University of Lincoln
- This page is about the British university. For the similarly named institutions in New Zealand and the USA, see Lincoln University.
The University of Lincoln is one of the newest universities in the United Kingdom, founded in its current form in 1996. It is located primarily in the city of Lincoln but also has campuses in Riseholme and Hull. Its corporate logo is the head of the Roman goddess Minerva.
History
Despite being an ancient cathedral city, Lincoln had been without its own university well into the 1990s. At last in 1993 a project company was founded to build a full university campus on disused industrial land at the southwest end of Lincoln's city centre. This was to be combined with the existing University of Humberside to form a new University of Lincolnshire and Humberside.
In 1996 when the new, modern campus beside Lincoln's Brayford Pool was opened by HM Queen Elizabeth II, it was both the most recently created University in the UK and yet an institution with a 130-year history of education in the wider region.
Higher education in Lincoln was consolidated in 2001 when the University acquired Leicester-based De Montfort University's schools in Lincolnshire: the Lincoln School of Art and Design in uphill Lincoln, and the Lincolnshire School of Agriculture in Riseholme, Caythorpe and Holbeach. Caythorpe was later closed permanently and its activities moved to Riseholme, while Holbeach is currently closed for rebuilding. Courses held in Grimsby were also moved to Lincoln around this time.
Throughout the 1990s, the University's estates in Hull were considerably reduced, and focus shifted more towards Lincoln. In 2001 this process was taken a step further when the decision was made to move corporate headquarters and management to Brayford, and hand over the Cottingham Road campus in Hull, their previous location, to the University of Hull.
As a result of these changes the name 'Humberside' was dropped and the University of Lincolnshire and Humberside was rebranded the University of Lincoln, which is how it survives today.
The Present
The University has expanded rapidly on the Brayford site since its opening in 1996. Since then it has built a Learning Resources Centre (commonly known as a library) with media production facilities, a science laboratory facility, a sports centre, and an architecture and design school. It has six faculties offering undergraduate courses ranging from Interactive Screen Based Graphics to Complementary Medicine.
The main academic building on the Brayford campus was designed such that, if the University were to fail, it could be easily converted into a shopping centre. The large, open atrium space is surrounded by balconies on several floors, with lecture halls (larger shops) on the ground and classrooms (smaller boutiques) on the higher floors. The lifts at each end of the building use recorded voices to communicate with passengers, but interestingly are different from each other: the East lift has a chirpy, slightly brassy Australian voice, while the West lift is far more sullen and monotonous with less of an accent. The different lifts are known informally to staff and students as 'Sheila' and 'Jane', respectively.
The official fonts of the University of Lincoln are Goudy Modern and Helvetica. Its official corporate colour is Pantone 398 (roughly, HTML colour code #B8C400).
People
As of 2004, there are 8,775 students on campus, including 7,330 full-time undergraduates and 708 postgraduate students. There are 393 academic staff across all the various campuses. The University's Chancellor is Dame Elizabeth Esteve-Coll, and the Vice-Chancellor is Professor David Chiddick, appointed in 2001.
The current President of the Students' Union is Adam Heyhurst.
The Future
Currently the University is renovating the Great Central Warehouse, a long disused industrial building next to the Brayford campus, for use as a University Library. The nearby engine sheds are also being turned into a student entertainment venue.
It is also in the process of transfering its Further Education interests (Foundation courses in art and design) to Lincoln College.