Newcastle University (UK)
Newcastle University was first established in 1834 as the medical school of Durham University, and since then, it has flourished as a comprehensive Russell Group institution of its own.
In more recent history, it has also had many connections with the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. as the only UK university to award Martin Luther King, Jr., with an honorary degree during his lifetime.
The university also named one of its buildings after Frederick Douglass, who was legally freed as a slave whilst visiting the city in 1846.
Nowadays, the university continues to stand for and embed its values of social justice and diversity, equity and inclusion in everything it does.
Here are some of the highlights from my visit in June 2023!
Newcastle
Newcastle is considered the 'capital of the northeast', and during term time, one-sixth of its nearly 300,000 population is students (I'll let you do the math!).
It has a proud industrial heritage and is considered a 'Goldilocks' city for not being too big or too small -- but rather, just right.
One of the first things you'll notice is that it's super easy to get around; you can pretty much walk anywhere -- the main train station, the river, student housing, etc. -- within 20 minutes.
Speaking of the river, the quayside was my favorite part of the city -- maybe because it reminded me of the riverfront in Cincinnati where I grew up.
Like Cincinnati, Newcastle is also a city of bridges, and travel enthusiasts may note that the Tyne Bridge in particular (below) looks strikingly similar to one Sydney Harbour Bridge (they were actually designed by the same London firm!).
It's also here that you'll find an outdoor market on Sundays, an art museum, loads of options for food and drink and a huge redevelopment that will bring a new look to the area in the shape of a £260 million waterfront conference and events venue.
And though they're not super original with their naming of places, there's even a beautiful beach town called Tynemouth that's easily accessible for students, just 15 minutes from the city by metro (it's literally located at the mouth of river Tyne; get it? Ha!).
One place that's just a bit farther out is the famous Angel of the North statue right off the A1 highway, which, like most new things, was controversial when it first went up in 1998.
Locals later grew to appreciate it, even somehow adding a massive Alan Shearer jersey at one point!
I liked what the sculptor of the statue, Antony Gormley, said of it though:
"The angel has three functions - firstly a historic one to remind us that below this site, coal miners worked in the dark for two hundred years; secondly to grasp hold of the future, expressing our transition from the industrial to the information age; and lastly to be a focus for our hopes and fears - a sculpture is an evolving thing."
Insightful and inspiring!
Newcastle is also quite a historical city and actually got its name from the medieval castle that still remains today.
If you choose to study in Newcastle, you'll no doubt come across soccer fans.
With a recent ownership change and more money, Newcastle FC is doing quite well these days.
On this visit, I was fortunate to get to have an inside look at their home grounds at St James' Park!
Newcastle is known as a lively city with plenty of bars and nightclubs, but I found this pub filled with books right under the Tyne Bridge quite interesting (it has a rooftop, too)!
Campus
For students wanting both a city and proper campus experience, Newcastle University offers a mix of both.
Most of the campus buildings are right in central Newcastle, just opposite the other main university there, Northumbria.
And I'm not sure if I've ever visited a campus whose buildings have a more varied architectural style!
The university has 28,000 students (25% international), and interestingly, it has one of the highest graduation retention rates outside London in that students want to stay in Newcastle and work after their studies -- a really good sign!
Newcastle is one of the UK's 'redbrick' universities, and the old part of campus is where you'll find the most beautiful buildings.
It's also where you'll find the statue commemorating MLK, Jr.
Engineering students will be delighted to know that theirs is the newest facility to receive an upgrade, and it's an £110 million upgrade at that!
I got to take a sneak peak at the new Stephenson Building, which will open later this year.
Sometimes it's hard for engineers to explain to non-engineers what they're doing, so the university made the below room full of windows (it's right on a street corner) so that the public could see what goes on.
Check out this page for more on this building.
One of my favorite programs at Newcastle is its Combined Honours program, a fancy way of saying 'create your own liberal arts type degree by choosing three subjects from 20+ options.'
