Swansea University A self-guided tour

www.swansea.ac.uk/undergraduate

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Welcome Swansea University is a research-led university that has been making a difference since 1920. The Univer-sity community thrives on exploration and discovery, and offers the right balance of excellent teaching and research, matched by an enviable quality of life.

Swansea University is set in rolling parkland overlook-ing the majestic sweep of Swansea Bay, and within easy reach of the City of Swansea. From stunning coastal scenery to tranquil parks, a thriving cultural scene to the best of modern city living, Swansea of-fers the best of all worlds. With 15,921 students and 2,510 staff, Swansea's multicultural campus commu-nity provides a global perspective and opportunities to gain skills that last a lifetime.

The University's campus lifestyle fosters a welcoming, cosmopolitan community, whilst new landmark developments, including Wales' tallest building, give the City a real sense of purpose and vision.

This self-guided tour pack will enable you to explore the University campus and facilities at your leisure. It includes the following information:

Directions to the University

A self-guided tour of the campus

A campus map

If you would like to stay overnight in Swansea before or after your visit, the city has a good selec-tion of hotel accommodation. A full list can be found here: www.visitswanseabay.com

You are welcome to visit the University whenever you like as access to the campus is not restricted. However, if you wish to view departments and facilities, you may find a weekday visit more beneficial as the majority of buildings and facilities are closed at weekends. The University remains open during vacations and you are welcome to visit then, although you should be aware that during this time the campus is likely to be quiet and some of the usual facilities may not be open. Term dates are as follows:

Michaelmas Term: 26th September – 19th December 2011

Lent Term: 9th January – 2nd April 2012

Summer Term 23rd April – 15th June 2012

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During your visit you are welcome to go into Fulton House, the Taliesin Arts Centre, the Library and Information Centre, and the Sports Centre, all of which are open year round. If you would like to visit a particular academic de-partment during your visit we suggest that you contact that department directly and make any necessary arrangements with relevant staff. In addition, it may be possible for you to view some of the on-campus accommodation. Should you wish to do so, please speak to the staff on duty in Preseli Hall (building 20 on the campus map). If you wish to visit the Hendre-foelan Student Village, you are welcome to drive up to the site and have a look around (see the campus map for directions), although it is unlikely that you will be able to view any of the rooms. If you have any queries about accommodation you may visit the Accommo-dation Office during your visit (number 22 on the campus map) or telephone them on 01792 295101.

If you require further information about Swan-sea University please do not hesitate to con-tact the Student Recruitment Office on 01792 295784 or e-mail us at sro@swansea.ac.uk

We hope you have an enjoyable visit.

The Student Recruitment Office

Visitors with disabilities

If you have specific queries relating to disability support, please make an appointment with Student Support Services in advance of your visit.

There is parking reserved on campus for visitors with dis-abilities. On arrival please ask the security staff at the main gate for directions.

Contact:

Telephone: +44 (0) 1792 513000

Minicom/text: +44 (0) 1792 513100

Fax: +44 (0) 1792 513200

Email: disability@swansea.ac.uk

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By Car

For Sat-Nav users the University’s postcode is SA2 8PP. Please note that this will direct you to the centre of campus where there is no car parking. Please follow the parking directions below.

From the East

Exit the M4 at Junction 42 (signposted Swansea A483) where the slip road will bring you onto Fabian Way. Follow the dual carriageway, keeping the Amazon warehouse on your right.

Continue straight across the next four sets of traffic lights (1st: Swansea Business Park on right; 2nd: McDonalds to the left and Park and Ride car park to the right – 3.8 miles; 3rd: Just after the Village hotel on the left; 4th: Just after the Cape Horner pub on the right, onto the bridge over the River Tawe (A4067)- 4.6 miles).

Pass Sainsbury (4.8 miles, on the left) and Swansea Museum (5 miles, again on the left). Continuing straight ahead, pass the large Tesco store on your right (5.4 miles), and the City and County of Swansea offices on your left (5.5 miles).

Continue along the coast road towards Mumbles, passing a stretch of bed & breakfast hotels and the Bay View public house on your right.

After the next set of traffic lights make sure you are in the outside lane of the dual carriageway as you pass St Helen’s Rugby Ground (6.3 miles). Pass the Rugby visitors car park sign on your left - this shows where Uni-versity visitors need to park.

At the next set of traffic lights turn right into Brynmill Lane. Continue a short distance to the mini roundabout and turn a full 360 degrees at the mini roundabout to return to Oystermouth Road where you now turn left. Immediately on your left is the entrance to the Recreation Ground car park (by the bus stop).

From the West

If approaching from the West, go straight ahead at the traffic lights outside the University, keep to left-hand lane, straight through next set of traffic lights at Brynmill Lane and the Recreation Ground car park is situated on the left.

