Australian National University

http://thedailystar.net/campus/2009/03/05/abroad.htm

THE Australian National University, commonly abbreviated to ANU, is a public teaching and research university located in Canberra, Australia and has a motto of Naturam Primum Cognoscere Rerum

(Latin for ‘First, to learn the nature of things’). This university was established by an act of the Parliament of Australia on 1 August 1946, with the legislated purpose of conducting and promoting research in Australia.

Today, the university is consistently ranked as the best university in Australia, and is one of only three Australian universities in the top 50 worldwide in several international surveys, including the Newsweek Top 100 and the annual Times Higher Education Supplement rankings. Its notable staff and alumni include five Nobel laureates.

The university is a member of several university alliances and cooperative networks, including the Group of Eight (Australian Universities), the Association of Pacific Rim Universities, the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy and the International Alliance of Research Universities.

After its establishment, the university conducted research and provided only postgraduate education. The former Canberra University College was amalgamated into the Australian National University in 1960, as the School of General Studies, to provide for the education of undergraduate students.

The university is split into seven colleges and the Institute of Advanced Studies. The colleges undertake both undergraduate teaching, postgraduate studies and research. The Institute of Advanced Studies comprises of nine research schools which focus exclusively on research.

The ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences consists of over 20 teaching and research disciplines in the fields of arts, humanities and social sciences. The College is particularly strong in Political Science. Also part of this college are the ANU School of Music and ANU School of Art.

The ANU College of Asia and the Pacific focuses on study relating to Asia and the Pacific region.

The College houses a great number of scholars working on Asia-Pacific outside the region.

The ANU College of Business and Economics carries out research and teaching in accounting, finance, statistics and economics. The college is a leader in economics research in Australia.

The ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science comprises the School of Computer Science, the School of Engineering and the Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems. Some staff and postgraduate students from the two schools are also affiliated with the Research School of Information Sciences and Engineering which exists within the college as part of the university’s Institute of Advanced Studies.

The ANU College of Law is an academic leader in several areas including International Law, Tort Law, Constitutional Law and Public Law, having been ranked first in these subject areas compared to all other Australian universities.

The ANU College of Medicine and Health Science is home to the newest of university’s schools, the ANU Medical School, which runs a four-year postgraduate entry course.

The ANU College of Science is the largest of the university’s Colleges.

The Institute of Advanced Studies is focused on post-graduate education and research and comprises nine research schools and a research centre:

*Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics
*Research School of Biological Sciences
*Research School of Chemistry
*Research School of Earth Sciences
*Research School of Information Sciences and Engineering
*Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
*Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering
*Research School of Social Sciences
*The John Curtin School of Medical Research
*The Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies
More information can be found at the university’s official website:
www.anu.edu.au

Information Source: Wikipedia

University of California, Los Angeles

http://www.thedailystar.net/campus/2009/02/03/abroad.htm

THE University of California, Los Angeles (generally known as UCLA) is one of the best public research universities in USA and the fact that I receives an annual endowment of over $ 2.3 billion shows the amount of research that is happening around the place. As the name would suggest, the university is located in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1919 and the name was changed in 1927 to the University of California at Los Angeles. UCLA comprises the College of Letters and Science (the primary undergraduate college) as well as undergraduate colleges Arts and Architecture, Herb Alpert School of Music, Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Scienceý, Nursing, and Theater, Film, and Television, seven professional schools, and five professional Health Science schools. Since 2001, UCLA has enrolled over 33,000 total students annually, and that number is steadily rising.

UCLA’s undergraduate program is ranked 25th among “America’s Best Colleges 2009: National Universities” by U.S. News & World Report, third among public universities in the United States. The Academic Ranking of World Universities ranked UCLA 13th internationally. UCLA is a Public Ivy, and one of the 25 New Ivies, a list of universities ranked by Kaplan. UCLA also ranks among the top 10 schools in USA with the most faculty awards.

UCLA has more applicants than any other university in the United States. Out of 55,401 undergraduate applicants for Fall 2008, only 12,755 (22.7%) were admitted. Students come to UCLA from all 50 states of USA and more than 100 countries.

When UCLA opened its new campus in 1929, it had four buildings. Today, the campus includes 163 buildings across 419 acres (1.7 km²) in the western part of Los Angeles. The Romanesque Revival style of these first four structures remained the predominant building style on campus until the 1950s, when architect Welton Becket was hired to supervise the expansion of the campus over the next two decades. In order to accommodate UCLA’s rapidly growing student population, multiple construction and renovation projects are in progress, including expansions of the life sciences and engineering research complexes. This continuous construction gives UCLA the interesting on-campus nickname of Under Construction Like Always.