Whilst these options include languages, law, film, archaeology, media, politics, sociology and more, most don't require a commitment prior to arrival.
They can also include an optional work placement year or year abroad, and upon graduation, the diploma will reflect the subjects the student ended up choosing.
And Combined Honours students even get their own special treatment, too, with classrooms in the 'penthouse' suites with beautiful views, their own kitchen and their own hang-out room.
Given the university began as a medical school, I would be remiss if I didn't mention its highly-rated medical degree (top 80 in the world), which can be taken straight out of high school in five years or via the 4-year graduate entry route.
One of the best parts of studying medicine at Newcastle is the fact that the school is physically connected to the Royal Victoria Infirmary Hospital, which is unique.
Newcastle's med school offers an integrated curriculum with clinical exposure in the first years with cases that match what's being taught in lectures.
And in Semester 1 of Year 2, students can study at its campus in Malaysia.
It's highly selective though, with around 2,500 applications for 360 places (27 for international students).
A relatively new degree at Newcastle is in sports and exercise science, which was the first UK program to be brought into the medical faculty.
Whereas a lot of sport science programs focus on performance and coaching, at Newcastle it's also about health and well-being and the science and research around that.
Students benefit from a brand new building, with facilities located on the ground floor of the fabulous sports centre.
Really, the sports centre was impressive.
Whilst I was there, the professional rugby team, the Newcastle Falcons, were seen walking around and training; if that doesn't give you an indication of the level and quality of the facilities, then I'm not sure what would!
Elsewhere in the health sciences realm, Newcastle offers a unique course in biomedical sciences, in which students take a common first year of classes across subjects like pharmacology, biochemistry, genetics and other.
They can then choose to graduate with a degree in one of those more specific areas or a general biomedical science degree (most end up graduating with the general), but the fact that students can choose to specialize after the first year is very appealing.
Interestingly, about 60-70 percent of the students are female, and to give you an idea of the quality of teaching, the chief doctor for Newcastle United teaches on this course.
Big data and artificial intelligence also make up part of the program, which makes students highly employable.
In fact, one recent graduate was hired by Eurostar in the pandemic to calculate how many train services were needed to be put on to still make money but also be socially distant.
Lastly, in the new section of campus close to the Newcastle FC stadium, I got to visit the Urban Observatory within the Urban Sciences Building and see some of its fascinating research having a real impact on people's lives.
For example, the group has placed sensors all around the city that measure things like temperature, traffic and pedestrian patterns, humidity, rainfall and air quality.
They've been experimenting with closing streets for pedestrians, for example, and monitoring the environmental and traffic impacts as well as unintended consequences.
This data helps drive agile decisions and quantifies solutions; it was so cool!
Newcastle University is all about mixing research with industry, and the 24 acres on which the Urban Sciences Building resides is called the Newcastle Helix, an innovation hub bringing together data science, urban science and life science.
Housing
The majority of Newcastle's housing is 10 minutes from campus, but I got to visit Park View Student Village, which is located right next to the Sports Centre.
For students who don't want to cook, there's only one hall that offers a meal plan option, and it will be demolished and replaced with a more modern facility in the near future.
However, it does come with a nice views of free-ranging cows within the city, something I've never before seen!
If none of these options work for you, the city also has private accommodation providers, such as Unite Students, but they can be a bit pricier.
Newcastle University: Summary
Newcastle University has quite a unique offering for students, with courses that mix leading research with real-world applicability.
It also has some of the more flexible degrees in the UK when it comes to health and social sciences.
Students interested in engineering, medicine or sport science absolutely must consider Newcastle though, given its fantastic, modern facilities and local connections.
Current students also love the city, voted as one of the UK's best student cities, and it's easy to see why.
It's vibrant, affordable, historical, friendly and fun.
And it is definitely on my list of places to consider if I ever move back to the UK!
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