TEACHING
QUALITY
St Mary's University, Twickenham
100
th
NATIONAL
RANK
RANK
60.7%
FIRSTS
2:1s
2:1s
81.5%
COMPLETION
RATE
RATE
Key Stats
n/a
82nd=
STUDENT
EXPERIENCE
EXPERIENCE
89th=
RESEARCH
QUALITY
QUALITY
69th
GRADUATE
PROSPECTS
PROSPECTS
Contact details
ADDRESS
Waldegrave Road,
Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, TW1 4SX View on map >
Telephone
Email
Website
Open days
October 29; November 6 (evening)
University Profile
St Mary’s is the only new university established since our last edition of this guide having missed out on university status when a dozen other colleges were promoted in 2012.
St Mary’s, which has 5,000 students, including 1,200 postgraduates, is the third Catholic institution to become a university recently. It has four academic schools and a strong tradition in sport, which enabled it to attract the first Mo Farah Academy to develop outstanding young athletes. The academy, established by St Mary’s graduate Farah and his wife Tania, will support training programmes at St Mary’s and at Brunel University, as well as providing scholarships for eight top prospects a year. The university will be a team base for South Africa and New Zealand at next year’s Rugby World Cup.
St Mary’s was founded in Hammersmith in 1850 by the Catholic Poor Schools Committee to meet the need for teachers for the growing numbers of impoverished Catholic children, and moved along the river to Twickenham in 1925.
The spectacular Gothic Strawberry Hill House has been its centrepiece ever since, and is undergoing a £9m restoration. The house
The site constitutes the main campus and there is a hall of residence nearby in Twickenham, while the main sports fields are located in neighbouring Teddington. An £8.5m sports centre opened there in 2011 with facilities good enough for 10 national teams to choose it for pre-Olympic training. A new library, costing £6m, should be fully open by the start of the academic year in 2015.
Other recent improvements include a £350,000 upgrade of the student television studio, which opens this September. There is also a new computer suite with the latest Apple MacPro workstations, offering students 24-hour access to professional grade creative technologies.
Only a third of today’s students are training to be teachers – contributing to the university’s decent showing for graduate prospects – and there are growing numbers taking sport, theatre studies and theology. Sixty per cent of the students are female and about 10% come from outside the UK. There are nearly 500 undergraduate programmes, including a range of foundation degrees, mainly in the arts and social sciences or sport.
The four academic schools cover sport, health and applied science, education, theology and leadership, management and social sciences and the arts and humanities. St Mary’s resisted charging the full £9,000 fees for its degrees until 2014, and even in 2015 entrants to foundation degrees will pay no more than £4,500 a year.
Over 35% of the UK undergraduates are from working-class homes and the university has a number of outreach schemes designed to broaden the intake further. The E-mentoring scheme, launched in 2013, in which current students help selected groups of school pupils throughout the academic year, has received excellent feedback from participants. Other initiatives provide academic support and monitor the progress of under-represented groups once they enter the university.
The university has appointed Francis Campbell, a career diplomat and one-time private secretary to Tony Blair, as its first vice-chancellor. A former ambassador to the Vatican, he helped to secure a Papal visit to St Mary’s in 2010.
The previous college principal left soon after a critical report by the Quality Assurance Agency on a new clinical hypnosis course led to the postponement of the original bid for university status. Campbell will take over discussions on a “strategic partnership” with Heythrop College, a part of the University of London and the capital’s other Catholic higher education institution, which specialises in theology and philosophy.
St Mary’s has a continued commitment to training teachers for Catholic and other Christian schools, although it admits students of all faiths and none. Its first stated objective is: “To be a distinctive institution within UK higher education, providing a unique experience for our students and staff by virtue of our values and identity as a Catholic university.”
Students like the combination of an attractive setting in southwest London that is only half an hour from the West End by train. Sports facilities are excellent attract elite performers. As well as European Championship gold medals for alumni Mo Farah and Jo Pavey, 2014 has seen two current undergraduates win gold medals as part of the victorious Great Britain rugby sevens team at the World University Championships.
St Mary’s, which has 5,000 students, including 1,200 postgraduates, is the third Catholic institution to become a university recently. It has four academic schools and a strong tradition in sport, which enabled it to attract the first Mo Farah Academy to develop outstanding young athletes. The academy, established by St Mary’s graduate Farah and his wife Tania, will support training programmes at St Mary’s and at Brunel University, as well as providing scholarships for eight top prospects a year. The university will be a team base for South Africa and New Zealand at next year’s Rugby World Cup.
St Mary’s was founded in Hammersmith in 1850 by the Catholic Poor Schools Committee to meet the need for teachers for the growing numbers of impoverished Catholic children, and moved along the river to Twickenham in 1925.
