The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in

post-nominal letters Post-nominal letters, also called post-nominal initials, post-nominal titles, designatory letters, or simply post-nominals, are letters placed after a person's name to indicate that the individual holds a position, an academic degree, accreditation ...

) is a

public research university A public university, state university, or public college is a university or college that is State ownership, owned by the state or receives significant funding from a government. Whether a national university is considered public varies from o ...

on the outskirts of

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

between the West Midlands and

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

, England. The university was founded in 1965 as part of a government initiative to expand higher education. The Warwick Business School was established in 1967, the Warwick Law School in 1968, Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) in 1980, and Warwick Medical School in 2000. Warwick incorporated Coventry College of Education in 1979 and Horticulture Research International in 2004. Warwick is primarily based on a campus on the outskirts of Coventry, with a satellite campus in Wellesbourne and a central London base at

the Shard The Shard, also referred to as the Shard London Bridge and formerly London Bridge Tower, is a 72-storey mixed-use development supertall pyramid-shaped skyscraper, designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano, in Southwark, London, that for ...

. It is organised into three faculties—Arts; Science, Engineering and Medicine, and Social Sciences—within which there are thirty-two departments. Warwick has around 29,534 full-time students and 2,691 academic and research staff, with an average intake of 4,950 undergraduates out of 38,071 applicants (7.7 applicants per place). The annual income of the institution for 2023–24 was £850.5 million of which £146.5 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £559.6 million. Warwick Arts Centre is a multi-venue arts complex in the university's main campus and is the largest venue of its kind in the UK outside of London. In 2024, Warwick ranked tenth nationally for

undergraduate education Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education, usually in a college or university. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, ...

. Warwick is a member of AACSB, the

Association of Commonwealth Universities The Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) is a charitable organization that was established in 1913, and has over 400 member institutions in over 40 countries across the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth.Association of MBAs, EQUIS, the European University Association, the Midlands Innovation group, the

Russell Group The Russell Group is a self-selected association of twenty-four public research universities in the United Kingdom. The group is headquartered in Cambridge and was established in 1994 to represent its members' interests, principally to governme ...

, Sutton 13 and Universities UK. It is the only European member of the Center for Urban Science and Progress, a collaboration with

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

. The university has extensive commercial activities, including the University of Warwick Science Park and WMG, University of Warwick. Warwick's alumni and staff include winners of the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

Turing Award The ACM A. M. Turing Award is an annual prize given by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for contributions of lasting and major technical importance to computer science. It is generally recognized as the highest distinction in the fi ...

Fields Medal The Fields Medal is a prize awarded to two, three, or four mathematicians under 40 years of age at the International Congress of Mathematicians, International Congress of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), a meeting that takes place e ...

, Richard W. Hamming Medal,

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

, Grammy, and the Padma Vibhushan, and are fellows to the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

, the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...

, the

Royal Academy of Engineering The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering. The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senio ...

, and the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

. Alumni also include heads of state, government officials, leaders in intergovernmental organisations, and a former chief economist at the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the Kingdom of England, English Government's banker and debt manager, and still one ...

. Researchers at Warwick have also made significant contributions such as the development of

penicillin Penicillins (P, PCN or PEN) are a group of beta-lactam antibiotic, β-lactam antibiotics originally obtained from ''Penicillium'' Mold (fungus), moulds, principally ''Penicillium chrysogenum, P. chrysogenum'' and ''Penicillium rubens, P. ru ...

music therapy Music therapy, an allied health profession, "is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music t ...

, the

Washington Consensus The Washington Consensus is a set of ten economic policy prescriptions considered in the 1980s and 1990s to constitute the "standard" reform package promoted for Economic crisis, crisis-wracked developing country, developing countries by the Was ...

, computing standards, including

ISO The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ; ; ) is an independent, non-governmental, international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Me ...

and ECMA, complexity theory,

contract theory From a legal point of view, a contract is an institutional arrangement for the way in which resources flow, which defines the various relationships between the parties to a transaction or limits the rights and obligations of the parties. From an ...

, and the International Political Economy as a field of study.

