Bath Spa University

About

Bath Spa University is a public university in Bath, England, with its main campus at Newton Park, about 3+1⁄2 miles (5.6 km) west of the centre of the city. The university has other campuses in the city of Bath and London, as well as a site at Corsham Court in Wiltshire. The institution gained full university status in August 2005, having been previously known as Bath College of Higher Education, and later Bath Spa University College.

The institution can trace its roots back to the foundation of the Bath School of Art in 1852, following the impact of The Great Exhibition of 1851. In 1946, Bath Teacher Training College was opened on the Newton Park campus, as part of the post-war initiatives to fill wartime teaching shortages. It was a women's college offering two year courses, under the Principal Mary Dawson. The present institution was formed in 1975 as Bath College of Higher Education by the merger of Bath Teacher Training College and Bath College of Domestic Science. In 1983 Bath Academy of Art also merged into the college. In 1992, the college was granted degree-awarding powers and in 1997 adopted the name Bath Spa University College. In March 2005 the institution was granted university status, becoming Bath Spa University in August 2005. In 2013, the university was the UK's sixth-largest provider of teacher education.

The Newton Park campus, to the west of Bath near the village of Newton St Loe, is the largest of the university's three main campuses. It is here that courses from all schools are taught, with the exception of art and design. The campus is in Newton Park, in grounds designed by English landscape architect Lancelot "Capability" Brown and leased from the Duchy of Cornwall. The campus has buildings from a mixture of ages. These include the Grade I listed Main House built between 1762 and 1765 by Stiff Leadbetter for Joseph Langton MP; the remnants of the 14th-century Newton St Loe Castle, a scheduled monument also with Grade I listed status; and Grade II* listed stable buildings, gardens and a walled garden. It is the university's only campus to have student accommodation on site, and is also home to the Students' Union. The site has a lake, nature reserve, woodlands and arable farmland. The site underwent extensive development in the 2010s.

In the summer of 2012, work began on the development of a new academic building called "Commons", roughly in the centre of the Newton Park campus. Next to the academic building is an outside amphitheatre, primarily for use by the School of Music and Performing arts. The building was officially opened on 5 June 2014 by film producer Lord Puttnam.

The Michael Tippett Centre is the only purpose-built concert hall in Bath. The building has many teaching rooms and spaces, and the hall is used for lectures, mainly by the School of Music and Performing Arts. The hall is also used for exhibitions, musical performances and plays from student performers as well professional acts from around the country.

The University Theatre, completed in 2006, was part of a £5.7m scheme designed by Fielden Clegg Bradley Architects LLP. It consists of a 186-seat auditorium with backstage and technical facilities, and three large teaching studios. The venue is used by the School of Music and Performing Arts for teaching actors, directors, production managers, choreographers and dancers.

In October 2015, the university announced that it had submitted proposals for the purchase and redevelopment of the former Herman Miller furniture factory on Locksbrook Road, Bath, about 1+1⁄4 miles (2.0 km) west of Bath city centre. The site would become a new home for Bath School of Art and Design, as the Sion Hill campus did not provide enough academic space. The factory was designed by Nicholas Grimshaw, completed in 1977 and Grade II listed in 2013. In 2016, the purchase went ahead, and the planning application for the redevelopment was approved by Bath and North East Somerset Council in September 2017. Remodelling and refurbishment was again designed by Grimshaw Architects, and the building was opened as the Locksbrook Campus in October 2019.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.