Parking:

WE REGRET THAT ONLY DISABLED VISITORS ARE ALLOWED TO PARK ON THE UNIVERSITY CAMPUS. All ve-hicles must park in the Recreation Ground Car Park on Mumbles Road where the parking fee is approximately £2.00 for the day. The University is a short walk west along Mumbles Road.

Getting to Swansea University

Arriving by train (Swansea High Street Station)

The number 4 Metro Bus links the station to the university. A bus stop is located directly outside the station entrance. A return ticket to the univer-sity costs approximately £4. There is also a taxi rank outside the station. A taxi to the university will cost approximately £7.

Arriving by National Express Coach/Local Bus

Coaches arrive at the Quadrant Bus Station. The number 4 Metro Bus stop is located across the road from the Quadrant station and this will bring you onto campus. Buses return from the University to the City Centre at regular inter-vals. The cost is approximately £4 return.

Many other local bus services stop either on or near to the campus. For full details please visit http://www.firstgroup.com/ukbus/south_west_wales/

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Start at Fulton House (17)

Fulton House, a Grade II listed building, is home to many of the University’s student fa-cilities and includes a corner shop, cash-point machines, the university run letting agency SAS Lettings and a travel shop. On the 1st floor you will find the Venue Refectory and ‘Fusion Café’, and on the 2nd floor the Students Union bar & coffee shop, JC’s. Ful-ton House is also home to “Discovery” – Swansea’s Student Community Action, a stu-dent-led charity which facilitates volunteering opportunities within the community. Cur-rently they have over 300 student volunteers who get involved in a range of projects within the community.

Heading right, walk to the Wallace Building (9)

The Wallace Building is home to two of the largest departments on campus, Biological Sciences on the ground floor and Geography on the first floor. Both of these depart-ments have been rated “Excellent” for teaching. Biological Sciences has its own Botanic Gardens, zoology museum and marine aquarium, as well as its own research vessel, 12m long catamaran the ‘Noctiluca’.

Institute of Life Science (33)

The new building that you can see is the University’s £50 million Institute of Life Sci-ence, a collaboration between IBM and the University. It houses one of Europe’s largest IBM supercomputers, named “Blue C” and has established Swansea as a world-class centre for life science research. In recent months Boots has moved its entire UK R&D operation to this building and Starbucks have opened a coffee shop on the first floor. Turning around walk between the Grove Building (12) and the Glyndwr Building (11.1), passing the Vivian Tower (11.2) on the left-hand side

The buildings on the left are home to many departments, including Health Science, Childhood Studies, Psychology, Physics and Applied Social Sciences. Both Physics and Psychology have been rated “Excellent” for the quality of their teaching, and Health Sci-ence, which offers a range of courses for school leavers and health professionals, was recently rated within the top 7 Universities for Nursing and Midwifery by The Guardian.

On the right-hand side the Grove Building is home to Swansea’s School of Medicine, which runs a four-year Graduate-entry Medicine scheme for graduates, as well as hous-ing facilities for medical research.

Pass the Haldane Building (16) and Richard Price Building (14) and go to the Campus Halls of Residence (19.1 - 26).

The Haldane Building is home to the School of Business and Economics, which offers over 40 degree schemes, many of which offer students the opportunity to spend a year in North America, Australia, Asia or Europe. Based in the Richard Price Building, the Law Department has its own Law Library and Moot court, and an active Student Law Society.

Approximately 1300 places are available in the Singleton residences on campus. 400 of these are in the original halls (Preseli and Kilvey – 19.1 & 20 on the campus map) which offer part-catered accommodation. This takes the form of a diner’s card which is credited with diners points at the start of each term for use in 10 catering outlets on campus. The card also entitles the bearer to a further 10% off regular prices at these

A self-guided tour of the campus

(Numbers in brackets refer to the campus map)

Fulton House

Wallace Building

Institute of Life Science

Grove Building

Haldane Building

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outlets. The communal kitchens in these residences are equipped with snack-making facilities.

The two new halls which opened in September 2008 are Penmaen and Horton (22 & 23 on the campus map). The two residences consist of 44 self-contained flats that provide a total of 351 ensuite study bedrooms. The larger of the two buildings, Penmaen, has 272 study bedrooms and Horton has 79. Each flat shares a well equipped kitchen diner and all rooms have high-speed internet access. The accommodation office is situated on the ground floor of Penmaen.

The remaining places are in the recently refurbished Cefn Bryn (21 on the map) and the newly built self-catering residences (Oxwich, Langland and Caswell – 25, 26 & 27 on the campus map) which offer en-suite facilities, as does Preseli Hall.

It is a short walk from here to the £20m University sports complex across the road. The Sports Centre is home to the Wales National Pool which has been awarded Intensive Training Centre Status by British Swimming and houses a 50m Olympic size pool and 25m warm up pool. There is a multi-purpose sports hall, 3 squash courts and a fully equipped fitness room with over 80 stations. These facilities have recently been en-hanced with a new 8-lane athletics track, 2 out-door all-weather pitches and an indoor training centre for athletics

Turning around, follow the path that runs past the halls of residence back towards Ful-ton House. You will pass the Students’ Union (18) and Fulton House (17) both on your left-hand side.