History

Twentieth century

The idea for a university in Warwickshire was first mooted shortly after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, 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 site jointly granted by the two authorities.Rees, H., ''A University is Born'', Avalon Books, Coventry (1989) 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 to its southwest and

's city centre is only 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 A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, but ...

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 , 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 Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

chose Warwick as the venue for his last major foreign policy address as

US President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed For ...

in December 2000.

Sandy Berger Samuel Richard "Sandy" Berger (October 28, 1945 – December 2, 2015) was a Democratic attorney who served as the 18th US National Security Advisor for U.S. President Bill Clinton from 1997 to 2001 after he had served as the Deputy National Secu ...

, 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.

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 International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

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 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 Monash University () is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Named after World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the ...

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 Queen Mary University of London (QMUL, or informally QM, and formerly Queen Mary and Westfield College) is a public research university in Mile End, East London, England. It is a member institution of the federal University of London. Today, ...

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. WTC Steve Walton IMG 9613WarwickArtsCentre edit

WTC Steve Walton IMG 9613WarwickArtsCentre edit

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

and NYU-Poly. In August 2012, Warwick and five other Midlands-based universities—

Aston University Aston University (abbreviated as ''Aston'' for post-nominals) is a public university situated in the city centre of Birmingham, England. Aston began as the Birmingham Municipal Technical School in 1895, evolving into the UK's first College of a ...

, the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

, the

University of Leicester The University of Leicester ( ) is a public university, public research university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park, Leicester, Victoria Park. The university's predecessor, Univ ...

, Loughborough University and the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...

—formed the M5 Group, a regional bloc intended to maximise the member institutions' research income and enable closer collaboration. Prev warwick logo

In September 2013, it was announced that a new National Automotive Innovation Centre would be built by WMG at Warwick's main campus at a cost of £100 million, with £50 million to be contributed by Jaguar Land Rover and £30 million by

Tata Motors Tata Motors Limited is an Indian Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive company, headquartered in Mumbai and part of the Tata Group. The company produces passenger cars, cars, trucks, vans, and busses, buses. T ...

. The centre will open in Summer 2018. The building was opened by HRH The Prince of Wales on 18 February 2020. In July 2014, the government announced that Warwick would be the host for the £1 billion Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC), a

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

that facilitates funding to UK-based research and development projects developing low-carbon emission powertrain technologies. The APC manages a £1 billion investment fund, which is jointly supplied by the

automotive industry The automotive industry comprises a wide range of company, companies and organizations involved in the design, Business development, development, manufacturing, marketing, selling, Maintenance, repairing, and Custom car, modification of motor ve ...

– via the Automotive Council – and the

UK government His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

through the

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy The Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) was a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom Government, from July 2016 to Februar ...

(BEIS) and managed by Innovate UK. In September 2015, Warwick celebrated its 50th anniversary and was designated " University of the Year" by ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' and ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

''. In December 2017, the university announced it would not continue with a project to open a Campus in

Roseville, California Roseville is the most populous city in Placer County, California, located within the Sacramento metropolitan area. As of 2019, the United States Census Bureau, US Census Bureau estimated the city's population to be 141,500, making it the third-l ...

. The university had spent £1.2 million on the project. In 2023, the students' union voted for all the union-run catering to offer all plant-based meals. The vote was supported in order to reduce climate change emissions. By the following academic year, the menus will be 50% vegan and then will be fully plant-based by 2027. It is the eighth student union at a U.K. university to adopt plant-based catering.

Campus

Warwick is located on the outskirts of

, southwest of the city centre and not in the town of Warwick as its name suggests. The university's main site comprises three contiguous campuses, all within walking distance of each other. The university also owns a site in Wellesbourne, acquired in 2004 when it merged with Horticulture Research International.

Main campus

The main Warwick campus occupies between the City of

and the County of

. The original buildings of the campus are in contemporary 1960s architecture. The campus contains all of the main student amenities, all but four of the student halls of residence, and the Students' Union. The campus is split between the parliamentary constituencies of

Kenilworth Kenilworth ( ) is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Warwick (district), Warwick District of Warwickshire, England, southwest of Coventry and north of both Warwick and Leamington Spa. Situated at the centre of t ...

and Southam and Coventry South.

