Multi-site Institutions
‘Multi-site’ means exactly what it says on the tin: there’s more than one site. Although within the definition, it can take many forms.
For example, there’s the University of Buckingham: just two sites, barely a mile apart.
There’s the University of Ulster: four distinct campuses separated by more than 60 miles.
The University of Durham: a collegiate university with a much smaller satellite campus in Stockton, a long way away not only geographically (it’s 21 miles south of Durham), but also socially, academically and in every other sense. Stockton’s only really part of Durham University in the way that Hawaii’s part of the United States (although there’s a lot less sunshine in Stockton).
Or there’s Westminster: a mix of three mini campuses and numerous other buildings dotted about central London, with another campus nine miles away in Harrow in north-west London.
Multi-site universities often start as several separate institutions (usually including at least one former polytechnic) which have merged or taken each other over. Sometimes multi-siters crop up because someone once had a half-baked plan to found a university and just bought a bunch of properties without giving any real thought to how the whole thing would work.
Some multi-site universities, however, have more respectable reasons for their fractured existence (although many have come up with these reasons after the event). For example, they may have a stated intention to provide a higher education to local people, living at home in an area not sufficiently served by other universities.
Northumbria University, for instance, has two sites in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and another in Carlisle. They’re 15 and 57 miles away respectively, nowhere near the main sites or any other universities — but that’s the point. The inhabitants of Carlisle can now do business studies in their own backyard. (Shortly, the Carlisle site will become part of the University of Central Lancashire instead, but the point’s the same.)
Fair enough, but all this has an effect on the atmosphere.
Splitting up a university changes the feel of the place. Sites often feel like separate institutions. You might have applied to a big university, but find yourself stuck somewhere smaller than your school.
The university may have fantastic bars, libraries and facilities, but they’re no good to you if it’s too much trouble to get to them. It’s desperately important when applying to multi-site institutions to work out not only which site your department is based at, but also where you might be living, where those bars are, and so on. Also check out how often you’re going to have to trek from site to site and how inconvenient (and expensive) that’s going to be.
Few multi-site institutions manage to offer great facilities at every site. If most of the students are local part-time mature students, say, that may be no big deal to them — they’d rather swap some of the flashier stuff for the benefit of having it on their doorstep. But if it does matter to you, gen up on the detail before applying.
A few other examples: Brighton, De Montfort, East London, Middlesex, London Metropolitan and Staffordshire.
Last updated on: 21 May 2008