Brunel University

Brunel University is one of the new British universities, having been founded within the last half century.

History of Brunel University

Brunel is one of a number of UK universities created in the 1960s following the Robbins Report on higher education (often called the Glass Plate universities).

Originally Acton Technical College, based in Acton on the outskirts of London, it was decided in 1957 that the college should split into two sections – Acton Technical College continued to cater to technicians and craftsmen, whereas Brunel College of Technology (named for Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the British engineer) was dedicated to the education of technologists.

In 1961 it was awarded the status of College of Advanced Technology, and it was decided that Brunel College should expand at another site in order to accommodate the extra buildings that would be needed.

Uxbridge, Middlesex was chosen to house the new buildings, and work hadn’t even started before the Ministry of Education had officially changed the College’s status. From April 1 1962 it was officially named Brunel College of Advanced Technology – it was only the 10th Advanced Technology College in the country, and the last to be awarded this title.

The first buildings were due to be finished in 1967. However, in 1963 it was decided that the College should become a technological university, and after the many hurdles and pitfalls had been overcome the Royal Charter was awarded on the June 9 1966 giving university status. Uxbridge was now a campus of Brunel University.

The University continued to use both campuses until 1971, when it was eventually able to evacuate the Acton site, and for the next nine years used only the Uxbridge campus.

In 1980 the University merged with Shoreditch College of Education, located at Cooper's Hill, Runnymede since 1951. This became Brunel's second campus, and is still owned by the University, although as of the academic year 2004/05, it now only comprises halls of residence. It wasn’t until 1995 that the University expanded again, integrating the West London Institute of Education, giving campuses in Osterley and Twickenham.

This increased the number of courses that Brunel University was able to offer – traditionally the strengths of the College / University had been engineering, science, technology and social sciences. With the addition of the West London Institute, departments such as arts, humanities, geography, earth science, health and sports science were available to the students, which now numbered over 12,000.

There are existing plans to merge all the campuses into Uxbridge, and building work has already started to enlarge the library, as well as to construct more halls of residence for the swell of extra students.

Halls of residence

Many of the halls of residence around the Uxbridge campus are named after bridges that Isambard Kingdom Brunel either built or helped to design. Other halls are named either directly after him, or after other notable scientists.

• Clifton Halls (named for the Clifton Suspension Bridge)
• Chepstow Halls (named for the bridge across the River Wye at Chepstow)
• Saltash Halls (named for the Royal Albert Bridge that cross the River Tamar at Saltash)
• Galbraith Hall (named for W R Galbraith, who designed the Kew Railway Bridge)
• Fleming Halls (named for Sir Alexander Fleming)
• Faraday Halls (named for Sir Michael Faraday)
• Isambard Close Flats.
• Mill Hall.

Runnymede

At Runnymede, the halls of residence built in the Shoreditch College era were named after staff (Scrivens, Marshall, Bradley, Reed, Rowan). Existing buildings were named in the Royal Indian Engineering College era, such as President Hall (where the College president resided) and College Hall. These fine Victorian buildings were built by Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt, who had been Isambard Kingdom Brunel's architect for Paddington Station in London, and also for the famous Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge (now the Judge Institute). Corridors in President and College Halls were named after prominent British and Anglo-Indian figures, such as George Canning, Warren Hastings, Richard Wellesley and Charles Cornwallis.

Because of Runnymede's Brunel Design graduates' eminence in many new media and web industries in east London (particularly Shoreditch and Hoxton, the term "Shoreditch College" has sometimes become applied as a back-formation nickname for Brunel's Design school, perhaps independently of historical knowledge about the origins of the design school, but probably reinforced by the pre-existence of the name.

External links

• Brunel University website (http://www.brunel.ac.uk)
• Brunel Design students' work (2004) (http://www.goodthinking.org.uk)
• Details of 2005 Brunel Design Show (http://www.sharperdesign.co.uk)

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