The university was founded as Chester Diocesan Training College in 1839 by a distinguished group of local leading figures in the Church of England, including future Prime MinistersWilliam Ewart Gladstone and the 14th Earl of Derby.<ref name="Dunn">Ian Dunn, The University of Chester, 1839–2008: The Bright Star in the Present Prospect, 2nd edn (Chester: Chester Academic Press, 2008)</ref> It was the UK's first purpose-built teacher training college,<ref name="cityfreedom"/> which makes it one of the longest established higher education institutions in the country.<ref name="cityfreedom">Template:Cite web</ref> In 1842, Gladstone opened the college's original buildings for its first intake of ten male student teachers on the Parkgate Road site, (just outside the City Walls), that the university occupies today.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 1921, Chester formally became an affiliated college of the University of Liverpool,<ref name="Dunn" /> which meant that the University of Liverpool awarded Chester's qualifications and Chester's students were able to use Liverpool's facilities.
The institution was threatened with closure in the 1930s, but its future was secured by the Bishop of Chester in 1933.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> From then on, the college continued to grow steadily. By the 1960s, as the UK was massively expanding its higher education capacity in reaction to the Robbins Report, the college was considered as a possible candidate for university status. These proposals, however, were not followed through.
The college continued to expand and women were first admitted in 1961. In 1963, the government renamed teacher training colleges to colleges of education, so Chester's name became Chester College of Education. In 1974, the number of courses was expanded beyond teacher education to include Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees. To reflect its wider remit, the college was renamed Chester College of Higher Education.
In the early 1990s the School of Nursing and Midwifery (now the Faculty of Health and Social Care) was established.<ref name="Dunn" /> The college also began to offer a Bachelor of Theology degree, HNDs and more postgraduate courses, such as master's degrees and PhDs.<ref name="Dunn" /> It also embarked on a £10 million campus improvement programme. By 1996, Chester had earned the right to call itself University College Chester.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This name, however, was short-lived as the government changed the requirements for university colleges in 1999 to include only those that had their own degree-awarding powers. Thus, Chester had to drop the 'University College' tag and reverted to the title Chester College of Higher Education, though the more descriptive Chester, a College of the University of Liverpool was frequently used in publicity material.<ref name="cityfreedom" />
The college expanded in 2002 through the acquisition of the higher education faculty and campus of Warrington Collegiate Institute.<ref name="Dunn" /> (The further and adult education campuses of Warrington remained independent and was known as Warrington Collegiate, until in August 2017, when it merged with Mid Cheshire College.))
In 2003 Chester was granted its own degree-awarding powers, allowing it to be known as University College Chester once again.<ref name="cityfreedom" /> Due to its long (and well-advertised) association with the University of Liverpool, Chester continued to award Liverpool degrees until the 2005 intake of students.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2005, University College Chester was awarded full university status and became the University of Chester.<ref name="independent">Template:Cite news</ref> This was followed by the right to award its own research degrees in 2007, ending Chester's last validation arrangement with Liverpool.
Following the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, some of the university's research was declared to be of international quality, with a proportion of 'World Leading' research in History (15% of submitted research), English, Sports Studies, and Drama (each 5% of submitted research).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="cestrian08">The Cestrian, 2008</ref><ref>University of Chester Annual Review 2009</ref>
In 2010, the Centre for Work Related Studies (CWRS) received a commendation by the UK quality body, for its radically flexible and high quality negotiated work based learning framework - enabling professionals to customise their own qualifications, 'learn through work', and enable rapid accreditation of commercial training provision. At the same time, the funding body showcased CWRS's flexible approach to accrediting workplace learning.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The university has expanded in recent years, buying buildings in Chester and constructing student accommodation at Parkgate Road Campus in 2013.<ref>Graeme J. White, On Chester On: A History of Chester College and the University of Chester, 2015</ref>
In 2014, Loyd Grossman, who holds an honorary degree from the university, officially opened the North West Food Research Development (NoWFOOD) Centre.