Warwick Arts Centre

The Warwick Arts Centre is a multi-venue arts complex situated at the centre of Warwick's main campus. It attracts around 300,000 visitors a year to over 3,000 individual events spanning contemporary and classical music, drama, dance, comedy, films and visual art. The centre comprises six principal spaces: the Butterworth Hall, a 1,500-seat concert hall; a 550-seat theatre; a 180-seat theatre studio; three cinema screens; the Mead Gallery, an art gallery; and the Music Centre, with practice rooms, and an ensemble rehearsal room where music societies and groups can rehearse. In addition the site includes a restaurant/ café.

University House

In 2003, Warwick acquired the former headquarters of National Grid, which it converted into an administration building renamed University House. There is a student-run facility called the ‘Learning Grid’ in the building, which includes two floors of PC clusters, scanners, photocopiers, a reference library, interactive whiteboards and plasma screens for use by individuals and for group work.

Koan

The ''White Koan'' is a modern art sculpture by Liliane Lijn which is installed outside the back entrance to the Warwick Arts Centre. The ''Koan'' is high, white in colour, decorated with elliptical of

fluorescent light A fluorescent lamp, or fluorescent tube, is a low-pressure mercury-vapor gas-discharge lamp that uses fluorescence to produce visible light. An electric current in the gas excites mercury vapor, to produce ultraviolet and make a phosphor ...

s and is rotated by an electric motor whilst illuminated. It is intended to represent the Buddhist quest for questions without answers, the Kōan. The ''Koan'' was made in 1971 as part of the Peter Stuyvesant Foundation City Sculpture Project and was originally sited in Plymouth; it moved to the

Hayward Gallery The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London, England and part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings (the Royal ...

in London before being purchased by Warwick in 1972. The ''Koan'' was temporarily relocated to the university's Gibbet Hill campus during refurbishments to the Warwick Arts Centre; it was returned upon completion of the project. According to student newspaper '' The Boar'', the white Koan has played a role in many of campus' myths and legends – it was allegedly the nose-cap of the Blue-Streak Missile, a supposed quick escape route for senior staff, and even a signalling device for aliens in outer space. The ''Koan'' even garnered its own cartoon strip in the 1990s, with thirty-two episodes created by Steve Shipway. The Koan Worshipping Society, led by the Koanists, believe the ''Koan'' is “the earth-bound manifestation of the immortal Koan, the creator of the universe”.

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 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 The Coventry Building Society Arena (often shortened to the CBS Arena or just simply Coventry Arena, and formerly known as the Ricoh Arena) is a complex in Coventry, West Midlands, England. It includes a 32,609-seater stadium which is currentl ...

, home at the time to

Coventry City Football Club Coventry City Football Club is an English professional association football, football club based in Coventry, West Midlands (region), West Midlands. The club plays in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football league system, En ...

, 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

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.

Other sites

Other Warwick sites include: * The Gibbet Hill Campus, located contiguous to the main campus; home to the department of Life Sciences and the pre-clinical activities of Warwick Medical School. * The Westwood Campus, located contiguous to the main campus; home to the Centre for Professional Education, Centre for Lifelong Learning, the Arden House conference centre, an indoor tennis centre, a running track and some postgraduate facilities and student residences. * The University of Warwick Science Park. * University Hospital Coventry, in Walsgrave on Sowe area and home to the Clinical Sciences Building of the medical school. * Warwick Horticulture Research International Research & Conference Centre, located in Wellesbourne, Warwickshire. *

The Shard The Shard, also referred to as the Shard London Bridge and formerly London Bridge Tower, is a 72-storey mixed-use development supertall pyramid-shaped skyscraper, designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano, in Southwark, London, that for ...

skyscraper, in the city of

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, houses Warwick Business School's metropolitan campus where the Executive MBA is taught.

Recent developments

In November 2005, Warwick outlined proposals for how it would like to develop its campus over the next fifteen years. The proposals built upon recent construction activity including a new

Mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

and

Statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ...

Building, new

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

Building, new

Business School A business school is a higher education institution or professional school that teaches courses leading to degrees in business administration or management. A business school may also be referred to as school of management, management school, s ...

buildings, a Digital Laboratory, new Residences and an expanded

Sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...

