TEACHING
QUALITY
Harper Adams University
63
rd
NATIONAL
RANK
RANK
52.8%
FIRSTS
2:1s
2:1s
88.3%
COMPLETION
RATE
RATE
Key Stats
n/a
13th=
STUDENT
EXPERIENCE
EXPERIENCE
94th=
RESEARCH
QUALITY
QUALITY
57th=
GRADUATE
PROSPECTS
PROSPECTS
Contact details
ADDRESS
Edgmond, Newport, TF10 8NB View on map >
Telephone
Email
Website
Open days
October 12; November 16
University Profile
Few universities boast a working farm among their prized teaching facilities, but 1,300 acres of arable and grazing land are central to Harper Adams mission. While its degree programmes have diversified markedly in recent years from the purely land-based, agriculture remains key.
Harper Adams gained university status as recently as 2012, having been The Sunday Times University College of the Year for the six preceding years on account of its consistently high standing in our institutional league table.
Only about half of its 4,000 students are on campus at any one time; the rest are on placement years or accredited part-time programmes in industry, an approach that yields strong graduate employment prospects.
Those prospects allied with consistently outstanding scores for student satisfaction push Harper Adams comfortably into the middle reaches of our league table. Harper Adams has been close to the top in the National Student Survey (NSS) in every year that it has been published, its students praising the personal attention they receive.
Based in a single campus in the Shropshire countryside, the university offers degrees in business, veterinary
The university has been upgrading the teaching and research facilities, and also investing in new academic appointments. A new teaching block opened in May 2014, adding a 250-seat lecture theatre, IT classrooms, accessible computers and seminar rooms. The Agricultural Engineering Innovation Centre also opened in 2014 and a Veterinary Services Centre will follow later in the year to cope with rising demand for courses in veterinary nursing, clinical animal behaviour and veterinary physiotherapy.
The Faccenda Centre, opened in 2011, is located at the heart of the campus and acts as a hub for students with the students’ union, careers service and café under one roof. The building also contains social space with open access computers to allow students to work and socialise in the same space.
The Main Building, which dates from the opening of the institution in 1901, was once the centre of all campus activities with bedrooms, teaching rooms and even a shooting gallery.
The Bamford Library is one of the largest specialist land-based collections in the UK, 41,000 books and 3,000 journals. Open access computing areas are open 24 hours.
But the new university’s most prized feature is its 1,300-acre commercial farm, which has been undergoing a multimillion pound development, including expanded dairy, pig and poultry units and a new food research centre.
At the heart of the University Farm, Ancellor Yard is a redevelopment of the original farm courtyard, the former home of Thomas Harper Adams after whom the university is named. It houses the Frank Parkinson Farm Education Centre and the Frontier Crops Centre. The £2m dairy unit serves 400 cows and there is a £3m anaerobic digestion plant that provides 75% of the electricity used by the university, as well as organic fertiliser for the estate. The farm is also the source of a good proportion of the food – particularly lamb, pork and eggs – consumed on campus.
Not surprisingly, given its agricultural specialisms, the university is one of a shrinking band where male students marginally outnumber female. More than one undergraduate in five went to an independent school, but still nearly half have a working-class background.
Almost every course includes work placements, provided by a network of 500 regular placement employers, some of whom also endow student scholarships. The projected dropout rate of less than 7% is much better than the national average for the university’s courses and entry qualifications.
Only 19 staff members were entered for the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, when 25 per cent of the work was judged to be internationally excellent. Since then, Harper Adams has become a new centre of excellence for entomology teaching and research in the UK and has launched the Soil and Water Management Centre, an industry-led initiative to help UK farming make the most of its two most precious assets.
It has also establishedthe Centre for Integrated Pest Management, a multidisciplinary team addressing UK and global issues in agricultural, forestry and horticultural crop production. New appointments have also boosted research excellence in precision livestock and arable farming, food studies, plant pathology, animal science and crop physiology.
There should be more than 800 residential places on campus in 2015 in 11 halls of residence. First years take priority in the allocation of places. A shuttle bus runs three times a day for students living in nearby Newport to get to campus and there is free parking for students.
Sports facilities include a gymnasium, heated outdoor swimming pool, rugby, cricket, football and hockey pitches, tennis courts and an all-weather sports pitch. There is a dance/fitness studio and even a 4x4 club, cars not earning students here the pariah status guaranteed on most other university campuses.
Harper Adams gained university status as recently as 2012, having been The Sunday Times University College of the Year for the six preceding years on account of its consistently high standing in our institutional league table.
Only about half of its 4,000 students are on campus at any one time; the rest are on placement years or accredited part-time programmes in industry, an approach that yields strong graduate employment prospects.