Campuses
The University of Chester has six campuses and a University Centre in Shrewsbury. The Template:Convert Parkgate Road Campus, Chester,<ref name="independent" /> is located on Parkgate Road, just north of the City Walls. It has a mixture of Victorian buildings (such as Old College, which includes a chapel built by some of the original students in the 1840s) and modern buildings (such as the Students' Union). The Parkgate Road Campus also features a fitness centre, sports hall, swimming pool, science and language laboratories and bar.
Some departments are housed offsite at locations within walking distance of the main campus, for example, the Department of English is located in a Grade II-listed former Victorian vicarage, while the Law School is based at 67 Liverpool Road. The former County Hall, which is located in the city centre near the racecourse, houses the Faculty of Education and Children's Services and the Faculty of Health and Social Care and is known as the Riverside Campus.
The university has also developed the Kingsway Campus in Newton with the addition of a three-storey teaching block, ground floor exhibition space and art gallery, learning resource centre and changing rooms. The site features a number of green innovations, such as ground source heating.
The university acquired a former Lloyds Bank corporate headquarters in Queen's Park, Handbridge, Chester in 2015. This houses the Faculty of Business and Management and the Chester Business School. The university has modernised the facilities in Bridge House and Churchill House to cater for 2,700 students.
In the autumn of 2015, the university opened a sister institution in the Guildhall and Rowley's House, Shrewsbury, Shropshire as part of a joint venture with Shropshire Council to establish University Centre Shrewsbury.
The university-owned student accommodation is primarily reserved for first year and overseas students. This consists of halls of residence and houses nearby.
The smaller Warrington campus originally hosted a camp for Canadian officers in World War II and is located in the Padgate area of Warrington. This campus includes the North West Media Centre, which has close ties to Granada Television, The Warrington School of Management, Social Sciences and Health and Social Care.<ref name="test">Elsie Newton, The Padgate Story, 1946–2006; University of Chester Annual Review 2009</ref> The Warrington Campus is also the training ground for the rugby league team The Warrington Wolves, and Warrington town was the host for the Rugby League World Cup 2013, with the Campus hosting the Samoan players. In 2022 two new buildings, Time Square and Remond House, were opened in Warrington Town Centre.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The university also has a number of bases at NHS sites across Cheshire and the Wirral, and opened University Centre Birkenhead in September 2018.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The university is organised into seven faculties of study. Several of these are subdivided into academic departments.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The faculties and departments are:
The university's coat of arms was granted by the College of Arms in 1954. The arms, pictured above, are made up of an argent shield featuring the St George's cross on which there is a golden wheatsheaf, representing the Earldom of Cheshire. In the first quarter of the shield is a clasped open book, symbolising learning. The crest features a mitre, signifying the institution's founding by the Church of England, in front of two crossed swords, which are taken from the County of Cheshire's coat of arms. The golden scroll contains the Latinmotto, "qui docet in doctrina", an extract from Saint Paul's epistle to the Romans and translates as "he that teacheth, on teaching" or "let the teacher teach".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The coat of arms was used as the college's logo until the early 1990s when a new logo, with a depiction of the Old College building, was introduced. The coat of arms returned to the college's logo in 2002 when a simplified version became part of the logo. The university's current logo, introduced in 2005, features the shield and scroll from the coat of arms.
From 2015, as part of the 175th-anniversary celebrations, the university's coat of arms was changed to include supporting griffins on either side – one in gold, and one in black reach referencing one of the institution's founders. The gold griffin of Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby bears the University Mace. The Black griffin of William Gladstone bears a sword. Each gorged with a collar of university colours red and white.
There are approximately 1,737 administrative and academic members of staff. Many take part in research and often publish their work through the institution's own publishing house, the University of Chester Press. The 2014 Research Assessment Exercise resulted in Chester's research being declared world-leading in 14 areas of that submitted.Template:Citation needed
Former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams was, in 2011, bestowed a visiting professorship with the title Gladstone Professor of Literature and Theology. His inaugural lecture 'The Messiah and the novelist: approaches to Jesus in fiction' took place in Chester Cathedral.
