FULBRIGHT AWARDS

University of Liverpool

As well as investing in supportive bursary and scholarship schemes for many of its students, the University is part way through a £200 million capital programme which has included a £17 million extension to the Sydney Jones Library, £12 million of investment in chemistry research facilities, a £36 million restructuring of the Faculty of Engineering giving students access to one of the UK’s only Active Learning Laboratories, a £7.6 million refurbishment of the Victoria Building into a public gallery and museum, and a £10 million refurbishment of the former Liverpool Royal Infirmary into a Centre for Personalised Medicines.

A new building houses a one-stop shop for student services and sports facilities have been renovated and extended. A new small animal teaching hospital opened in 2007, bringing all veterinary science clinical teaching onto one site. A £50-million fundraising drive aims to establish world-class centres of excellence in management, law, medicine, engineering, veterinary science and architecture.

The university is continuing to modernise its portfolio of courses while preserving a well-established reputation for research. Liverpool is among the top 15 recipients of research funds, with outside income increasing dramatically in recent years. And there has been substantial investment in new educational technology, helping to cope with the demands of extra undergraduates. The main library was one of the first to open 24 hours and the top-rated medical school has also been expanded recently to take another 50 medics and 32 dentists, who will train at Lancaster and Central Lancashire universities respectively. The university has been awarded a national centre of excellence to develop professionalism in medical students. Full-time numbers throughout the university are almost exactly balanced between the sexes.

The University has over 250 undergraduate programmes offered across 31 subject areas; almost 15,000 registered undergraduate students and an annual turnover of £303.6million, which includes £79million for research. As you might expect from an institution in a port city, the University has a global outlook. The Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJLTU) opened in September 2006 in Suzhou, China, combining the strengths of the British and Chinese education systems. More recently, a partnership with Kaplan has lead to the opening of Liverpool International College, providing international students with foundation programmes in a number of disciplines.

Liverpool is popular with international students, 93 per cent of whom say they would recommend Liverpool to their friends. One of Europe’s largest facilities for training dentists opened in 2007, marking the start of a   £6-million investment programme following the award of another 125 dental places from 2009.
Liverpool was among the first traditional universities to run access courses for adults without traditional academic qualifications. The projected dropout rate of nearly 9 per cent is below the national average for the courses and entry grades. Even before the introduction of top-up fees, the university was awarding record numbers of scholarships and bursaries to widen opportunities further. Other access initiatives include a week-long summer school and the opening of a purpose-built children’s centre to help mature students and staff, with 68 subsidised places. The proportion of state-educated students is higher than at the other civic universities and nearly a quarter of the undergraduates are from working-class homes.

Fast Facts

Life in Liverpool

Many of us aim to include a little culture into our list of activities when we visit a new city for the first time, here in Liverpool it’s often hard to avoid! Attractions include…National Museums Liverpool, Tate Liverpool, Everyman Theatre, The Bluecoat, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, FACT Centre, Unity Theatre, Liverpool Playhouse... the list goes on and on. In fact, there are more museums, theatres and galleries in Merseyside than in any other region outside London. Liverpool also hosts a major international contemporary arts festival – the Liverpool Biennial and Brouhaha, an annual international street festival. What’s even better is that nearly all of these places and events are located within the city centre, just a short walk from campus, and most are free.

Culture
Many of us aim to include a little culture into our list of activities when we visit a new city for the first time, here in Liverpool it’s often hard to avoid! Attractions include…National Museums Liverpool, Tate Liverpool, Everyman Theatre, The Bluecoat, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, FACT Centre, Unity Theatre, Liverpool Playhouse... the list goes on and on. In fact, there are more museums, theatres and galleries in Merseyside than in any other region outside London. Liverpool also hosts a major international contemporary arts festival – the Liverpool Biennial and Brouhaha, an annual international street festival. What’s even better is that nearly all of these places and events
are located within the city centre, just a short walk from campus, and most are free.

Theatre
If you’re into drama and theatre, you’ll be in the right place. You can always find a wide range of performances and shows – from contemporary studio drama to major touring
company productions. The city has two major repertory theatres, The Everyman Theatre and the Liverpool Playhouse, both of which produce their own plays and host other major
productions. The Unity Theatre is another great venue for contemporary drama and the Liverpool Empire hosts many musicals after their West End runs. Liverpool boasts excellent comedy nights, from the Rawhide club to the annual Liverpool Comedy Festival which draws in comedians like The Mighty Boosh and Mitchell and Webb. Film fans can take advantage of the state-of-the-art FACT Centre, comprising two galleries, three cinemas screening arthouse and independent film, media lounges, a café and bar. Alongside FACT there is a plethora of multiplexes, as well as the fantastic 1940s Plaza Cinema in Waterloo, run mostly by volunteers.

Sport
As an attraction for sports fans, Liverpool remains hard to beat. Both Liverpool and Everton football clubs are a mile or so from the city centre. Apart from football, there is
Aintree Racecourse, home to the Grand National, plus county cricket at the Liverpool Cricket Club, golf at Royal Birkdale and Royal Liverpool, the Liverpool International Tennis Tournament and water sports at the Marina. Rugby League also has a major presence on Merseyside, with St Helens, Warrington and Widnes a short distance from the city. The Amateur International Boxing Association holds multi-national events in St Georges Hall, raising Boxing’s profile in the city. If you want to be more than a spectator, there are hundreds of local teams for every type of sport from running to volleyball to table tennis and many, many more.

Music
Liverpool’s reputation as a centre of musical excellence and originality is well known, and well justified. From scores of intimate gig venues such as the Barfly and Korova, showcasing local talent, to the major label touring bands that play the Echo Arena, Carling Academy and the University, the choice of venues catering for all tastes is both eclectic and exhaustive. As you might expect, the city attracts some of the cream of bands in Britain today with, Coldplay, Kaiser Chiefs, The Last Shadow Puppets, Dizzee Rascal and Oasis all visiting recently. Festivals such as Liverpool Sound City, Liverpool Music Week and Creamfields also offer an opportunity to see some of the best acts around. For those whose tastes aremore classical, ‘the Phil’ is the place to be, particularly when Vasily Petrenko is conducting the fantastic Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.