Those prospects allied with consistently outstanding scores for student satisfaction push Harper Adams comfortably into the middle reaches of our league table. Harper Adams has been close to the top in the National Student Survey (NSS) in every year that it has been published, its students praising the personal attention they receive.
Based in a single campus in the Shropshire countryside, the university offers degrees in business, veterinary
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nursing and physiotherapy, land and property management, engineering and food studies, as well as agriculture. There is also a range of foundation degrees that can be converted into honours. New degrees in wildlife, conservation and resource management were added in 2013.The university has been upgrading the teaching and research facilities, and also investing in new academic appointments. A new teaching block opened in May 2014, adding a 250-seat lecture theatre, IT classrooms, accessible computers and seminar rooms. The Agricultural Engineering Innovation Centre also opened in 2014 and a Veterinary Services Centre will follow later in the year to cope with rising demand for courses in veterinary nursing, clinical animal behaviour and veterinary physiotherapy.
The Main Building, which dates from the opening of the institution in 1901, was once the centre of all campus activities with bedrooms, teaching rooms and even a shooting gallery.
The Bamford Library is one of the largest specialist land-based collections in the UK, 41,000 books and 3,000 journals. Open access computing areas are open 24 hours.
But the new university’s most prized feature is its 1,300-acre commercial farm, which has been undergoing a multimillion pound development, including expanded dairy, pig and poultry units and a new food research centre.
At the heart of the University Farm, Ancellor Yard is a redevelopment of the original farm courtyard, the former home of Thomas Harper Adams after whom the university is named. It houses the Frank Parkinson Farm Education Centre and the Frontier Crops Centre. The £2m dairy unit serves 400 cows and there is a £3m anaerobic digestion plant that provides 75% of the electricity used by the university, as well as organic fertiliser for the estate. The farm is also the source of a good proportion of the food – particularly lamb, pork and eggs – consumed on campus.
Not surprisingly, given its agricultural specialisms, the university is one of a shrinking band where male students marginally outnumber female. More than one undergraduate in five went to an independent school, but still nearly half have a working-class background.
Almost every course includes work placements, provided by a network of 500 regular placement employers, some of whom also endow student scholarships. The projected dropout rate of less than 7% is much better than the national average for the university’s courses and entry qualifications.
Only 19 staff members were entered for the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, when 25 per cent of the work was judged to be internationally excellent. Since then, Harper Adams has become a new centre of excellence for entomology teaching and research in the UK and has launched the Soil and Water Management Centre, an industry-led initiative to help UK farming make the most of its two most precious assets.
It has also establishedthe Centre for Integrated Pest Management, a multidisciplinary team addressing UK and global issues in agricultural, forestry and horticultural crop production. New appointments have also boosted research excellence in precision livestock and arable farming, food studies, plant pathology, animal science and crop physiology.
There should be more than 800 residential places on campus in 2015 in 11 halls of residence. First years take priority in the allocation of places. A shuttle bus runs three times a day for students living in nearby Newport to get to campus and there is free parking for students.
Sports facilities include a gymnasium, heated outdoor swimming pool, rugby, cricket, football and hockey pitches, tennis courts and an all-weather sports pitch. There is a dance/fitness studio and even a 4x4 club, cars not earning students here the pariah status guaranteed on most other university campuses.
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Detailed Statistics
PERFORMANCE
PERFORMANCE
CATEGORY
SCORE
RANK
Ranking
-
63 (64=)
Student experience
85.3
13th=
Research quality
2
94th=
Ucas entry points
342
56th
Graduate prospects
67
57th=
Firsts and 2:1s
52.8
115th
Completion rate
88.3
45th
Student-staff ratio
19.8:1
89th=
Services/facilities spend (£)
1,183
104th
VITAL STATISTICS
Undergraduates
(Full-time)
2,195
Undergraduates
(Part-time)
2,555
Postgraduates
(Full-time)
65
Postgraduates
(Part-time)
350
Applications/places
2,785/695
Applications/places ratio
4:1
STUDENT CITIES
Thomas Mountain, students’ union president
The majority here come to study land based skills which gives you an immediate affiliation with other students.
Make sure you befriend someone with a car as it can be quite isolated.
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Cost of living
Nightlife
Transport
Culture
ACCOMMODATION
Places in accommodation
700
Accommodation costs
£63-£114
Catered costs
£95-£158
Accommodation contact
FEES
UK/EU fees
£9,000
Fees (placement year)
£1,000
Fees (international)
£10,000
Finance website
Graduate salaries
£19,753
BURSARIES/SCHOLARSHIPS
>
£1,000 Access to the Professions Bursary, for disadvantaged students and targeted at engineering, food and land management courses, under review in August 2014.
>
Range of scholarships and sponsorships available.
SPORT
Sports points/rank
102, 100th
Sport website
Student satisfaction