1961 Brunel College of Technology was awarded the status of College of Advanced Technology, and it was decided that it 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 officially changed the College’s status: it was officially named Brunel College of Advanced Technology in 1962 – the 10th Advanced Technology College in the country, and the last to be awarded this title.

The Royal Charter giving university status was awarded on 9 June 1966. The University continued to use both campuses until 1971 when it finally left the Acton site.

In 1980 the University merged with Shoreditch College of Education, located at Cooper's Hill, Runnymede. This became Brunel's second campus.

In 1995 the University expanded again, integrating the West London Institute of Higher Education, and adding campuses in Osterley and Twickenham. This increased the number of courses that Brunel University was able to offer. Traditionally the university's strengths were in engineering, science, technology and social sciences but with the addition of the West London Institute, new departments such as arts, humanities, geography & earth science, health and sports science were added, and the size of the student body increased to over 12,000.

Then Brunel put together a £250 million Masterplan, to sell off the sites at Runnymede, Osterley and Twickenham, using the revenue to renovate and update the buildings and facilities on the Uxbridge campus. Works carried out so far include a library extension, a state-of-the-art sports complex, renovated students' union facilities, a new Heath Sciences teaching centre, and the building of more halls of residence.

Student facilities, including Library and Computing

• The library has an extensive collection of books, journals and other information, as well as online databases, eBooks and eJournals available through the library website. There is wifi capability throughout the building, with 1,200 study spaces and nearly 300 PCs. The library is also home to a well-equipped Assistive Technology Centre.
• Brunel International supports overseas students by providing language and other short courses.
• The Arts Centre organizes concerts, shows and recitals and offers free music tuition, painting, drawing and other classes.

Academic strengths

• All students are encouraged to undertake practical placements and projects as an integral part of their courses (a founding principle of the sandwich degree structure) and have access to specialist laboratories in, for example, electronic imaging, bioprocessing and experimental techniques, as well as academic archives in cult film and contemporary writing.
• Academic facilities, also accessible to students, include flight, driving and train simulators, 3-D body scanner, motion-capture equipment and MRI scanner, occupational therapy suite, and extensive sports and performing arts facilities.
• Courses draw on Brunel staff’s research in, for example, Cancer Genetics, Environmental Science, Human-Centred Design, Materials Processing, Contemporary Music and Digital Performance, Children’s Education and Sports Medicine.

In recent years Brunel University has been the subject of controversy as its approach to higher education has been both market-driven and politically conservative. The decision to award an honorary degree to Margaret Thatcher in 1996, following the University of Oxford's refusal to do so, provoked an outcry by staff and students, and as a result the ceremony had to be held in the House of Lords instead of on campus. In the late 1990s, the Departments of Physics, Chemistry, and Materials Engineering were all closed, and, in 2004, the then Vice-Chancellor Steven Schwartz, initiated the reorganisation of the university's faculties and departments into schools, and announced the closure of the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences. The present Vice-Chancellor, the sociologist Christopher Jenks took office in 2006.

Coat of Arms

The Coat of Arms was granted to the University in 1966 incorporating various images representative of the University's heritage and principles. For example, the masonry arch symbolises Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the compass and cogwheel symbolise technology, the ermine lozenge is an allusion to the Arms of Lord Halsbury, the first Chancellor of the University and the crest of the swan symbolises Uxbridge.

Halls of residence

The University’s £250 million campus redevelopment programme, completed in 2008, saw the refurbishment of existing halls and the construction of the new Isambard Complex. There are now 34 self-catering halls of residence (31 with en suite facilities), all on-campus, with a total of 4,549 rooms, including studio flats. Rooms are available for undergraduates, postgraduates, students with disabilities and co habiting couples. All rooms have network access.

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 engineers or scientists. For example:

• Clifton Hall (named for the Clifton Suspension Bridge)
• Saltash Hall (named for the Royal Albert Bridge that crosses the River Tamar at Saltash)
• Chepstow Hall (named for the bridge across the River Wye at Chepstow)
• Fleming Hall (named for Sir Alexander Fleming)
• Faraday Hall (named for Sir Michael Faraday)
• Galbraith Hall (named for W R Galbraith, who designed the Kew Railway Bridge)
• Mill Hall (named for John Stuart Mill)
• Isambard Close Flats

There are also three accommodation complexes: the Bishop Complex (Bishop, Kilmorey, Lacy and St Margaret’s Halls); the Lancaster Complex (Lancaster, Stockwell, Southwark, Borough Road, Maria Grey and Gordon Halls); and the Isambard Complex (North, Meadow, Michael Bevis, Concourse, Stephen Bragg, West, Maurice Kogan, David Neave, Central, East, Runnymede, George Shipp, Trevor Slater, Shoreditch, Syd Urry, South and Brian Winstanley Halls).

Videos of all halls of residence can be found here Brunel University Accommodation

All residences (on campus) have a network connection which provides limited and monitored access to the Internet.[2]

League tables

Brunel has fallen in the league table rankings in recent years. In the past Brunel performed well in both The Guardian and The Times tables at least in part due to the university's good performance in the Teaching Quality Assessment (every subject received a score of 20/24 or better). However, the compilers of both league tables have moved away from using the TQA and now use National Student Survey (NSS) results to calculate the rankings.