Centre. The proposals envisage a shift in the "centre of gravity" of the campus away from the Students' Union towards University House and a proposed "Academic Square". Developed projects included an inter-disciplinary biosciences research facility; a £25 million upgrade to Warwick Business School; and the National Automotive Innovation Campus (NAIC), a new £150 million venture funded by Jaguar Land Rover and the UK government. The NAIC's purpose was to research and develop novel technologies to reduce dependency on fossil fuels and to reduce emissions. The new campus for postgraduates was opened in early-2020. The campus has been dubbed a "brain trust" and is intended to pioneer the green and high-tech sports and luxury cars of tomorrow, doubling the size of Jaguar's research team. In 2017, the university announced its intention to see an exponential growth of its main campus in order to remain "world-class" and cope with the growing number of applications it receives each year, especially from non-UK students. This growth included a new £33 million Faculty of Arts, a £55 million new sports centre which was finished in April 2019, a new £54.3 million Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Building (IBRB), a new type of student accommodation called "Cryfield Village", the expansion of Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), a redevelopment for the Art centre and a new Library. For this occasion,

Vice-Chancellor A vice-chancellor (commonly called a VC) serves as the chief executive of a university in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Kenya, other Commonwealth of Nati ...

of Warwick University Stuart Croft declared: "New buildings are and will continue to be a part of our everyday existence. We need to open one new academic building a year from now until at least 2023. In order to do this and to keep Warwick as one of the world’s leading universities, we need to do this together, involving the whole community."

Organisation and administration

Warwick is governed by two formal bodies: the Council and the Senate. In addition to these, a steering committee provide strategic leadership in between meetings of the formal bodies. Faculties are overseen by faculty boards which report to the Senate. The principal officers of the university have responsibility for day-to-day operations of the university. These include the registrar, the secretary to council, the group finance director, the director of commercial, the chief information and digital officer, and the chief communications officer The latter two roles were created after it emerged that the current registrar, Rachel Sandby-Thomas, had failed in her duty as the then data protection officer to notify staff, students, and partners of a series of significant breaches.

Faculties and departments

Warwick's academic activities are organised into the following faculties and departments:

Finances

In the financial year ending 31 July 2024, the University of Warwick had a total income of £850.5 million (2022/23 – £828.2 million) and total expenditure of £559.6 million (2022/23 – £722.1 million). Key sources of income included £459.6 million from tuition fees and education contracts (2022/23 – £453.8 million), £74.1 million from funding body grants (2022/23 – £74.4 million), £146.5 million from research grants and contracts (2022/23 – £144.1 million), £24 million from investment income (2022/23 – £14.5 million) and £4.5 million from donations and endowments (2022/23 – £3.9 million). At year end, Warwick had endowments of £7.3 million (2023 – £6.7 million) and total net assets of £733.3 million (2023 – £444.7 million).

Coat of arms

Warwick's

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

depicts atoms of two

isotope Isotopes are distinct nuclear species (or ''nuclides'') of the same chemical element. They have the same atomic number (number of protons in their Atomic nucleus, nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemica ...

s of

lithium Lithium (from , , ) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard temperature and pressure, standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the ...

, a

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

helix to represent science and also the ''Bear and Ragged Staff'', historically associated with

and previously the Earls of Warwick as well as the Elephant and Castle of

. The Bear is not chained in the current depiction of the university's coat of arms, although it had been in its original grant of

Letters Patent Letters patent (plurale tantum, plural form for singular and plural) are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch, President (government title), president or other head of state, generally granti ...

by the

College of Arms The College of Arms, or Heralds' College, is a royal corporation consisting of professional Officer of Arms, officers of arms, with jurisdiction over England, Wales, Northern Ireland and some Commonwealth realms. The heralds are appointed by the ...

Academic profile

In , Warwick's student body consisted of students, composed of undergraduates and postgraduate students. About 43% of the student body comes from outside the UK and over 120 countries are represented on the campus. The university has twenty-nine academic departments and over forty research centres and institutes, in three faculties:

Arts The arts or creative arts are a vast range of human practices involving creativity, creative expression, storytelling, and cultural participation. The arts encompass diverse and plural modes of thought, deeds, and existence in an extensive ...

, Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics ( STEM), and Social Sciences. There were 2,492 academic and research staff in October 2018.

International partnerships

Warwick students can study abroad for a semester or a year and may obtain a double degree. International partners include

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a Public university, public research university located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to uptown Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also op ...

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

Sciences Po Paris Sciences Po () or Sciences Po Paris, also known as the Paris Institute of Political Studies (), is a public research university located in Paris, France, that holds the status of ''grande école'' and the legal status of . The university's unde ...

, and the

Balsillie School of International Affairs The Balsillie School of International Affairs (BSIA) is a centre for advanced research and teaching on global governance and international public policy, located in Waterloo, Ontario. As one of the largest social sciences initiatives in Canada, ...

Rankings and reputation

Warwick has a number of subjects within the 2022 ARWU's global top 50: * 20th in Mathematics * 22nd in Management * 29th in Economics * 31st in Statistics * 41st in Political Sciences * 50th in Sociology In broad subject rankings, Warwick is ranked 36th globally for Social Sciences, 42nd for Humanities, and 78th for Natural Sciences, 164th for Engineering and Technology, and 204th for Life Sciences and Medicine according to the 2020

QS World University Rankings The ''QS World University Rankings'' is a portfolio of comparative college and university rankings compiled by Quacquarelli Symonds, a higher education analytics firm. Its first and earliest edition was published in collaboration with '' Times ...

. In subject rankings, Warwick has a number of subjects within the global top 50 including: * 16th in Statistics * 19th in Mathematics * 23rd in English and Literature * 23rd in Business and Management * 25th in Economics and Econometrics * 38th in Philosophy * 39th in History * 42nd in Modern Languages * 47th in Accounting and Finance * 48th in Sociology * 48th in Development Studies * 49th in Politics and International Studies The

Times Higher Education ''Times Higher Education'' (''THE''), formerly ''The Times Higher Education Supplement'' (''The THES''), is a British magazine reporting specifically on news and issues related to higher education. Ownership TPG Capital acquired TSL Education ...

rankings has ranked six out of eleven subjects at Warwick within the global top 100 in 2020: * 4th in Teaching Rankings * 26th in Economics and Business * 51st in Arts and Humanities * 64th in Law * 81st in Physical Sciences * 81st in Social Sciences * 85th in Psychology Warwick's Economics department and Politics and International Studies (PAIS) department were ranked 1st in the UK by the Good University Guide 2020 ahead of Oxbridge. The Mathematics department was ranked 10th in the world (3rd in the UK) in 2019 by

Academic Ranking of World Universities The ''Academic Ranking of World Universities'' (''ARWU''), also known as the Shanghai Ranking, is one of the annual publications of world university rankings. The league table was originally compiled and issued by Shanghai Jiao Tong Universi ...

and 19th in the world (4th in the UK) in 2020 by QS.

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

University Guide ranks Warwick Business School (WBS) second only after Oxford's Saïd Business School in Business and Management in 2014. The 2020

ranked WBS 4th in the UK and 23rd globally. However, Law and Legal Studies at Warwick has dropped from 36th globally in 2013 to 51–100th in 2020. Warwick is consistently ranked amongst the top ten in the three major national rankings of British universities. Warwick is a member of the ' Sutton 13' of top ranked universities in the UK. Warwick was declared as ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times'' " University of the Year" 2015. Overall, nineteen of the twenty-seven subjects offered by Warwick were ranked within the top 10 nationally in 2019 by the Complete University Guide. In 2017, Warwick was named as the university with the joint second highest graduate employment rate of any UK university, with 97.7% of its graduates in work or further study three and a half years after graduation.

Admissions

Warwick students also average top A-Level grades with new entrants in 2022 amassing an average of 168 UCAS points, the equivalent of AAAa at A-level—the 18th highest in the country. The university gave offers of admission to 62% of its undergraduate applicants in 2022, the 34th lowest offer rate across the country. For 2017 entry, the university was one of only a few mainstream universities (along with

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, Imperial College, LSE,

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

St Andrews St Andrews (; ; , pronounced [kʰʲɪʎˈrˠiː.ɪɲ]) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fourth-largest settleme ...

