The University of Nottingham
A Brief History
Nottingham's first civic college was opened in the city centre in 1881, four years after the foundation stone was laid by former prime minister, W E Gladstone. This achievement was made possible by an anonymous benefactor who had offered £10,000 for a college on condition that a suitable building be erected by the Council and that the college should be endowed with £4,000 a year.
After the First World War, the college expanded rapidly and outgrew its original building. A generous gift by Sir Jesse Boot, of 35 acres of land at Highfields, presented the solution and 1928 the College moved to what is now the main campus, University Park. Initially, it was accommodated in the elegant Trent Building, with its distinctive tower, and was officially opened by King George V in November of that year. Even in its early days on this site, the College attracted high profile visiting lecturers including Professor Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi and H G Wells. In 1948, the college was awarded the Royal Charter, becoming The University of Nottingham and now able to confer degrees in its own name. During this period, the Institute of Education was founded and the School of Agriculture was established when the Midland College of Agriculture at Sutton Bonington merged with the University.
Since then, the University has continued to grow. The Medical School, the first to be established in the 20th century, opened in 1970 and, in 1995, the School of Nursing was formed following the merger of the Mid-Trent College of Nursing and Midwifery. The £50 million Jubilee Campus development opened in 1999 and subsequently the prestigious National College for School Leadership has been co-located on the campus. The University is also a founder member of Universitas 21, a worldwide partnership of universities that promotes global research links and offers international student exchange programmes.
The University of Nottingham was named Britain’s ‘University of the Year 2006/07’ and Entrepreneurial University of the Year 2008 by the prestigious Times Higher Awards. It was further confirmed as a world-class University in the 2008 global league tables, where it was ranked in the UK top 10, the European top 30 (by the Institute of Higher Education of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China), and in the top 1% of all Universities worldwide.
Business & Industry
As a research-led university, Nottingham has a long history of working with industry and offers many opportunities for collaboration. The University is regularly placed within the top ten UK universities in terms of the amount of research funding it has generated from the private sector; in 2007-08 this figure approached £11 million. Blue-chip companies that maintain ongoing research relationships with the University include E.ON, The Boots Company and GlaxoSmithKline. The Ford Motor Company and AstraZeneca have both been involved with the University for over 30 years.
The University's relationship with Rolls-Royce includes hosting two Technology Centres in the areas of gas turbine transmission systems and manufacturing technology. They are also working together on a research programme aimed at improving the performance of aerospace engines. The University houses the GE Aviation UTSP in Advanced Electrical Power and Actuation, funded jointly by GE Aviation and EPSRC, and involving collaboration with Warwick University. Together with GE Aviation the University is working to research and define the technologies for the “More Electric Aeroplane” of the future.
The benefits for business in working with the University range from the discovery, or licensing of brand new technologies, to developing technology or business processes that give a competitive advantage through cost and time savings.
The Research Innovation Services (RIS) team acts as a central gateway for businesses that are interested in identifying the ways in which working with the University can benefit them. Whether the company is a large multi-national or a smaller local business; whether they are looking for long-term collaborative research or information on student placements — RIS is an excellent starting point.
Within the University, a number of schools have their own business-focused units, offering specific services to industry from bespoke research and testing to consultancy and feasibility studies.
Large companies can sponsor research through specialist centres of excellence, providing them with expertise and the University with valuable resources to support their research base. Such centres can be found throughout the University and include the Centre for Management Buy-Out Research, sponsored by Deloitte and Touche and Barclays Private Equity Limited, and the Nottingham Centre for Pavement Engineering, an alliance between the School of Civil Engineering and Shell Bitumen UK.
The University generates a significant amount of intellectual property, and is active in transferring this knowledge to the global marketplace. Licensing opportunities are available for companies in engineering, healthcare, environmental industries, food and drink, agricultural biotechnology, chemicals and materials, energy and utilities and IT and telecommunications.
Collaborative research often opens up opportunities for funding assistance as the government provides this stimulus to increase interaction between the academic and commercial worlds. Current schemes include Faraday Partnerships, LINK, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships and the EU Framework Programme, but there are many other initiatives.
Further information about the University can be found at www.nottingham.ac.uk. You can also download a copy of The University Plan 2007 – 2010.