The spectacular Gothic Strawberry Hill House has been its centrepiece ever since, and is undergoing a £9m restoration. The house
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was designed and created as a Gothic fantasy between 1747 and 1792 by Horace Walpole, the son of Britain’s first prime minister. It is set in 35 acres of gardens and parkland close to the Thames, with a variety of modern teaching and residential accommodation.The site constitutes the main campus and there is a hall of residence nearby in Twickenham, while the main sports fields are located in neighbouring Teddington. An £8.5m sports centre opened there in 2011 with facilities good enough for 10 national teams to choose it for pre-Olympic training. A new library, costing £6m, should be fully open by the start of the academic year in 2015.
Other recent improvements include a £350,000 upgrade of the student television studio, which opens this September. There is also a new computer suite with the latest Apple MacPro workstations, offering students 24-hour access to professional grade creative technologies.
Only a third of today’s students are training to be teachers – contributing to the university’s decent showing for graduate prospects – and there are growing numbers taking sport, theatre studies and theology. Sixty per cent of the students are female and about 10% come from outside the UK. There are nearly 500 undergraduate programmes, including a range of foundation degrees, mainly in the arts and social sciences or sport.
The four academic schools cover sport, health and applied science, education, theology and leadership, management and social sciences and the arts and humanities. St Mary’s resisted charging the full £9,000 fees for its degrees until 2014, and even in 2015 entrants to foundation degrees will pay no more than £4,500 a year.
Over 35% of the UK undergraduates are from working-class homes and the university has a number of outreach schemes designed to broaden the intake further. The E-mentoring scheme, launched in 2013, in which current students help selected groups of school pupils throughout the academic year, has received excellent feedback from participants. Other initiatives provide academic support and monitor the progress of under-represented groups once they enter the university.
The university has appointed Francis Campbell, a career diplomat and one-time private secretary to Tony Blair, as its first vice-chancellor. A former ambassador to the Vatican, he helped to secure a Papal visit to St Mary’s in 2010.
The previous college principal left soon after a critical report by the Quality Assurance Agency on a new clinical hypnosis course led to the postponement of the original bid for university status. Campbell will take over discussions on a “strategic partnership” with Heythrop College, a part of the University of London and the capital’s other Catholic higher education institution, which specialises in theology and philosophy.
St Mary’s has a continued commitment to training teachers for Catholic and other Christian schools, although it admits students of all faiths and none. Its first stated objective is: “To be a distinctive institution within UK higher education, providing a unique experience for our students and staff by virtue of our values and identity as a Catholic university.”
Students like the combination of an attractive setting in southwest London that is only half an hour from the West End by train. Sports facilities are excellent attract elite performers. As well as European Championship gold medals for alumni Mo Farah and Jo Pavey, 2014 has seen two current undergraduates win gold medals as part of the victorious Great Britain rugby sevens team at the World University Championships.
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Detailed Statistics
PERFORMANCE
PERFORMANCE
CATEGORY
SCORE
RANK
Ranking
-
100 (n/a)
Student experience
80.6
82nd=
Research quality
2.7
89th=
Ucas entry points
294
104th
Graduate prospects
63.8
69th
Firsts and 2:1s
60.7
93rd
Completion rate
81.5
96th
Student-staff ratio
22.4:1
116th
Services/facilities spend (£)
1,005
115th
VITAL STATISTICS
Undergraduates
(Full-time)
3,470
Undergraduates
(Part-time)
315
Postgraduates
(Full-time)
390
Postgraduates
(Part-time)
790
Applications/places
5,535/1,305
Applications/places ratio
4.2:1
STUDENT CITIES
Ryan Jones, students’ union president
Wow is the only word to describe it; you will be thrown in at the deep end but in the best possible way.
We are a small institution so if you do something embarrassing the whole campus will know about it - but it is like one big family.
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Cost of living
Nightlife
Transport
Culture
ACCOMMODATION
FEES
UK/EU fees
£9,000
Fees (international)
£9,900
Finance website
Graduate salaries
£20,029
BURSARIES/SCHOLARSHIPS
>
Household income below £25K and meeting specific criteria, £3,000 cash, fee waiver or accommodation discount, year 1; £2,000 cash, year 2; £1,000 cash, year 3.
>
Household income below £42.6 K and AAB at A level or equivalent, £4,000 cash, fee waiver or accommodation discount, year 1; if grade of at least 60% achieved when progressing from one year to the next, then £2,000 cash, year 2, and £1,000 cash year 3.
SPORT
Sports points/rank
517.5, 61st
Sport website
Student satisfaction
87.7%
84.0%
83.7%
81.1%
80.1%
79.9%
79.1%
78.9%
78.7%
78.1%
76.5%
75.9%