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'Aston University' is a "plate glass" campus university, situated on a 40-acre (0.16km²) campus at Gosta Green, near the city centre of Birmingham, England.^[3]
Established in 1895 as the ''Birmingham Municipal Technical School'',^[4] Aston achieved university status on 22 April 1966. Following from its background as a technology college, Aston continues to have a focus on industry.³ A majority of students are registered on courses leading to a BSc^[5] and over 70 per cent of undergraduate students at Aston are enrolled on four-year "sandwich" courses, spending a year abroad or on industry placements.^3[6] The university emphasises its focus on industry placements and graduate employment record:^[7] in 2004, 81.4 per cent of first degree graduates found employment within six months of graduation, compared to the UK national average of 72 per cent.^[8]
Aston is a small university in terms of student numbers, serving 6,762 full-time undergraduates,² compared with the 16,340² of its nearest neighbour institution, the University of Birmingham. Aston also has 1,800 postgraduate students (861 full time) on MSc, PhD, PGDip and MBA programmes

Contents

History

Branding

University league tables

Chancellors of the University

Students' Guild

Accommodation

Alumni

References

External links

History

Founded in 1895 as ''The Birmingham Municipal Technical School'', it officially became the ''University of Aston in Birmingham'' on receipt of its Royal Charter on 22 April 1966, and acquired its current name in 1997. Sir Michael Bett took over the position of Chancellor on October 21, 2004 from Sir Adrian Cadbury, whose younger brother Sir Dominic Cadbury is Chancellor of the University of Birmingham. Part of The University of Central England's Institute of Art and Design is also located on the Aston University campus - called its Gosta Green site.
The last gas lamp in Birmingham stood on the Aston Campus. It was removed in 1975.^[9]

Branding

The University’s Arms were granted on 18 March 1955 by Garter, Clarenceux and Norroy and Ulster Kings of Arms to the Birmingham Corporation for use by the former College of Technology. They were designed to show the College’s connection with the City and with the teaching of technology. The arms consist of a shield and crest. The shield has two sections – the field (the main background) which is coloured blue and a chief (the broad band across the top of the shield) of silver. On the field is a diagonal line of five gold diamonds joined one to the other, similar to the first quarter of the Arms of the City of Birmingham and incorporated in the Arms of the College to show its connection with the City. This was adopted by the family of Bermingham, which derived its name from the then hamlet of Birmingham, and provided the Lords of the Manor from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries. On the chief is depicted an open book bound in red placed between two black hammers, showing the connection of the University with technology, the book representing learning and the hammers engineering and allied trades. The crest is also designed to stress the pursuit of knowledge. It consists of a red torch held erect by a forearm between two branches of gold laurel. Having been originally worn on the helmet of a fully-armed person, the crest is always placed on the top of the helm. The method of joining the crest to the helm was usually concealed by decoration and, in the University’s arms, this is effected by the use of a wreath and a crown. The wreath is silver, red and black, these colours being taken from the shield. It is surmounted by a mural crown (resembling a wall) which is reserved in modern grants for persons and organisations connected with public corporations. The cloth mantling which hangs down from the top of the helm is the survival of the cloak which was originally worn to protect the armour coloured in the two principal colours of the shield, blue and gold.
The motto of the University is the same as that of the City of Birmingham – "Forward".
The University began rebranding itself into a modern institution, changing the logo from the crest. The new logo incorporates the Aston triangle.

University league tables

★ Aston University is ranked 13th out of 109 higher education institutions in The Times 2007 ''Good University Guide''^[10]. These league tables also ranked Aston as 9th in the UK for employability of its graduates with 76% entering “graduate level” employment or further study within 6 months of graduation, against a UK average of less than 65%. This makes Aston University the highest-ranking university outside the South of England/London on this factor. Aston also ranked highly on criteria such as low drop-out rates, strong staff-student ratios, a high proportion of First and Upper second class degrees and a high level of spending on student facilities.

★ Aston University is also rated No 1 for Student Life, and one of the UK's Friendliest Universities as voted by FHM & Virgin student. [1]

★ In the Guardian Guide, Aston University was ranked 18th overall out of 122 Universities and Colleges. Aston has featured in the top 20 of the Guardian Guide three years running. The Guardian tables focus on variables such as teaching quality, spending on student facilities, entry grades, staff-student ratios and graduate success/job prospects.