The Students’ Union houses a shop, radio station (Xtreme Radio – where you can DJ your own show), the Athletic Union (which runs all of the sports clubs), the student newspa-per (Waterfront), Divas the bar/nightclub, a diner and Students’ Union staff, including welfare advisors. The University boasts over 100 student clubs and societies which cater for all interests and activities, from ranging Amnesty International to Cheerleading, De-bating and Role-play. More information on our clubs and societies can be found on the Students’ Union website: www.swansea-union.co.uk

Passing in front of Fulton House, continue straight on into the Mall, passing Digital Technium (26, on your left) and the Faraday Building (8.1, on your right).

Digital Technium provides start-up facilities for small hi-tech companies and includes a virtual reality studio, multimedia research facilities and computer graphics research fa-cilities. Companies located here have academic links with the Departments of Computer Science, Civil Engineering, and Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and two of the Uni-versity’s Centres of Excellence (the Centre for Computation and Simulation and the Cen-tre for Communications and Software Technologies) are also housed here.

The Faraday Building and Tower is home to the School of Engineering and the Computer Science Department. Of the Engineering departments – Aerospace, Civil, Mechanical, Materials, Chemical, and Electrical and Electronic - 4 have been rated “Excellent” for teaching and Civil was recently ranked 2nd in the UK for research. The Department of Computer Science has been rated “Excellent” for Teaching and was ranked 11th in the UK in The Times Good University Guide. The Department has recently launched degrees in E-Commerce Technology, Internet Technology and Mobile Communications and Internet Technology.

Behind the Faraday, the Talbot Building (8.3) is home to the Department of Mathemat-ics, which has been highly rated for research and which offers a wide range of interests in pure and applied mathematics.

Continuing along the mall pass Taliesin Arts Centre (32) and the Egypt Centre (32.1) both on your left.

Penmaen Halls of Residence

Wales National Pool

Swansea’s Victorious 2011 Varsity Team

Digital Technium

Faraday Tower

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Taliesin Arts Centre houses a Lloyds Bank, Waterstone’s bookshop and a theatre. The theatre hosts professional theatre, music and dance and is the venue for film presenta-tions, seating 330 people in the auditorium. There is also a cafe and wine bar, “Grapevine”, and an art gallery and shop (free entry).

The complex has been extended to create the Museum of Egyptology (32.1) which houses Swansea’s large collection of Egyptian artefacts, the sixth largest in Britain. Feel free to visit the museum and shop (free of charge).

Continuing along the mall, pass the Library and Information Centre (7) on your right and the Keir Hardie Building (3) on your left.

Based in the Library and Information Centre, the main library houses 800,000 books, 1,400 study spaces and over 450 networked PCs for students. It is open 24 hours a day from Sunday to Friday during exam periods, and from 8am to 2am during normal term time.. On registration, students at the University are allocated a username, userspace and an e-mail account. This allows them free and unlimited use of e-mail and the inter-net. There is also free wireless internet throughout the campus and University housing.

The Library and Information Centre is also home to the Careers Advisory Service which offers advice and assistance to students in finding work, training or placements during University and after graduation. The University has been ranked 18th out of more than 200 Universities in the UK for its graduate employment record. It is also home to “Jobshop”, a service which finds students part–time/temporary work during term time and the vacation.

The Keir Hardie Building houses Modern European languages which includes French, Italian, German and Welsh and Spanish. In addition, German, Spanish and Italian are all rated “Excellent” for teaching. This building is also home to Classics, Ancient History & Egyptology (also officially rated “Excellent” for teaching), English Literature and the De-partment of Media and Communication Studies.

Continuing straight on you will pass the James Callaghan Building (4) on your left and finally reach Singleton Abbey (2).

The James Callaghan Building is home to Politics, American Studies and History. The lat-ter is rated “Excellent” for teaching and was recently placed in the top 20 UK history de-partments by the Guardian. American Studies offers a range of single and joint honours courses where students can spend a year at an American University. Partner institutions include, amongst others, Universities in New York, Washington, Arizona, California and New Mexico. Callaghan’s café is located in the basement.

Singleton Abbey is home to the University’s administration section. The building was once the home of the Vivian Family who in the 19th century owned the main copper manufacturing plants in the area. The building is mainly 19th century mock-gothic but parts of it date from earlier centuries. If you follow the path round to the right you will reach the front of the building which affords some lovely views over the Bay as well as some comfortable benches from where you can enjoy the view.

END OF TOUR

Ceri Richards Gallery, Taliesin Arts Centre

Keir Hardie Building

James Callaghan Building

Singleton Abbey

We hope that you have enjoyed your visit to Swansea University. If you have any further queries please contact the

Student Recruitment Office on: +44 (0) 1792 295784 Or email: SRO@swansea.ac.uk

Library and Information Centre