Study Abroad at the University of East London Incoming Students
2013/14
uel.ac.uk/studyabroad
This is an exciting time for UEL, especially for our students. 2012
put a spotlight on east London and there is an unprecedented buzz
about the area. Alongside a major regeneration programme for the
region, UEL has also been transformed.
Our £170 million campus development programme has brought a range
of new facilities, from 24/7 multimedia libraries and
state-of-the-art clinics, to purpose-built student accommodation
and a major new sports complex.
That is why we are passionate about our potential to deliver
outstanding opportunities to all of our students. Opportunities for
learning, for achieving and for building the basis for your future
career success.
With our unique location, our record of excellence in teaching and
research, the dynamism and diversity provided by our multinational
student community and our outstanding graduate employment record,
UEL is a university with energy and vision.
Welcome
As a student in London you’ll never be short of things to see and
do. East London is an exciting place in which to live, work and
study.
Lively and affordable
Whatever you want from life, you’ll find it in London. The UK is
full of fantastic cities, but it’s London that sets the pace,
breaks the news and starts the trends.
London’s liveliest and most affordable area, east London truly
offers something for everyone. Nights in Shoreditch, curries in
Brick Lane, art in Whitechapel, football at West Ham – studying at
UEL, right at the heart of the region, promises so much more than a
good education. It is an exciting place in which to live, work and
study.
Eating out
London doesn’t just sound good – it tastes good too! With over
6,500 licensed restaurants – almost a quarter of the British total
– London’s food is as gloriously varied as its population. The
famous Brick Lane curry experience is within easy reach of both our
campuses, while local shops and markets sell every kind of fresh
food you could possibly imagine from all corners of the
world.
Culture and entertainment
Where to start? Concerts in the Albert Hall, history in the British
Museum, opera at Covent Garden; it’s not just for tourists, it’s a
regular A–Z of British culture that navigates the National Gallery,
takes in the Tate, winds through the West End and zig-zags its way
to the Zoo. As for entertainment – you just don’t get better!
The biggest bands, the hottest DJs, the funniest comedians, the
most spectacular shows; there’s only one place they all want to
come and play – London, the UK’s undisputed capital of culture and
entertainment. And the world’s most popular music venue, the O2, is
right on UEL’s doorstep!
Shopping
London has over 40,000 shops and some of the most famous stores and
streets in the world: Harrods, Selfridges, Knightsbridge, Oxford
Street, Regent Street, Carnaby Street, Covent Garden – the list
goes on and on. Not to mention colourful street markets like Camden
Lock and giant retail parks such as Gallion’s Reach, only a few
minutes walk from our Docklands Campus.
Sport
Come and watch London’s numerous football teams, including UEL’s
near neighbours at West Ham’s Upton Park; or see top-level rugby at
Twickenham, tennis at Wimbledon and cricket at Lord’s or The Oval.
Sign up to one of our football, rugby, basketball, netball or
hockey teams, which all play regular inter-university matches, or
join one of the countless other sporting clubs – from scuba diving
to mountain biking, caving to capoeira – both at UEL and within the
wider local community.
Situated in a stunning waterfront setting, our Docklands Campus
provides a modern, well-equipped learning environment, with
purpose-built lecture theatres and seminar rooms, a 24/7 library
and learning centre, and a multimedia production centre with audio
and visual labs and studios.
Our Student Village is located on campus providing purpose-built
accommodation and facilities for over 1,200 students.
Schools
• Royal Docks Business School
• School of Combined Honours
• School of Arts and Digital Industries. Key facts
• great transport links including the Docklands Light Railway and
London City Airport
• 25 minutes from London’s West End
• 24/7 Library and Learning Centre
• Children’s Garden early years centre
• student village
Docklands Campus
East London’s Docklands area has been a major communications hub
for centuries, from the global trading that used to take place in
our area to the recent development of the region into the largest
financial and media centre in Europe, focused on Canary Wharf, the
ExCeL Centre, the O2 Arena, City Airport and the University of East
London.
Our ultra-modern Docklands Campus (which was used as a base by the
USA team during the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games) is
located at the historic Royal Docks. The Royal Victoria Dock was
the first of these to be opened, in 1855, in honour of Queen
Victoria. Built to facilitate Britain’s immense trading network,
they were the first docks to be designed especially for steam
ships. Their large size (Royal Albert Dock was the largest dock in
the world) meant that the docks instantly flourished, as they could
take much larger ships than any other docks in Europe at the
time.