Year	Times Ranking	Guardian Ranking	Good University Guide
2008	na/na	na/na	12/113
2007	13/109	18/122
2006	13/109	19/122
2005	22/119	17/122
2004	32/119	13/109

http://extras.timesonline.co.uk/gug/gooduniversityguide.php?AC_sub=Business+Studies&x=10&y=13&sub=3
Aston has also been ranked 12th out of 113 Universities in the new "Good University Guide 2008", sponsored by PriceWaterhouseCoopers and featured in The Telegraph (30/7/07) - www.thegooduniversityguide.org.uk This ranking is produced by the same people and uses the same methodology as previous Times Good University rankings.

Chancellors of the University

★ 1st Lord Nelson of Stafford - May 1966 to September 1979

★ 2nd Sir Adrian Cadbury - September 1979 to September 2004

★ 3rd Sir Michael Bett - September 2004 to present day

Students' Guild

Aston Students' Guild is a non-profit organisation set up with the aim of involving and representing the student body of Aston. The Guild provides sports clubs, societies and Welfare Services, partially funded by the money accrued from the Guild's commercial services. On 29 November, 2006, the students voted to disaffiliate the Guild from the National Union of Students. The Yes campaign won 53%-47%, with a turnout of only 15% of the student body.
The Guild is run by a team of permanent staff and by an elected team called the executive who follow the rules set out in the Guild Constitution. The executive is made up of full-time sabbatical officers and a number of part-time officers. The executive are overseen by Guild Council, which anyone can attend and which runs throughout the year.
Entertainment in the Guild is split into rooms. The bar downstairs (Lower Ground), known as Einstein’s is open throughout the day serving food and drink. The bar also has a projector screen, a number of flat screen televisions showing SUB-TV and live sporting events throughout the day, pool tables, a jukebox and arcade machines. The ground level contains the Guild Hall and the Blue Room bar; the latter houses a Subway. During the day the Guild Hall is often used for markets (posters, clothes etc.) and societies such as thai boxing or the dance group the ''Wild Kats'' for training sessions. Frequent night-time events are held throughout the week that incorporate all three rooms. The main one of these for 2006-2007 is "Score". Thursday sees Karaoke Night in Einsteins until 2am.
The Guild also provides a full range of services including:

★ The Guild website [www.astonguild.org.uk]

★ The Entertainment website [www.astonents.co.uk], which contains event information and photos

★ The Aston Times – the student newspaper published three times a term

★ Wotsup? – a weekly listings newsletter

★ Student representation – the core service of the Guild

★ Campaigns and Entertainment Committees

★ Services provided by the Equalities, International Students and Postgraduate Officers to meet different groups’ needs
Other Guild services include:

Lower Ground Floor	Ground Floor	First Floor	Second Floor	Third Floor	Fourth Floor
Einstein’s bar	Guild Hall/ The Base	Students’ Advice Centre (SAC) & JobShop	The Loft	Executive secretary office	Aston RAG office
Toilets	The Blue Room	Student activities area	Toilets	Executive office	Toilets
Bubbles Studio	Subway	Students’ CopyShop	.	Aston Times office	Meeting room
Pool tables	Students’ shop	Natwest bank	.	Housing manager	Mature students' common room
Live Music Soc (LMS) practice room	Photo Me Booth	Secondhand bookshop	.	General Manager	Aston Links
.	Alliance & Leicester cashpoint	Appleby hair salon	.	Marketing Coordinator office	SIS office
.	Reception	LGB Office	.	Finance office	AIESEC office & Islamic prayer room

Outside:


★ Nationwide and NatWest cashpoints either side of the guild steps.

Accommodation

Aston University has both standard and en-suite accommodation on campus. All campus accommodation is less than 5 minutes' walk from the main building, and approximately 10 minutes' walk from Birmingham city centre.
The university recently published details of it`s plans to renovate all the student accommodation on campus, starting in 2008 and finishing in 2014. 1000 new rooms will be created in total, which will require the demolition of the 3 1970`s tower blocks - Dalton, Lawrence and Stafford - and the 1970s low-rise accommodation. The plans also include the creation of a new five-a-side football pitch and a 250-place underground car park.

Alumni

★ Jasper Carrot

★ Adam Ryland

★ David Willey - Bachelor's in Applied Physics

★ Kevin Warwick - Scientist
Grogor Townsend - Rugby Player (MBA)

★ Lord Drayson

References

1. Financial Statements 2005-2006
2. Table 0a - All students by institution, mode of study, level of study, gender and domicile 2005/06
3. Aston University
4. Uni. finder > West Midlands > Aston University
5. Our Degree Programmes
6. Undergraduate Study at Aston University
7. About Aston University
8. Aston University Annual Review 04/05
9. The Last Gas Lamp 1975
10. Good University Guide, The Times, 2007

External links

★ Aston University