University of Plymouth
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The University of Plymouth is the largest university in the southwest of England, with over 30,000 students, almost 3,000 staff, and an annual income of around £110 million.
Undergraduate and postgraduate programmes are taught at campuses in Plymouth, Exeter, Exmouth, and Seale-Hayne near Newton Abbot. However the university's current policy is to centralise its campus activities in Plymouth, with the Exeter campus scheduled to close at the end of the 2004/05 academic year. An exception to this trend is the university's extensive activities in education for the health professions; in addition many of its students are taught at Further Education Colleges throughout Devon, Cornwall and Somerset.
The University of Plymouth was previously known as Polytechnic South-West; before that, its constituent bodies were known as Plymouth Polytechnic, Rolle College, and Seale-Hayne College. Designated as a university in 1992 along with the other former polytechnics, Plymouth has a reputation as one of England's leading new universities. In part because of its coastal location and strong maritime history, it is particularly renowned for marine engineering and biology. It also scores well in law, psychology, computer science and art history. The university offers a course in "Medialab Arts", a unique new media and computer science hybrid course.
Jointly with the University of Exeter and the National Health Service in the region, the University runs the recently founded Peninsula Medical School. A new £13 million building on the University of Plymouth's main campus provides teaching rooms, office space, a clinical skills laboratory and research facilities for the Plymouth-based activities of the School.
The University has its own students union called UPSU