Swansea University

Swansea University has been at the cutting edge of research and innovation since 1920. We have a long history of working with business and industry but today our world-class research has a much wider impact across the health, wealth, culture, and well-being of our society. We have achieved an extraordinary level of success in recent years and our research activity exceeds that of many larger universities yet this has not compromised the friendly and relaxed atmosphere that has always characterised the “Swansea experience”. Having celebrated our Centenary in 2020, we look forward to continuing to work together to improve lives and the bright future that the next century will bring. The University's foundation stone was laid by King George V on 19 July 1920 and 89 students (including eight female students) enrolled that same year. By September 1939, there were 65 staff and 485 students. In 1947 there were just two permanent buildings on campus: Singleton Abbey and the library. The Principal, J S Fulton, recognised the need to expand the estate and had a vision of a self-contained community, with residential, social and academic facilities on a single site. His vision was to become the first university campus in the UK.By 1960 a large-scale development programme was underway that would see the construction of new halls of residence, the Maths and Science Tower, and College House (later renamed Fulton House). The 1960s also saw the development of the "finite element method" by Professor Olek Zienkiewicz. His technique revolutionised the design and engineering of manufactured products, and Swansea was starting to stake its claim as an institution that demanded to be taken seriously.Work began on the student village at Hendrefoelan in 1971, the South Wales Miners' Library was established in 1973 and the Taliesin Arts Centre opened on campus in 1984. The Regional Schools of Nursing transferred to Swansea in 1992, and the College of Medicine opened in 2001. Technium Digital was completed in 2005 and, barely two years later, the University opened its Institute of Life Science, which commercialises the results of research undertaken in the Swansea University Medical School. Work commenced on a second Institute of Life Science in 2009. In 2012 we began an ambitious campus expansion and development project, including the opening of our Bay Campus in 2015; which is home to the College of Engineering and the School of Management. In 2018 we opened the doors to two further projects, The College; Swansea University's joint venture with Navitas (The International College Wales Swansea, ICWS) and the Computational Foundry; the home of the College of Science's departments of Computer Science and Mathematics. The Park Campus houses the oldest parts of the university's estate, including Singleton Abbey, a large eighteenth-century mansion which was the ancestral home of the Vivian family, having been bought by the prominent industrialist, John Henry Vivian. Swansea University's foundation stone was laid in 1920 by King George V in July 1920, welcoming 89 students, of whom eight were female. Subjects taught from the beginning of the college were the sciences, mathematics, metallurgy and engineering. The professors were A.R. Richardson (mathematics), E.J. Evans (physics), J.E. Coates (chemistry),[9] A.E. Trueman (geology),[10] C.A. Edwards (metallurgy) and F. Bacon (engineering). The university was granted a coat of arms by the College of Heralds in 1921 with the motto Gweddw Crefft Heb Ei Dawn, translated as 'technical skill is bereft without culture.Arts subjects were not taught immediately in 1920, but started in the following 'session', 1921–22. The first professors in those initial departments were D. Emrys Evans (classics), W.D. Thomas (English language and literature), Henry Lewis (Welsh), E. Ernest Hughes (History), F.A. Cavenagh (education) and Mary Williams (French). Williams was the first woman to be appointed to a chair in the United Kingdom. This met with some reaction from senior men at the college, one of whom she would later marry. Saunders Lewis, the well-known Welsh language writer and activist, became a member of staff in 1922 although he ran up against controversy in 1936/37 for trying to set fire to a Royal Air Force bombing school on the Llŷn Peninsula. He was tried at the Old Bailey and sent to prison for nine months. When Singleton Abbey and its surrounding land was handed to the college in 1923, arts subjects were moved there from the college's temporary site in Mount Pleasant. Student numbers remained relatively small until the Second World War. Swansea acquired departments of philosophy 1925, German in 1931, economics in 1937, social policy in 1947, political theory and government in 1954 – the same year that a civil engineering and a geography department were added. In 1961 Swansea became a centre for Russian and East European studies, whilst Italian and Spanish joined the Department of French.These values have been developed by the Professional Services community at Swansea University, who have agreed:All Professional Services areas at Swansea University operate to a defined set of Core Values and it is an expectation that everyone is able to demonstrate a commitment to these values from the point of application through to the day to day delivery of their roles.Our Values are:We are Professional: We take pride in applying our knowledge, skills, creativity, integrity and judgement to deliver innovative, effective, efficient services and solutions of excellent qualityWe Work Together :  We take pride in working in a proactive, collaborative environment of equality, trust, respect, co-operation and challenge to deliver services that strive to exceed the needs and expectations of customers.We Care: We take responsibility for listening, understanding and responding flexibly to our students, colleagues, external partners and the public so that every contact they have with us is a personalised and positive experience.

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