University of the West of England - Definition and Overview

Part of the UWE campus at Frenchay

Another view of the Frenchay campus

The University of the West of England (abbrev. UWE, often pronounced "you-we") is a university based in the English city of Bristol. Its main campus is at Frenchay, about 5km north of the city centre, but it also has a smaller campus at St Matthias, a nursing school at Glenside in north-east Bristol and an Art school, Bower Ashton college, near Ashton Court in south-west Bristol There are also regional centres in Bath and Swindon, and an associate faculty in Gloucestershire. With around 24,000 students and 1,000 academic staff, it is the largest university in the region (Bristol's other university, University of Bristol has 15,000).

UWE was founded in 1970 as Bristol Polytechnic, but can trace its roots back to the foundation of the Merchant Venturers' Navigation School in 1595, which merged with various other colleges before the foundation of the polytechnic. Like the other former polytechnics, it gained university status and its present name in 1992. UWE is now regularly rated as a top three "new university" in league tables.

The chancellor of UWE is the Rt Hon Lady Justice Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, DBE.

External Links

• University of West of England Website (http://www.uwe.ac.uk)
• History of UWE (http://www.uwe.ac.uk/aboutUWE/history.shtml)
• UWE Students' Union (http://www.uwesu.net)