Charles Dickens makes frequent use of the east London riverside and
Docklands in novels such as Our Mutual Friend and Great
Expectations, and there is a memorable description of the docks,
their buildings and people in Joseph Conrad’s The Mirror of the
Sea.
In 1941, at the height of World War II, the docks were heavily
bombed during the Blitz, the aim being to paralyse the commercial
life of London by destroying the docks, warehouses and trading
infrastructure. The famous East End
spirit saw the area through these traumatic times, but by the 1970s
technological advances saw the closure of the Royal Docks to
vessels.
The Royal Docks are now a leisure and communications hub. London
City Airport is located on an island between two of the historic
docks, and the London Regatta Centre is just along the waterfront
from UEL.
The area has also appeared as a location in numerous films,
including Full Metal Jacket, The Constant Gardener, Love Actually
and the James Bond movie The World is Not Enough. Most famously,
the opening sequence of another Bond film, For Your Eyes Only, was
also filmed here.
Another Docklands landmark is the Canary Wharf development. This
overlooks the O2 Arena – the world’s most popular concert venue.
The O2 has recently some of the world’s biggest stars such as
Beyonce, Kylie Minogue, Katy Perry, The Rolling Stones, Lady Gaga
and the cast of Glee, as well as major sporting events such as ATP
World Tour tennis finals.
Not far from the O2 is Greenwich Park, the oldest royal parkland in
Britain, having first been enclosed in 1433. That means that,
despite later landscaping, many archaeological features remain
there, untouched by the buildings.
Docklands
Our Stratford Campus, which combines heritage and state-of-the-art
facilities, is located in the heart of Stratford, just a few
minutes walk from the home of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic
Games. Recent developments include new laboratories and computing
facilities, and new buildings housing The Cass School of Education
and Communities, and the Centre for Clinical Education.
Stratford has a busy town centre, with cafés, bars and restaurants,
fine leisure and cultural facilities and excellent transport
links.
The impressive new Westfield Stratford City shopping centre, just
ten minutes walk from campus, is Europe’s largest urban shopping
mall.
Schools
• School of Psychology.
• great transport links including Jubilee and Central Lines,
mainline train services and the Docklands Light Railway
• 25 minutes from London’s West End
• 24/7 Library and Learning Centre
• restaurant and campus bookshop.
University Square Stratford
University Square, to be located in the heart of Stratford, is a
unique collaboration between Birkbeck, University of London and the
University of East London. This joint venture will create a major
new
university campus and will house UEL’s law and performing arts
students.
University Square will open in autumn 2013.
www.universitysquarestratford.ac.uk
Stratford Campus
Our Stratford Campus, with its red- brick buildings, is a
traditional British university campus. Stratford is also a deeply
historic region (though not to be confused with
Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare’s birthplace some 150 miles
away!).
The name Stratford comes from the Old English word for street
(meaning Roman Road) combined with ‘ford’ (a river crossing).
Stratford was once an important stopover on the most important of
Roman roads, between Camolodunum (modern-day Colchester) and
Londinium (London). The development of Stratford and the East End
in the 18th and 19th centuries buried any remaining parts of the
old Roman Road, but the Old Ford still exists on the outskirts of
Stratford on the River Lea, which flows to the Thames.
Later on, the area would be home to the Abbey of St Mary’s, founded
in 1135. It was a dominating influence on the area until the
dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII in 1538. It was one
of the largest abbeys in England, possessing 1,500 acres (6.1 km2)
of land in the Stratford area.
Also in the area were the ‘Temple Mills’, water mills belonging to
the Knights Templar (well known to fans of Dan Brown’s Da Vinci
Code) and use for grinding corn. To the east of Stratford is Forest
Gate, the start of Epping Forest, well known as the haunt of the
notorious 18th century highwayman Dick Turpin. Another claim to
fame for Forest Gate is that actor-turned-Governor of California
Arnold Schwarzenegger lived there for a while in the 1960s!
Stratford has its very own ‘Cultural Quarter’, comprising the
Theatre Royal (opened in 1884), Stratford Circus (an arts venue)
and the Picturehouse (an independent cinema). The promotional film
for the Beatles’ single Penny Lane was filmed in and around Angel
Lane in Stratford. The area is also the focal point of the UK
hip-hop scene known as Grime.
Adjacent to Stratford, in the Bow area, are numerous historic
references. Geoffrey Chaucer, in The Canterbury Tales, mentions
‘…Stratford atte Bowe’. Later on, the famous campaigner for women’s
votes, Sylvia Pankhurst, based her Suffragette cause in the area.
