Everything about Birkbeck University Of London totally explained
Birkbeck, University of London, sometimes referred to by its former name
Birkbeck College or by the abbreviation
BBK, is a constituent college of the
University of London. At the undergraduate level, it aims at working people who want to study for degrees in the evenings (
adult education). At the postgraduate level, it offers many
Master's degree programmes that can be studied either part-time or full-time, though nearly all teaching is in the evening, whilst it also admits full-time (as well as part-time) students for PhDs. Its staff members have strong research reputations. It also offers many
continuing education courses leading to
extramural certificates and diplomas, as well as other short courses.
Location
Originally known as
Birkbeck Literary and Scientific Institution, the main building is between Malet Street and
Woburn Square in
Bloomsbury, with a number of other buildings on nearby streets.
Virginia Woolf fans will also be interested to know that Birkbeck's School of History of Art, Film and Visual Media is housed in Woolf's former
Gordon Square residence in Bloomsbury.
Many Birkbeck classes are taught at other locations across London, including many other universities. This is due to a combination of Birkbeck's
widening participation strategy to make higher education accessible and also because nearly all classes on one day are taught at the same time, resulting in heavy competition for limited space.
In
2006 it was announced that Birkbeck will be expanding into
East London, in conjunction with the
University of East London. Initially space will be rented as well as utilising the
University of East London Stratford Campus, but the long-term aim is to construct a dedicated facility in
Stratford. The project will be known as
Birkbeck Stratford.
History
In
1823,
George Birkbeck, an early pioneer of adult education, founded the then "London
Mechanics Institute" at a meeting at the Crown and Anchor Tavern on the
Strand. Over two thousand people attended. However the idea wasn't universally popular and some accused Birkbeck of "scattering the seeds of evil."
Two years later the institute would move to the Southampton Buildings on
Chancery Lane. In
1830, the first female students were admitted. In
1858 changes to the
University of London's structure resulting in an opening up of access to the examinations for its degree. The Institute became the main provider of part-time university education.
The School of Continuing Education
The current School of Continuing Education, which specialises in
extra-mural studies didn't become an integral part of Birkbeck until
1988 but has a long separate history.
In
1876 the
London Society for the Extension of University Education was founded, boosting the aims of encouraging working people to undertake higher education. In
1903 it became the Department of Extra-Mural Studies of the
University of London and it was integrated into Birkbeck in
1988. Initially known as the Centre for Extra-Mural Studies, it has also been called the Faculty of Continuing Education before adopting its current name in
2005.
Research and Teaching
While part-time undergraduate teaching remains the focus and mandate of Birkbeck, the college has recently grown into a powerhouse for progressive research in the arts and humanities.
The Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities was established in 2004, with the renowned but controversial Slovenian philosopher
Slavoj Zizek appointed as International Director. According to its website, the Institute aims to, among other things, "engage with important public issues of our time through a series of open debates, lectures, seminars and conferences" and "foster and promote a climate of interdisciplinary research and collaboration among academics and researchers". The launch of the Institute wasn't without controversy, provoking an article in
The Observer newspaper titled "What have intellectuals ever done for the world?" which criticised the ostensible irrelevance and elitism of contemporary public intellectuals.
Meanwhile, the
London Consortium graduate school -- a collaboration between Birkbeck, the
Tate Galleries, the
Institute of Contemporary Arts, the
Architectural Association, and, until 1999, the
British Film Institute -- has been running since the mid-1990s, offering masters and doctoral degrees in the interdisciplinary humanities and cultural studies, resourced and jointly taught by all the participating institutions.(
Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities). Its permanent and adjunct faculty include figures such as
Philip Dodd,
Colin MacCabe,
Laura Mulvey,
Steven Connor,
Marina Warner,
Juliet Mitchell,
Stuart Hall,
Roger Scruton,
Salman Rushdie, as well as Zizek. Its current chair is
Anthony Julius.
Science research at Birkbeck has a notable tradition. Physicist
David Bohm who made notable contributions to the theory of
Quantum mechanics was professor of
Theoretical Physics from 1961-87 and Nobel Laureates
Aaron Klug and
Derek Barton both worked in the faculty of
crystallography. Birkbeck is part of the Institute of Structural Molecular Biology, which includes the Bloomsbury Centre for
Structural biology, established in 1998. This is a collaborative venture between Birkbeck College and
University College London and is a leading academic centre for translating gene sequences and determining
protein structure and function. It also includes the Bloomsbury Centre for Bioinformatics, a collaborative venture also between Birkbeck College and University College London for research into
Bioinformatics,
Genomics,
Systems Biology,
GRID computing and
Text mining.
Statistics & Ratings
College
Birkbeck is often not included in British Newspaper University league tables, since these are usually based on the statistics for full-time undergraduates (of which Birkbeck had none in 2005-2006
1998 saw a reversal of fortunes when Birkbeck reached the final, losing to
Magdalen College, Oxford. In
2003 Birkbeck again reached the final, facing another team of mature students from
Cranfield University. On this occasion Birkbeck won.
Fellows of Birkbeck
Notable Birkbeck people
Gennaro Esposito
Richard Melville Ballerand strategic policy adviser
Derek Barton crystallographer and Nobel Laureate for Chemistry, 1969
Antony Beevor historian
J. D. Bernal pioneer of X-ray crystallography
Annie Besant prominent theosophist
Tessa Blackstone Member of House of Lords, former U.K. government minister, vice-chancellor of University of Greenwich
Tom Blundell crystallographer, Fellow of the Royal Society
Andrew Donald Booth, head of Numerical Automation
David Bohm quantum physist
David Cox English statistician
Andrea Christofidou philosophy academic
Steven Connor professor
Diana Coole social scientist
Bernard Crick political theorist
Jennifer Donnelly writer
H. R. Ellis Davidson academic
John Driffill professor of economics
Tracey Emin artist
T. S. Eliot Nobel Laureate for Literature, 1948
Richard J. Evans lecturer
Millicent Fawcett
Ben Fine
Orlando Figes professor
Rosalind Franklin crystallographer
Hugh Gaitskell lecturer
Julia Goldsworthy Liberal Democrat MP for Falmouth and Camborne
A. C. Grayling prominent philosopher
John Joseph Haldane student
Kenneth Hare Master of the College
Eric Hobsbawm professor and President of the College
Paul Hirst professor
Vernon Ingram
C. E. M. Joad professor
William Joyce (aka Lord Haw-Haw), student
Peter J. King professor
Aaron Klug crystallographer and Nobel Laureate for Chemistry, 1982
Ramsay MacDonald first Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
John McDonnell MP Politician
Leonard Mandel nuclear physicist
John Redcliffe Maud, master of the college
Mark Mazower professor
Louis Mordell researcher
Laura Mulvey professor
Nikolaus Pevsner professor
Ben Pimlott, professor
Ehsan Masood, Writer and Journalist
Ernest Millington student
Nissim Ezekiel student
Arthur Wing Pinero student
J. Philippe Rushton student
Richard Sambrook student
Roger Scruton professor
Helen Sharman chemist and cosmonaut
Ron P. Smith pro vice master and professor of economics
Martin Sola professor
Laurie Taylor student
Kitty Ussher student
Alexander Van de Putte alum, former teaching fellow, scholar and renowned futurist
Sidney James Webb, 1st Baron Passfield founder of the London School of Economics
George Albert Wells professor
Ralph Vaughan Williams lecturer
Barbara Wootton lecturer
Samir El-Youssef writer
Further Information
Get more info on 'Birkbeck University Of London'.
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