University of Warwick

Twentieth century

The idea for a university in Warwickshire was first mooted shortly after World War II, although it was not founded for a further two decades. A partnership of the city and county councils ultimately provided the impetus for the university to be established on a 400-acre (1.6 km2) site jointly granted by the two authorities. There was some discussion between local sponsors from both the city and county over whether it should be named after Coventry or Warwickshire. The name "University of Warwick" was adopted, even though Warwick, the county town, lies some 8 miles (13 km) to its southwest and Coventry's city centre is only 3.5 miles (5.6 km) northeast of the campus. The establishment of the University of Warwick was given approval by the government in 1961 and it received its Royal Charter of Incorporation in 1965. Since then, the university has incorporated the former Coventry College of Education in 1979 and has extended its land holdings by the continuing purchase of adjoining farm land. The university also benefited from a substantial donation from the family of John Martin, a Coventry businessman who had made a fortune from investment in Smirnoff vodka, and which enabled the construction of the Warwick Arts Centre.

The university admitted its first, small intake of graduate students in 1964, and took its first 450 undergraduates in October 1965. Since its establishment Warwick has expanded its grounds to 721 acres (2.9 km2), with many modern buildings and academic facilities, lakes, and woodlands. In the 1960s and 1970s, Warwick had a reputation as a politically radical institution. Under Vice-Chancellor Lord Butterworth, Warwick was the first UK university to adopt a business approach to higher education, develop close links with the business community and exploit the commercial value of its research. These tendencies were discussed by British historian and then-Warwick lecturer, E. P. Thompson, in his 1970 edited book Warwick University Ltd.. The Leicester Warwick Medical School, a new medical school based jointly at Warwick and Leicester University, opened in September 2000.

On the recommendation of then-Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bill Clinton chose Warwick as the venue for his last major foreign policy address as US President in December 2000. Sandy Berger, Clinton's National Security Advisor, explaining the decision in a press briefing on 7 December 2000, said that: "Warwick is one of Britain's newest and finest research universities, singled out by Prime Minister Blair as a model both of academic excellence and independence from the government."

Twenty-first century

The university was seen as a favoured institution of the Labour government during the New Labour years from 1997 to 2010. It was academic partner for a number of flagship Government schemes including the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth and the NHS University which is now defunct. Tony Blair described Warwick as "a beacon among British universities for its dynamism, quality and entrepreneurial zeal". In a 2012 study by Virgin Media Business, Warwick was described as the most "digitally-savvy" UK university.

In February 2001, IBM donated a new S/390 computer and software worth £2 million to Warwick, to form part of a "Grid" enabling users to remotely share computing power. In April 2004 Warwick merged with the Wellesbourne and Kirton sites of Horticulture Research International. In July 2004 Warwick was the location for an important agreement between the Labour Party and the trade unions on Labour policy and trade union law, which has subsequently become known as the "Warwick Agreement".

In June 2006, the new University Hospital Coventry opened, including a 102,000 sq ft (9,500 m2) university clinical sciences building. Warwick Medical School was granted independent degree-awarding status in 2007, and the School's partnership with the University of Leicester was dissolved in the same year. In February 2010, Lord Bhattacharyya, director and founder of the WMG unit at Warwick, made a £1 million donation to the university to support science grants and awards.

In February 2012, Warwick and Melbourne-based Monash University announced the formation of a strategic partnership, including the creation of ten joint senior academic posts, new dual master's and joint doctoral degrees, and co-ordination of research programmes. In March 2012, Warwick and Queen Mary, University of London announced the creation of a strategic partnership, including research collaboration, some joint teaching of English, history and computer science undergraduates, and the creation of eight joint post-doctoral research fellowships.

In April 2012, it was announced that Warwick would be the only European university participating in the Center for Urban Science and Progress, an applied science research institute to be based in New York consisting of an international consortium of universities and technology companies led by New York University and NYU-Poly. In August 2012, Warwick and five other Midlands-based universities—Aston University, the University of Birmingham, the University of Leicester, Loughborough University and the University of Nottingham—formed the M5 Group, a regional bloc intended to maximise the member institutions' research income and enable closer collaboration.

Sports facilities

In April 2019, the university opened a new £49 million Sports and Wellness Hub, on the main campus, featuring two sports halls with arena style balcony, the largest gym in the Higher education sector, a 12-lane 25 metre pool with movable floor, climbing and bouldering walls, squash courts, studio spaces and a café. The previous main sports centre was closed on 7 April 2019.

Elsewhere on campus is another sports hall, a £2.5 million 4-court indoor tennis centre with floodlit outdoor courts, a 400 m athletics track, multi-purpose outdoor surfaces, and over 60 acres (20 ha) of outdoor playing fields, including a football pitch and cricket grounds. Warwick was an official training venue for the London 2012 Olympics. During the Games, some football matches were played at the nearby Ricoh Arena, home at the time to Coventry City Football Club, and Warwick provided training and residential facilities for the Olympic teams.

Esports facilities

In September 2021, Warwick opened its esports centre in the new Junction building on central campus, marking it as the first esports facility opened in a Russell Group university and also the first university esports facility to be opened in the UK that is not tied to a degree. The centre is equipped with 24 PCs, and is designed to be easily configurable and moveable to facilitate the hosting of larger scale events. The centre is open to all of the public, not just students of the university, and this is all only part of "Phase 1" of a larger push from the university to invest in esports. The centre is sponsored by Uninn and Coventry City Football Club, partnered with Sky Blues in the Community, Women in Games and Special Effect and has its tech supplied by Chillblast and HyperX.

Research

In 2013, Warwick had a total research income of £90.1 million, of which £33.9 million was from Research Councils; £25.9 million was from central government, local authorities and public corporations; £12.7 million was from the European Union; £7.9 million was from UK industry and commerce; £5.2 million was from UK charitable bodies; £4.0 million was from overseas sources; and £0.5 million was from other sources. In the 2014 UK Research Excellence Framework (REF), Warwick was again ranked 7th overall amongst multi-faculty institutions and was the top-ranked university in the Midlands. 87% of the university's academic staff were rated as being in "world-leading" or "internationally excellent" departments with top research ratings of 4* or 3*.

Political incidents

In June 2014, the university announced Alex Davies, a member of the proscribed terrorist organisation National Action, voluntarily withdrew from his course. In early 2018, it was reported that a group of male students had constituted a group chat in which many references to rape, occasionally targeted at particular other students, and other sexual offences were made, in such a way which left significant cause for concern. As a result of this and other incidents, students staged a sit-in in 2021 in the central plaza of the university. In January 2020, the university was criticised for choosing not to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism. This decision was later reversed in October following intervention by Education Secretary Gavin Williamson.