University of Hull

The University of Hull is a public research university in Kingston upon Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1927 as University College Hull. The main university campus is located in Hull and is home to the Hull York Medical School, a joint initiative with the University of York. Students are served by Hull University Union.

The first chancellor of the university was Lord Middleton (1954–1969), followed by Lord Cohen (1970–1977), Lord Wilberforce (1978–1994), Lord Armstrong (1994–2006) and Virginia Bottomley (Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone) (2006–2023). Alan Johnson was installed as the current chancellor in July 2023.

History

University College

The foundation stone of University College Hull, then an external college of the University of London, was laid in 1927 by Prince Albert, the Duke of York (who later became king as George VI). The college was built on land donated by Hull City Council and by two local benefactors, Thomas Ferens and G F Grant. A year later the first 14 departments, in pure sciences and the arts, opened with 39 students. The college at that time consisted of one building, now named the Venn building (after the mathematician John Venn, who was born in Hull). The building now houses the administrative centre of the university.

Other early buildings include the Cohen Building, which originally housed the college library, and Staff House, now named Canham Turner building, built in 1948 as the Students' Union. Another early structure was the Chemistry Building, built in 1953. With the rapid expansion of student numbers which took place in the 1950s many academic departments were housed in temporary buildings, colloquially known as 'huts', which gave the campus the feel of an 'academic army camp'. The Dennison Centre on Cottingham Road was formerly the Brooklands Officers Hospital opened by the Red Cross in 1917. The author J. R. R. Tolkien was a convalescent patient at Brooklands and his connection is marked by a blue plaque.

Though many of the older buildings on Hull's campus are of red brick it is not a redbrick university in the strictest sense of the term, as it was not founded as part of the civic university movement of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. Hull, with its origins in the 1920s, has been categorised as a 'younger civic university' (also referred to as a "Whitetile university") and it is placed between the 'redbricks' and the 'plateglass universities' founded in the 1960s.

The first principal of the college was Arthur E. Morgan (1926–1935), the second was John H Nicholson (1935–1954), who also served as the university's first vice-chancellor when the college was granted university status (1954–1956).

Coat of arms

The university coat of arms was designed by Sir Algernon Tudor-Craig in 1928. The symbols are the torch for learning, the rose for Yorkshire, the ducal coronet from the arms of the City of Hull, the fleur-de-lys for Lincolnshire and the dove, symbolising peace, from the arms of Thomas Ferens. These symbols were later reused to create the current university logo. The motto, Lampada Ferens (Bearing the Torch), incorporates the name of the university's founding father within a Latin pun.

Campuses

The main campus is located in a residential district of North Hull on Cottingham Road. The university had a smaller campus in Scarborough on the North Yorkshire coast.

Hull University is a campus university; though situated in a city, its main campus is in a suburban rather than urban district. The main campus occupies a single, clearly defined site and is self-contained in regard to catering and entertainment for students and staff. Most of the major features of the campus are described in the 'history' section above; in addition, the campus has a large Students' Union building, which is often described as one of the finest in the country, and extensive playing fields and other sports facilities. The large village of Cottingham on Hull's north-western outskirts housed for many years some of the university-owned student accommodation, although none are used for this purpose now.

The campus features a concert venue, Middleton Hall, which re-opened after refurbishment in 2016. The building originally opened in 1967 and was designed by Leslie Martin, it was Grade II listed in 2014 alongside the Larkin Building.

London Study Centre

In May 2024, the University of Hull, in collaboration with the Cambridge Education Group, inaugurated the London Study Centre, offering students the opportunity to pursue University of Hull programmes in the capital. Located in Bloomsbury, central London, the Centre initially provides a selection of business-focused postgraduate programmes, including MSc Business Management MSc Logistics and Supply Chain Management MSc Digital Marketing and Advertising.

University College Scarborough

University of Hull: Scarborough Campus was a satellite campus of the university located in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, attended by approximately 2,000 students. Formerly a higher education institution offering BSc and BA degrees, the building was acquired by the University of Hull in 2000, offering Education courses, particularly at a primary level, as well as courses in Marine Biology, Digital Media, Music Technology Theatre Studies, Tourism Management, and a number of Business and English courses.

Scarborough ran somewhat independently of the main campus in Hull, with its own branch of the Hull University Union. Graduation ceremonies took place within Scarborough's historic Spa Complex. The campus also contained basic amenities for study, such as computer labs, performance studios for students of Theatre and Dance related courses as well as dedicated music suites in the "Filey Road Studios" building opposite the campus.

Academic profile

Faculty of Science and Engineering

School of Engineering & Computer Science: Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Medical & Biomedical Engineering

School of Environmental Sciences: Environmental Science, Geography & Geology

School of Natural Sciences: Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics & Astrophysics

Until recently, there were two faculties, the 'Faculty of Applied Science & Technology' and the 'Faculty of Science & the Environment', before becoming the 'Faculty of Science' and later being renamed to the 'Faculty of Science and Engineering'.