The Times Good University Guide 2010 places Brunel 47th overall.

The Guardian Good University Guide 2009/10 ranks Brunel 53rd overall.

The Independent Complete University Guide 2009, ranked Brunel University 41st in the UK in its 2009 ratings. This reflects Brunel's good performance in the RAE 2008.

The Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) world university rankings 2008 placed Brunel University at 296 in the world. This made it the 38th listed UK institution, which reflects its returns in the RAE 2008 which saw it ranked 37-39 (joint) in Research Power by the Research Power Table.

People & Planet - Green League In 2008 The People & Planet Green League ranked Brunel at 84 down 57 places. In 2007 the University was ranked 27.

UK University Rankings

	2009	2008	2007	2006	2005	2004	2003	2002	2001	2000	1999	1998	1997	1996	1995	1994	1993
Times Good University Guide	47	51	50	43	43	46	50	52	53	53	54=	50	51	39=	33=	32=	29=
Guardian University Guide	53	50	32	32	28	30	67
Sunday Times University Guide		50	49	50=	44	43	41	51	44	45	50	48
Daily Telegraph			52=				35=
FT							51		50	51	51
Independent - Complete University Guide	41	52

Made In Brunel

The engineering and design department holds a yearly design exhibition called Made In Brunel. Its focus is on promoting and showcasing the work of final year students to the design industry. In past years it has been held at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London. The theme for 2010 is "Innovation that works".

Radio Brunel

Brunel has a student-run radio station called Radio Brunel. It recently relaunched as an internet only station.

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 cars 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.)

At Formula Student UK '09, Brunel Racing finished 6th overall in Class 1 and were UK Runners-Up by only 1.6 points of the 1000 available. In the process Brunel's 11th car, BR-X, finished 3rd in the fuel economy standings, 4th in the endurance and had the highest combined Endurance Economy Event score.

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.

Notable alumni

see Alumni of Brunel University

Politics

• David Crutcher (Mechanical Engineering 1962), Canadian politician
• Guillaume, Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg
• John Leech (History and Politics), politician, MP for Manchester Withington
• John McDonnell, politician, MP for Hayes and Harlington
• Ralph Miliband, political theorist
• Reza Moridi, Canadian politician
• Anastasios Papaligouras (Masters in Comparative European Law), Greek politician
• Pekka Sauri (PhD 1990), Finnish psychologist and politician, writer and cartoonist
• John Tomlinson (Health Services Management), Labour politician and life peer
• Shailesh Vara (Law), politician, MP for North West Cambridgeshire
• Claire Ward (MA Britain and the European Union), politician, MP for Watford (UK Parliament constituency)

Sports

• Tony Adams (Sports Science), former Arsenal, England footballer and Portsmouth football club manager
• Emma Ania (Biology), athlete
• Allyn Condon, athlete
• Mike Coughlan (Mechanical Engineering 1981), Chief Designer for the McLaren Formula One team
• James Cracknell (MSc 1999), rowing champion and Olympic gold medallist
• Ben Gollings, rugby player
• Roger Hammond (Materials Science), Cyclist
• Audley Harrison (Sport Sciences 1999), boxer, Olympic gold medallist
• Richard Hill (Geography and Sports Science), rugby player
• Catherine Murphy, athlete
• Abi Oyepitan (Politics and Sociology), athlete
• Kelly Sotherton, athlete
• Iwan Thomas, (Geography and Sports Science), athlete
• Danny Holmes, (Sports Science), Sports Psychologist and Football Coach
• Abi Ekoku, former GB Lions Rugby League Manager, British discus champion and Bradford Bulls, London Broncos and Halifax winger
• Tom Shanklin, Lions tourist and Wales Rugby Union International
• Elizabeth Hall (Physiotherapy), international athlete

Media

• Nick Abbot (Psychology), radio presenter
• Hajaz Akram, actor
• Mark Bagley, comic book artist
• Carl Barat (Drama), Libertine & musician with the band Dirty Pretty Things
• Jo Brand (Social Sciences and Nursing), comedienne
• Dave Brown Photographer and graphic designer, Professional ape The Mighty Boosh
• Noel Fielding Actor and comedian The Mighty Boosh
• Francis French, noted space historian
• Alizeh Imtiaz (English and Film and TV Studies BA 2008), director, actor & education activist
• Lee Mack, comedian
• Jack Martin (Film and TV), Filmmaker and contestant on 2009 Serbian Big Brother
• Oreke Mosheshe (Management and Law), actor, TV presenter and model
• Archie Panjabi (Management Studies 1996), actor
• Bindya Solanki (Drama), actor
• John Watts, musician with the band Fischer-Z
• Lucy Verasamy, (Geography and Earth Sciences) weather forecaster

更多

• Universities in London

参考文献

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Brunel University

• Brunel University website
• Brunel University Rugby League team
• Brunel University Formula Student team