Even Mahatma Gandhi lived in the area, at Kingsley Hall (used as a
set in in the Oscar-winning movie Gandhi), for a few months in
1931.
Stratford’s latest claim to fame is the 2012 London Olympic and
Paralympic Games. The Olympic Park, close to UEL’s campus, contains
major venues including the Olympic Stadium, Aquatics Centre and
London Velopark, and lies within very easy reach of our campuses.
The Games might be over, but the park and venues will remain as a
fantastic sporting and leisure attraction for the public.
Stratford
Whether you choose to study full-time or part-time, student life is
never dull. Our campus bars and an ever-growing range of clubs and
societies will keep you entertained when you need a break from your
studies.
UEL Students’ Union (UELSU)
As a member of UELSU, you’ll gain access to a wide range of
facilities, opportunities, support and representation that will
guide and inspire you, from those uncertain steps as a fresher
through to those final, self-assured strides across the graduation
stage.
Run by our students, for our students, UELSU aims to ensure each
and every one of you is offered the best chance to settle in
smoothly, discover wonderful new friends, interests and ambitions,
and add exciting new dimensions to your university
experience.
Best of all, it allows you, as a student, to have a real impact on
the running of your university. By voting or standing in SU
elections, forming or joining our clubs and societies, or simply
planning or partying at SU events, you’ll be playing an essential
role ensuring student life is fun, challenging, and
rewarding.
Further information www.uelunion.org
Clubs and societies
Our wide range of clubs and societies offers something for
everyone. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, don’t worry –
all you need to set up your own society is ten willing members and
a registration form.
The following is a brief list of the main clubs and societies that
are available.
Clubs
• Cricket
• Dodgeball
• Gaelic football
• Sailing.
Societies
• Afro-Caribbean
• Samba
• Somali
• Spanish
Bars and events
Bars at our campuses provide a relaxed, friendly environment in
which to hang out with friends, play a few games of pool or just
enjoy some of the cheapest drinks in London.
There are regular events to keep you entertained, from comedy to
karaoke, and school disco to themed music nights.
Life at UEL
Schools
The School of Health, Sport and Bioscience has excellent national
and international links, including local NHS hospitals, primary
care trusts and local communities. All students benefit from modern
amenities, including our Centre for Clinical Education. The School
is one of the largest sports science providers in London and is
closely involved in the Olympic Park legacy. In the government’s
most recent Research Assessment Exercise, we were in the top 50% of
all submissions for specific subject areas and in the top three
universities overall in London.
The School of Law and Social Sciences has a vibrant and unique
identity, rooted in its world-class research, its innovative,
critical approach to higher education, and its internationalism.
The School also has strong ties to east London, an important site
of social, cultural and economic transformation. We offer an
exciting portfolio of teaching programmes of high academic quality
and a cutting- edge, collaborative and interactive research
environment.
The School of Psychology is the largest psychology school in London
and delivers programmes across a wide range of fields within
psychology, including innovative areas such as coaching psychology
and positive psychology. We have a thriving research community and
a wide range of facilities such as our laboratories, and research
into virtual reality, recreational drugs and psychophysiology, and
health psychology.
The School of Combined Honours serves an increasing number of
students at UEL who study 2-subject degrees, enabling them to study
two subject areas. This offers flexibility and greater choice of
potential career paths. Students can combine two related areas or
select two very different subjects, and can even vary how much of
each subject is studied.
The School of Arts and Digital Industries is a vibrant, creative
community of students, staff, researchers and alumni. Our
programmes cover a broad range of disciplines, from fashion, film,
fine art and media to design, digital arts and communications,
games design and animation; and from music, dance, theatre and
creative writing to cultural and heritage studies, literature,
history, journalism and advertising. Our staff and students produce
exciting and groundbreaking work, supported by the resources of the
University and the wider creative community of east London and
beyond.
Academic Schools
The Study Abroad programme is flexible and it is possible to
combine modules from several subject areas. If English isn’t your
first language, you can also choose to combine your academic study
with an element of English language training. Approximate start
dates for each option are given below but as the academic calendar
varies from year to year, please check our website for exact
dates.
Semester Abroad September to January, or February to June.
This one-semester course gives you the opportunity to take three
20-credit undergraduate modules (equivalent to 10 ECTS credits each
and 5 US credits). You can select from a range of programmes
offered by our academic Schools.
Year Abroad September to June.
This one-year programme enables you to combine two semesters of
study by taking three 20-credit undergraduate modules each
semester.
