A History Of Worcester University
1946: Established as an Emergency Teacher Training College; subsequently developed as a training college under the aegis of the University of Birmingham Department of Education.
1970s: Degrees validated by the CNAA, under the title of Worcester College of Higher Education.
1992: Agreement concluded with Coventry University for the validation of the Institution’s degree courses.
1995: Herefordshire and Worcestershire College of Nursing and Midwifery was absorbed into Worcester College of Higher Education.
1997: Institution gained and implemented degree-awarding powers from the Privy Council for all its taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses and, as a consequence, adopted the title of University College Worcester.
2000: Institution negotiated an accreditation agreement with Coventry University whereby UCW assumed full responsibility for the academic and administrative conduct of all research degree programmes, except for the final approval of external examiners nominated by the Institution and the conferment of the degrees. Research is a thriving and developing area at Worcester with many successful MPhil and PhD students studying a wide variety of subjects.
2005: UCW awarded full University status and adopts its new title: University of Worcester. Worcester has undergone significant change and growth over the last few years, expanding into new subject areas, more than doubling student numbers and investing substantially in staff and new facilities.
The University currently operates from a single campus on the outskirts of the City of Worcester and a number of Worcester validated courses are jointly taught on the campuses of its partner colleges.
A major new second campus is under development in conjunction with Advantage West Midlands on the site of the old Worcestershire Royal Infirmary in the heart of the City of Worcester. Plans are confirmed that the new site will include a joint university and public super library. The library would be the first of its kind in the UK and would attract more than a million students and members of the public annually.
