Aston University, UK

Founded in 1895 and accorded university status in 1966, aston is particularly well reputed for offering excellent science, business and technology degree programmes

Founded in 1895 as the Birmingham Municipal Technical School and accorded university status in 1966, over the past four decades Aston University has established a national reputation for academic excellence, and is ranked among Britain’s top 25 universities in annual surveys conducted by several news media. The Guardian 2010 Rankings of UK’s top universities places Aston 19th, while the 2010 Complete University Guide ranks it 13th among 113 British universities, and The Times Good University Guide 2008 places it 15th. Moreover on the parameter of graduate employment, Aston is placed among the top 10 British universities with 83 percent of its graduates securing employment within six months of graduation, compared to a national average of less than 70 percent.

Given its origins as a technical school way back in 1895, Aston is particularly well reputed for science, business and technology degree programmes offered by its faculty of life and health sciences, and the Aston Business School. The Research Assessment Exercise 2008 ranks Aston’s faculty of life and health sciences third out of 63 higher education institutions in the UK in terms of “volume of internationally excellent and world leading research”, while its business and management studies programme is ranked 9th in the UK of 90 institutions. Currently Aston has an enrolment of 9,059 students instructed by 400 faculty.

Comments Julia King, Aston’s vice chancellor: “Our aim at Aston is to provide students with the intellectual challenge, knowledge and skills to enable them to thrive in the fast changing world. But most importantly, students will have learnt how to learn. In this age of ‘the knowledge economy’ the ability to continually refresh and develop knowledge and skills will be their passport to explore interesting and challenging roles throughout their career.”

Birmingham. Sited in the heart of a region crowded with history and heritage, Birmingham is widely acknowledged as one of Europe’s major centres for artistic and cultural activity. The city is also a centre of manufacturing particularly engineering goods, auto assembly and components, and food and confect-ionery with the Cadbury Schweppes factory based in Bournville. And over half the jewellery crafted in the UK is made in the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter. Moreover in the last few years the city has enjoyed a renaissance arising from the renovation of its historic areas and civic sponsorship of many new developments, such as a globally-renowned international convention centre and a national indoor arena. These new amenities have made the city a major venue for global trade shows and conferences.

Birmingham is situated at the centre of the British communications network, with an international airport and road and rail links to all major cities in Europe and beyond. The city is twinned with Chicago, Lyon, Frankfurt, Milan and Johannesburg. London is 90 minutes by train. For those with a sense of history, the countryside and towns near Birmingham provide exciting oppor-tunities for exploration. And for entertainment, you will be spoilt for choice by the extraordinary range of music and entertainment venues.

Campus facilities. The university’s neatly landscaped campus is spread over 40 acres in the city centre of Birmingham. It hosts lecture theatres, seminar rooms, labs, and halls of residence. The varsity’s well-equipped library offers 250,000 volumes with over 800 reader places, and online access to over 3,850 electronic journals in subjects such as business, management, finance, languages and politics, computing, law, social sciences, medicine, life sciences, engineering and sciences. Moreover Aston offers extensive IT facilities including 1,100 computerised work-stations across the campus.

Sports facilities on campus include two large halls, a 75 station gym and fitness suite, a 25 metre swimming pool, climbing wall, large aerobics room, squash courts, and sports pitch. In addition, six miles north of the main campus the university operates the 45-acre Aston University Sports Grounds with facilities for outdoor sports, pavilion, bar, floodlit all-weather cricket pitch, and squash courts.

The Students’ Guild (union) building is Aston’s main entertainment venue for students. The guild is home to the Student Advice Centre, hairdressers, private and social study spaces, prayer room, cafes, and offers student membership to over 80 social and cultural societies. Other on-campus facilities include restaurants, bookshop, bank, and supermarket.

Admission. Applications for admission into Aston’s undergra-duate programmes have to be made through UCAS (Universities and Colleges Admissions Service). UCAS is a centralised admission system for entry into full-time undergraduate degree programmes offered by any university or college in the UK. The admission application form is available on www.ucas.ac.uk. The university’s UCAS code is ASTON A80. The deadline for applications for term beginning in autumn 2010 is June 30. However, it’s best to apply as early as possible, especially for high demand study programmes.

The minimum eligibility requirement for admission into Aston’s undergrad programmes is completion of Plus Two. Foreign students need to also submit TOEFL/ IELTS scores to show proof of proficiency in the English language. Aston University also runs a range of one-year foundation programmes for international students, designed to prepare those who don’t have the required qualifications for entry into Aston’s undergrad degree programmes.

All admission applications to Master’s and doctoral programmes must be made directly to the university. For further information contact Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham, West Midlands, United Kingdom B4 7ET; Tel: +44 121 204 4888; Fax: +44 121 204 3888; email: international@aston. ac.uk; website: www.aston.ac.uk.

Accommodation. All foreign students are guaranteed on-campus housing. There are two types of accommodation: en-suite and standard low-rise or high-rise flats. Lakeside offers 647 en-suite rooms with a private shower, toilet and wash basin. Students share kitchen facilities. High-rise flats with washbasins are available in the Dalton, Lawrence and Stafford towers, and are shared between six and 12 students who also share kitchen and bathroom facilities. Low-rise standard flats without wash-basins are available in Bishop Ryder House, Gem House, Old Cross House and Vauxhall House.

In January 2008, Aston University began work on a new £215 million (Rs.1,634 crore) project to improve student accommodation. The Aston Student Village project will provide 2,400 new rooms with en-suite bathrooms.

Degree programmes. Aston University offers an extensive range of bachelor’s, Master’s and doctoral programmes across four schools of study, and a host of combined honours degree programmes (see box).

Summiya Yasmeen