Study Abroad Options
The School of Architecture, Computing and Engineering offers a
range of programmes in architecture, civil engineering, computing,
electrical and electronic engineering and surveying. Supported by
state-of-the-art facilities and industry-level technologies, staff
and students from the School have won numerous awards for their
innovative and exciting work.
The Cass School of Education and Communities is a major centre
engaging in research and scholarship of local, national and
international significance. Specialist areas include comparative
education, early childhood, diversity and language,
multilingualism, professional education, race and community, social
work, teacher education and technology- enhanced learning. The
School houses two innovative and multidisciplinary research
centres: the Centre for Social Work Research and the International
Centre for the Mixed Economy of Childcare.
The Royal Docks Business School offers business and management
programmes in a range of specialist areas, from music industry
management to tourism management. Located in a modern,
purpose-built centre that also houses the Docklands library, the
School is also home to the Petchey Centre for Entrepreneurship,
providing support for those wishing to start their own business,
the Centre for Innovation, Management and Enterprise, and the Noon
Centre for Equality and Diversity in Business.
Credit transfer
Each semester of study at UEL typically grants 60 UEL credits,
which is equivalent to 30 ECTS credits or 16 US credits (depends on
home schools evaluation).
After the end of your programme, UEL will issue a transcript
showing the marks that you achieved in each module that you have
taken.
Credits are normally transferable to your home institution, but it
is important that you check this with them beforehand.
Practicalities
Students from both campuses can apply stay with us at our Docklands
Student Village, located along the exciting and rapidly developing
Royal Albert Dock with stunning views of the water and the
skyscrapers of Canary Wharf.
All our rooms are single occupancy and include the following:
• en-suite shower room including toilet
• single bed
• access to high-speed internet.
Each flat has a shared living and kitchen area and there are two
launderettes on site. Each International student staying in halls
gets a bedding pack on arrival, which includes a duvet, pillow and
bed sheets. There are also a number of studio rooms available to
rent which include their own kitchenette.
Renting a room in a shared or family home
Many students live in privately rented accommodation. Our
Residential Services team can provide advice on this. You are
normally provided with your own furnished study-bedroom, sharing
the other facilities of the house with the landlord and their
family. Private lodgings like these usually offer a variety of
flexible arrangements, for example, with or without meals.
House or flat-share with other tenants
Many of our students decide to live with family or friends already
in the UK. If you wish to live in a shared student house you can
contact our Residential Services team, who can provide lists of
properties offered by private landlords in the area local to
UEL.
Home stay
This type of accommodation is popular with students wishing to
improve their English language skills and live as part of a family.
The advantage of this kind of accommodation is that you do not have
to commit yourself to a very long stay (often as little as two
weeks), so if it isn’t working you can end the arrangement fairly
easily.
International Students House
International Student House is an accommodation, cultural and
events centre for International students. Close to London’s West
End and adjacent to the beautiful Regent’s Park, the centre offers
a wide range of accommodation to suit all requirements.
For more information please see www.ish.org.uk
[email protected]
uel.ac.uk/accommodation
Accommodation
accommodation quality in the International Student Barometer,
summer 2011
Module choices At UEL we have literally hundreds of modules
(classes) available to Study Abroad students.
You can build your own programme of studies, taking classes across
different academic years and across different Schools as long as
you have attained any prerequisite education that applies to
specific modules. Our range of modules is very extensive, including
many classes that are not available elsewhere. Modules range from
Music Industry Management to Computer Games Technology, and from
Urban Dance to Decoding Stonehenge and much, much more
besides.
To see our full range of modules available to Study Abroad
students, and for further information, please visit
uel.ac.uk/studyabroad
Entry requirements • You must be an undergraduate or postgraduate
student in your home country and
have successfully completed at least one year of study.
• You must be proficient in English language and have the
equivalent of IELTS 6 in all components. If you are taking the
semester or year abroad with English you will be accepted with a
lower IELTS score.
• A supporting reference from your university.
• Art and design students will be required to submit a
portfolio.
How to apply Applications for the Study Abroad Programme should be
made to UEL International using our Study Abroad Application Form.
This can be downloaded from our website at
uel.ac.uk/studyabroad.
Alternatively, you can email
[email protected] and we can send
you further details. When applying, it is important to send us a
transcript showing what you have studied in your home institution,
along with the grades that you achieved. Please also enclose an
academic reference from your home institution.
UEL International University of East London Docklands Campus
University Way London E16 2RD
uel.ac.uk/studyabroad © May 2013