Peter Blair and Ashley Chantler edit "Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine", a major literary periodical, which publishes stories and reviews of up to 360 words by writers from around the world.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
At the beginning of April 2021, the university announced its intention to make up to 86 compulsory redundancies across staff in the Humanities department.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The University and College Union has strongly condemned these plans,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and student protests in opposition to the measures have taken place throughout the city.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) 2010 audit praised the university for its good practice in ensuring standards and enhancing the quality of learning opportunities, the supportive relationships that underpin the learning and working in the institution and the strength of its partnership work.<ref>[1]Template:Webarchive</ref>
The Faculty of Education and Children's Services also celebrated an 'outstanding' outcome in its recent Ofsted inspection of Initial Teacher Training.<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead link</ref>
Student life
Chester Students' Union (CSU) offers services and provides facilities for students and is a member of the NUS. Three sabbatical officers are elected each year and serve a maximum of two years.
The executive committee are the trustees of the Union. Members are elected each year before the end of March, with a president and vice-president, and each with a different role, such as Education representative, Activities representative and a Warrington representative. The support staff for the Union consists of a number of full-time employees, part-time student staff and volunteers from the elected Executive Committee and the Union Council.
The Union runs a bar 'CH1' on the main Parkgate Road Campus, Chester. The previously known 'Padgate Union Bar' on the Warrington campus was, in August 2010, taken over by the university, and is now known as 'Bar and Club 2010'. The Union also has three shops. Two are on the Parkgate Road Campus, Chester, consisting of a general shop and a Starbucks Coffee franchise, and one at Warrington.
The Union also runs over 110 sports clubs and societies; with each campus having its own teams, many of which compete in British Universities and Colleges Sport competitions. Once a year, the Union runs an inter-campus competition known as Varsity on campus where sporting societies, such as seven-a-side football, and non-sporting societies, such as poker, compete. Non-sporting societies include the Debating Society (which has hosted hustings events which have featured on 'BBC North West Tonight'), the Politics Forum, the Drama Society, the Amnesty International Society, the International Development Society and the People and Planet Society. A student radio station, The Cat Radio, is based on the Warrington campus and broadcasts daily, with presenters on air from September until July.
Student body
Most of Chester's 14,900 students are from the United Kingdom.<ref name="HESA citation">Template:HESA citation</ref> A quarter of students are mature and there are twice as many female students as male (partially due to the number of nursing, midwifery and teaching students). The increasing number of foreign students are mainly participants in the university's active exchange policy.
Jim Bowen, Bullseye presenter (Cert Ed Physical Education, 1957–1959)<ref>Jim Bowen, From a Bundle of Rags: The Autobiography of Jim Bowen (London: Robson Books, 1992)</ref>
Jo Fletcher, international footballer (MSc Exercise and Nutrition Science, 2003–2005)<ref name="cestrian06">Template:Cite web</ref>
Matt Greenhalgh, film director and screenwriter (BA(Hons) Media Studies with Business Management and Information Technology, 1992–1995)<ref name="studentnewssummer08" />
Dick Howard, international footballer (HND Physical Education, 1963–1965)<ref name="alumnistories" />
Roderick Hunt MBE, children's author (Cert Ed Divinity and English, 1957–1959)<ref name="cestrian06" />
Rob Wotton, television and radio presenter (BA(Hons) Health and Community Studies, 1987–1990; Union President, 1990–1991)<ref name="alumnistories" /><ref>The Collegian, 1999</ref>
White, Graeme J, On Chester On: A History of Chester College and the University of Chester (Chester: University of Chester Press, 2014) Template:ISBN
Dunn, Ian, The University of Chester, 1839–2008: The Bright Star in the Present Prospect 3rd edn (Chester: University of Chester Press, 2012)
Burek, Cynthia and Stilwell, Richard, Geodiversity Trail: Walking Through the Past on the University's Chester Campus (Chester: Chester Academic Press, 2007)
Newton, Elsie, The Padgate Story 1946–2006 (Chester: Chester Academic Press, 2007)
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