, and University College London, UCL) to have no courses available in UCAS#Confirmation and clearing, Clearing. 22% of Warwick's undergraduates are Independent school (United Kingdom), privately educated, the fifteenth highest proportion amongst mainstream British universities. In the 2016–17 academic year, the university had a domicile breakdown of 66:9:25 of UK:EU:non-EU students respectively with a female to male ratio of 50:50.

Library

The main university library is located in the middle of the main campus. It houses approximately 1,265,000 books and over 13 kilometres of archives and manuscripts. The main library houses services to support Research and Teaching practice and collaboration between departments. The Wolfson Research Exchange opened in October 2008 and provides collaboration spaces, seminar rooms, conference facilities and study areas for Postgraduate Research students. The Teaching Grid, which opened in 2008, is a flexible space which allows teaching staff to try out new technologies and techniques. Adjacent to the main library building is the Modern Records Centre, a sizeable archive collection, including the UK's largest industrial relations collection.

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*. Warwick is particularly strong in the areas of decision sciences research including economics, finance, management, mathematics and statistics. For instance, researchers of the Warwick Business School have won the highest prize of the prestigious European Case Clearing House. Warwick has also established a number of stand-alone units to manage and extract commercial value from its research activities. The four most prominent examples of these units are University of Warwick Science Park; Warwick HRI; Warwick Ventures; and WMG (formerly Warwick Manufacturing Group), WMG.

Commercial focus

Warwick has at times received criticism for being too commercially focused, at the expense of academic creativity and diversity. The most famous proponent of this critique was the noted historian E. P. Thompson, who edited and wrote much of ''Warwick University Ltd'' in 1971. The book focuses on the brief student occupation of the Registry in 1967, and its causes, the files that were discovered and published, and the subsequent actions of the university, students and staff. Nevertheless, with the appointment of Nick Scheele, Sir Nicholas Scheele as Chancellor in 2002, the university signalled that it intended to continue and expand its commercial activities. In an interview for the BBC, Scheele said: "I think in the future, education and industry need to become even more closely linked than they have been historically. As government funding changes, the replacement could well come through private funding from companies, individuals and grant-giving agencies."

Student life

The university has a campus cat named Rolf.

Students' Union

The University of Warwick Students' Union is one of the largest students' unions in the UK, and currently has over 260 societies and 67 sports clubs including basketball, University of Warwick Boat Club, rowing and ice hockey. The Union has an annual turnover of approximately £6 million, the profit from which is used to provide services to students and to employ its staff and sabbatical officers. The Union is divided into two buildings—SUHQ and The Union Building. The Union Building contains a three-room club venue known as "The Copper Rooms"; CAMRA-accredited "The Dirty Duck" pub; a popular bar called "The Terrace Bar"; Curiositea, a tea shop known for its hot chocolates, cakes and vintage atmosphere; The Graduate, a postgraduate social and study space; and The Bread Oven, a design-your-own sandwich shop.

Student media

Student media at Warwick includes: * Radio Warwick (RAW) – student radio station. * '' The Boar'' – newspaper distributed free across campus every second Wednesday.

''University Challenge''

The university won BBC television's ''University Challenge'' competition in 2021. This was their second win – their first was in 2007, beating the title-holders University of Manchester in the final.

Esports

The University of Warwick are the five-time UK Esports "University of the Year", having won the title every year since its inception. In August 2022, Warwick became the first UK university to receive a finalist nomination for the Esports Awards, for Esports Collegiate Program of the Year, with Head of Esports Jack Fenton also becoming the first UK nominee for Collegiate Ambassador of the Year. Warwick fields numerous esports teams each year through its student-run esports society, Warwick Esports, who compete out of the #Esports Facilities, Esports Centre.

