About the School

Specialisation with breadth

The School is one of the largest centres in Europe for teaching and research in the built and natural environments, and covers an unusually wide range of disciplines. There are 200 academic and technical staff and 2200 students, working in five Departments and ten Research Centres, enabling specialist research and teaching to be combined with a breadth of vision. Staff from different disciplines and professions work together in teams to develop a deep and sophisticated understanding of how different natural and human forces combine to shape the environments around us. Researchers and students relate their own work to other disciplines and professions through joint projects and assignments.

Departments

• Construction and Civil Engineering
• Geography and Environmental Management
• Property and Communities
• Planning and Architecture

Research and Consultancy

The School has an expanding portfolio of local, national and international research activities. At any one time the Research Centres have fifty to sixty active research projects and the annual external income from research exceeds £1 million.

Research Centres

• Air Quality Management Resource Centre
• Centre for Leisure, Tourism and Society
• Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environments
• Centre for Research in Environmental Science
• Centre for the Study of Sustainable Building
• Centre for Transport and Society
• Cities Research Centre
• Construction and Property Research Centre
• Geography Research Unit
• World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Healthy Cities and Urban Policy

Teaching excellence and innovation

Teaching staff are actively engaged in research or professional practice, ensuring that students learn directly from the latest academic and business developments. Staff also lead projects to enhance teaching, learning and assessment strategies, web communication systems, inter-professional team building and to develop students' research skills.

Supportive and flexible learning

In addition to traditional full-time study at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, most degree courses can be taken part-time by day release, and some are available through distance learning with staff support available as required. The mode or length of study can usually be changed if students’ circumstances change. Credit awarded by other institutions, or learning gained through work, may count towards a Bristol UWE award.

The School also offers professional development and short courses, enabling students to enrol for as little as one day’s learning, either through the web or for a taught course, with credit towards a university certificate if they wish. We can also produce a package of learning to meet the requirements of individual employers.

Training professionals

The School has strong links with professional bodies, which accredit many of the courses, and with employers who provide sandwich year placements for students, support part-time routes to qualification and advise on curriculum developments. Our record of graduate employment is excellent.

Equipped for success

The School occupies modern buildings on the Frenchay campus, and is well equipped with laboratories (including a new Environmental Change laboratory) for the study of all aspects of the built and natural environments. We also have computer suites supporting computer aided design (CAD) and geographical information systems (GIS) and have recently constructed a new studio building using sustainable materials and advanced technology, incorporating a new spatial analysis laboratory. The recently expanded campus library is very large and also provides access to extensive electronic resources.

As important as these physical resources are the teams of specialist technicians who support both teaching, consultancy and research, including the production and development of testing and research equipment.