Notable centres for research include the Hull Immersive Visualisation Environment (HIVE), the Institute for Estuarine and Coastal Studies (IECS), the E.A. Milne Centre for Astrophysics (MCA) and the G W Gray Centre for Advanced Materials.

A new biomedical research facility will bring academics from biology and chemistry together and will include Positron Emission Tomography with CT scanning (PET-CT) and two mini cyclotrons. Two new research groups will be based at the facility, called the Allam building: one focusing on cardiovascular and metabolic research and the other on cancer.

Faculty of Arts, Culture & Education

• School of The Arts: Drama; Film & Digital Media; Music
• School of Education: Education, Teaching & Childhood Studies; Youth & Community Development
• School of Criminology, Sociology and Policing: Criminology; Sociology; Professional Policing
• School of Humanities: American Studies; History; English & Creative Writing

Most social science and law-related department housed in the refurbished Wilberforce Building. Includes the School of Arts and New Media at Scarborough, formed in August 2006. Drama is taught in the Gulbenkian Centre, including the Donald Roy Theatre. History, English, Languages and Music are in the Larkin Building.

Gulbenkian Centre

The Gulbenkian Centre, opened in 1969 as the "first completely new building for the teaching of drama at a British university", received £50,000 of funding towards its construction from the Gulbenkian Foundation.

The building, a red brick and concrete octagon, was designed by Peter Moro and Partners, a practice with experience from Nottingham Playhouse, and was listed as Grade II in 2015.

The Donald Roy Theatre within the centre was designed for flexibility and ease of changeover between different seating arrangements, it was named after the then head of Hull's Department of Drama (then only the third of its kind in the country).

Faculty of Health Sciences

Hull York Medical School

School of Health Care: Paramedic Science, Nursing & Midwifery; Diagnostic Radiography; Operating Departmental Practice

Student life

Students' Union

Hull University Union is the main provider of student catering, services and entertainment on the university campus. It has over 100 student societies affiliated to it, and also runs a volunteering and charity hub. Approximately 50 sports clubs are affiliated to the Students Union's Athletic Union, many of which compete in BUCS national university leagues. The University Union was voted Students' Union of the Year in July 2012.

The student union building comprises an on-site nightclub as well as a number of bars and catering outlets. The building also houses a shop, advice centre, and the university-run careers service.

There is a monthly student newspaper called The Hullfire, an online television station called Hullfire TV and a student radio station which broadcasts from the union building called JAM Radio which relaunched in 2018.

Student accommodation

The university has three main halls of residence on campus:

Taylor Court is located next to the Wilberforce building and houses 288 students in en-suite rooms with shared kitchens.

The Courtyard opened in 2016 and is situated next to the Student Union, it houses 562 students in en-suite rooms as well as some rooftop apartments.

Westfield Court partially opened in 2018, with a full opening in 2019 on the site of the former medical school. It houses a total of 1462 students in a mix of single and cluster flats.

In the recent past there were halls of residence in Cottingham at The Lawns, seven halls which could hold around 1,000 students. In March 2019 it was announced that The Lawns would close. Historically, the main concentration of 'traditional' (catered) university halls of residence was in Cottingham. These comprised: Cleminson Hall (closed in 2004), Needler Hall (closed in 2016), and Thwaite Hall (closed in 2017). Ferens Hall was originally a traditional hall, but was later amalgamated with the adjoining Lawns halls. Prior to the mid-1980s, Cleminson and Thwaite halls were exclusively for female residents, Needler and Ferens exclusively for male residents. There was a former on-campus student residence, Loten Hall (now known as the Loten Building).

Student housing is based primarily in the terraced streets around the university campus itself, as well as around the Newland Avenue and Beverley Road areas of the city.

Notable alumni and academics

Alumni of the University of Hull are especially prominent in the fields of politics, academia, journalism and drama. They include former MP and later Deputy Prime Minister Lord Prescott (John Prescott), former MP and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Lord Hattersley (Roy Hattersley), former Labour Party Leader in the European Parliament Richard Corbett, and former Labour MP and deputy leader Tom Watson, former Labour MP and author Chris Mullin, vaccinologist Dame Sarah Gilbert who was Project Lead on the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, social scientist Lord Giddens (Anthony Giddens), poet Roger McGough, journalist John McCarthy, film director, playwright and screenwriter the late Anthony Minghella.

One of the 2021 joint Nobel laureates for economics was Hull graduate, Guido Imbens.

The university's Brynmor Jones Library was the workplace of the poet Philip Larkin who served as its Head Librarian for over thirty years. The Philip Larkin Society organises activities in remembrance of Larkin including the Larkin 25 festival which was organised during 2010 in partnership with the university. Andrew Motion, another prominent poet, and former poet laureate, also worked at the university. Prominent former academics include: marine biologist Sir Alister Hardy, architect Sir Leslie Martin, mathematician and historian Jacob Bronowski and novelist Sir Malcolm Bradbury.

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