Student housing

The Warwick campus currently has around 6,300 student bedrooms across a range of undergraduate and postgraduate residences. All of the residences are self-catered, and each has residential tutors and a warden. Warwick guarantees accommodation for all first-year undergraduate students, regardless of their present address. Many of the university's postgraduate population are also catered for, with some specific residences available for postgraduate living. Each residence accommodates a mixture of students both with home and international status, male and female, and, sometimes, undergraduate and postgraduate. In their second and third years, many students live in one of the surrounding towns: either Coventry, Canley, Kenilworth or Royal Leamington Spa, where they can live in student accommodation or independently owned residences. Since 2011, Warwick has constructed two new halls of residences for the students. Bluebell, opened in 2011, offers accommodation in flats of eight people, with a total of 505 single rooms for first-year undergraduates. The Sherbourne residences was opened in 2012, which similarly provides 527 ensuite rooms to first-years, and was extended with a further 267 rooms in 2017. A further 700 new rooms were built in the Cryfield Village, namely Cryfield ‘Townhouse’ and ‘Standard’ residences.

Political incidents

In June 2014, the university announced Alex Davies (extremist), Alex Davies, a member of the proscribed terrorist organisation National Action (UK), National Action, voluntarily withdrew from his course. In early 2018, it was made public 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 Working Definition of Antisemitism, IHRA definition of antisemitism. This decision was later reversed in October following intervention by Education Secretary Gavin Williamson. In June 2024, Students of the University's Conservative association were filmed singing and dancing to the Nazi-era World War II marching song Erika (song), "Erika" at their annual black-tie dinner.

Notable people

File:Nobel Laureates 0983 (31117127490).jpg, Oliver Hart (economist), Oliver Hart, Nobel Laureate in Economics File:StephenMerchantAltNov09.jpg, Stephen Merchant,

Winner File:Andy Haldane - Festival Economia 2013.JPG, Andy Haldane, Chief Economist at the

File:John Cornforth 1975.jpg, John Cornforth, Sir John Cornforth, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry File:Professor Susan Strange, c1980.jpg, Susan Strange, developed the International Political Economy as a field of study File:Luis Arce (23588020275) (cropped).jpg, Luis Arce, President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia File:Valerie Amos DFID 2013.jpg, Valerie Amos, Baroness Amos, former diplomat and first-ever black head of an

college File:Nicholas Herbert Stern, Baron Stern of Brentford.jpg, Nicholas Stern, Baron Stern of Brentford, former Chief Economist of the World Bank File:Official portrait of Baroness Morris of Yardley crop 2, 2019.jpg, Estelle Morris, Baroness Morris of Yardley, Privy Counsellor; former The Labour Party (UK), Labour Secretary of State for Education File:George Saitoti (cropped).jpg, George Saitoti, former Vice-President of Kenya File:Christopher Zeeman.jpeg, Christopher Zeeman, Sir Christopher Zeeman, mathematician File:Sting in April 2018.jpg, Sting (musician), Sting, lead singer of The Police and solo artist File:Professor Martin Hairer FRS.jpg, Martin Hairer, expert in stochastic partial differential equations; winner of the

Warwick has over 150,000 alumni and an active alumni network. Among the university's alumni, academic staff and researchers are two Nobel Laureates, a

winner, and a significant number of fellows of the

, the

, and the

. Former Warwick students active in politics and government include Guðni Th. Jóhannesson, President of Iceland; Luis Arce, President of Bolivia; Joseph Ngute, Prime Minister of Cameroon; Yakubu Gowon, former President of Nigeria; Gus O'Donnell, Sir Gus O'Donnell, former Cabinet Secretary (United Kingdom), Cabinet Secretary and head of the British Civil Service; Andy Haldane, Andrew Haldane, Chief Economist at the

; David Davis (British politician), David Davis, former Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union and former Shadow Home Secretary; Baroness Amos, Baroness Valerie Amos, the eighth UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator and former Leader of the House of Lords; Mahmoud Mohieldin the Senior Vice President of the World Bank Group; Bob Kerslake, former Head of the Home Civil Service; Kim Howells, former Foreign Office Minister; and Isabel Carvalhais, Portuguese Member of the European Parliament, MEP (S&D Group); H. A. Hellyer, H.A Hellyer, led the British government's Taskforce on Tackling Radicalisation and Extremism; George Chouliarakis, Greek Minister of Finance (Greece), Alternate Minister of Finance; and Sir Bob Kerslake, Head of the Home Civil Service. In academia, people associated with Warwick include: Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1975) winner John Cornforth, Sir John Cornforth who was a professor at Warwick; mathematicians Ian Stewart (mathematician), Ian Stewart, David Preiss, David B. A. Epstein, David Epstein and

list Martin Hairer; computer scientists Mike Cowlishaw and Leslie Valiant; and neurologist Oliver Sacks. In arts and the social sciences: Nobel Laureate Oliver Hart (economist), Oliver Hart; economist and President of the

Nicholas Stern, Baron Stern of Brentford; academic and Provost of Worcester College, Oxford, Worcester College Jonathan Bate, Sir Jonathan Bate; academic and journalist Germaine Greer; literary critic Susan Bassnett; historians J. R. Hale, Sir J. R. Hale and David Arnold (historian), David Arnold; economist Andrew Oswald; economic historian Robert Skidelsky, Baron Skidelsky; Margaret Archer, Lady Margaret Archer, theorist in Critical realism (philosophy of the social sciences), critical realism, former Warwick lecturer and accelerationist philosopher Nick Land, former President of International Sociological Association, current president of Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences; George Bain (academic), Sir George Bain, former Principal of London Business School; John Williamson (economist), John Williamson, English economist who coined the term

; Susan Strange, British scholar of international relations who was almost single-handedly responsible for creating international political economy; Avinash Dixit, former President of the Econometric Society and American Economic Association, elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992 and the United States National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences in 2005; Robert Calderbank, winner of the IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal and the Claude E. Shannon Award; and Upendra Baxi, winner of the Padma Shri award. Warwick graduates are active in business. In the automotive industry, this includes Linda Jackson (businesswoman), Linda Jackson, CEO of Citroën; Andy Palmer, CEO of Aston Martin; Ralf Speth, CEO of Jaguar Land Rover; Sudarshan Venu, MD of TVS Motor Company; Others include Bernardo Hees, former CEO of both the H. J. Heinz Company, Heinz Company and of Burger King; Nigel Wilson (businessman), Nigel Wilson, CEO of Legal & General; and Ian Gorham, CEO of Hargreaves Lansdown; Ness Wadia. Notable Warwick alumni in media, entertainment and the arts include Emmy and BAFTA Award-winning Stephen Merchant, best known for being the co-writer and co-director of the sitcoms ''The Office (UK TV series), The Office'' and ''Extras (TV series), Extras''; Academy Award, Oscar-nominated screenwriter Tony Roche (writer), Tony Roche, known for co-writing and co-producing ''Veep (TV series), Veep'' and ''The Thick of It''; Emmy Awards, Emmy and British Academy of Film and Television Arts, BAFTA-winner Brett Goldstein; Olivier Award-winning director and writer Dominic Cooke, who is also artistic director at the Royal Court Theatre; actress Ruth Jones (actress), Ruth Jones; comedian and actor Frank Skinner; ''The Guardian, Guardian'' columnist Dawn Foster; blacksmith turned comedian and comedy writer Lloyd Langford; actors Matt Stokoe and Adam Buxton; science fiction and fantasy author Jonathan Green (speculative fiction writer), Jonathan Green; actor Julian Rhind-Tutt; Olivier Award-winning actor, Alex Jennings; author Anne Fine; author A.L. Kennedy; Tony Wheeler, creator of the Lonely Planet travel guides; Camila Batmanghelidjh; Merfyn Jones, governor of the BBC; and electronic dance music artist Gareth Emery. Grammy-and-

-winning musician Sting (musician), Sting enrolled at Warwick, but left after a term.

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Warwick, University Of University of Warwick, 1965 establishments in England Educational institutions established in 1965 Buildings and structures in Coventry Russell Group Universities UK

History

Twentieth century

Twenty-first century

Campus

Main campus

Warwick Arts Centre

University House

Koan

Sports facilities

Esports facilities

Other sites

Recent developments

Organisation and administration

Faculties and departments

Finances

Coat of arms

Academic profile

International partnerships

Rankings and reputation

Admissions

Library

Research

Commercial focus

Student life

Students' Union

Student media

''University Challenge''

Esports

Student housing

Political incidents

Notable people

See also

Notes

References

External links