The campus includes sculpture gardens, fountains, museums, and a mix of architectural styles. The campus is informally divided into North Campus and South Campus, which are both on the eastern half of the university’s land. North Campus is the original campus core; its buildings are more old-fashioned in appearance and clad in imported Italian brick. North Campus is home to the arts, humanities, social sciences, law, and business programs and is centered around oak tree-lined Dickson Court. South Campus is home to the physical sciences, life sciences, engineering, psychology, mathematical sciences, all health-related fields, and the UCLA Medical Center.

The tallest building on campus is named after Ralph Bunche, an African-American alumnus, who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating an armistice agreement between the Jews and Arabs in Palestine. A bust of him, on the entrance to Bunche Hall, overlooks the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden. He was the first individual of non-European background and the first UCLA alumnus to be honoured with the Prize.

With a location near Hollywood and a world-famous film and television school, the UCLA campus has attracted filming for decades. Much of the 1985 film Gotcha! was shot at UCLA, as well as John Singleton’s Higher Learning (1995). Legally Blonde, “Old School”, “The Nutty Professor”, Erin Brockovich, and American Pie 2 all were mainly shot at the university campus or locale. In January 2009, the Bollywood movie My Name is Khan was shot at UCLA.

UCLA was ranked 12th in Newsweek’s annual ranking of the Top 100 Global universities. In 2007, UCLA was ranked 13th in the world (11th in North America) by Top 500 World Universities, an annual list published by the Institute of Higher Education at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. UCLA was ranked 18th in the country and 41st in the world by The Times Higher Education Supplement’s list of the top 200 universities in the world.

UCLA is ranked 25th among “America’s Best Colleges 2009: National Universities” by U.S. News and World Report, third best public university in the United States. In the August 2128, 2006 issue of Newsweek (also released as the 2007 issue of the Kaplan Guide to Colleges), UCLA was listed as one of “25 New Ivies”. The Washington Monthly ranks UCLA 2nd nationally with criteria based on research, community service, and social mobility. UCLA’s School of Law, Anderson School of Management, School of Public Affairs, and School of Medicine consistently rank among the top ten to twenty in the United States.

UCLA’s library system has over eight million books and 70,000 serials spread over twelve libraries and eleven other archives, reading rooms, and research centers.

Six professors (two of whom are current faculty) and four alumni have been awarded the Nobel Prize for achievements in science and peace. 90 professors are members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 52 have been awarded Guggenheim Fellowships, and nine are MacArthur Foundation Fellows. In 2006,54 faculty members were listed as “Highly Cited” by the Institute for Scientific Information.

For more information about the university, visit:
http://www.ucla.edu/

Information Source: Internet

University of Southampton

http://thedailystar.net/campus/2009/02/01/abroad.htm

SITUATED in the south coast of England in the city of Southampton, the University of Southampton has today grown to be one of the finest institutions for higher study in UK and Europe, specially known for its Enginnering schools. Established in 1862 as the Hartley Institution, it was upgraded to the status of a university college in 1902, and by a Royal Charter in 1952, was turned into a public research-intensive university. Today, with world class research and hundreds of students studying for their PhD, Masters and Undergraduate Degrees, the university truly lives up to its motto of Strenuis Ardua Cedunt (The Heights Yield to Endeavour).

The University of Southampton is a member of the Russell Group and of the Worldwide Universities Network. It has constantly been ranked as one of the best research universities in UK by its RAE (Research Assessment Exercise) assessments, and according to The Times Higher Education Supplement, the University has the second largest research income among British universities for the physical sciences and mathematics, and the third largest research income for engineering and technology. The University places great emphasis on inter-disciplinary cooperation and on collaboration with industry.

Before 1952, the University of London gave the degrees at Southampton and in a Royal Charter that year, the Queen granted the university of Southampton a right to award degrees in its own right. This conferred full university status and made Southampton independent of the University of London. It grew rapidly and gained a reputation for a strong academic approach.

The University’s main buildings are situated on a large site on the campus in Highfield, but the University has other campuses elsewhere around the city: at Boldrewood (biomedical sciences), Southampton General Hospital and on the waterfront at the National Oceanography Centre.

It also has a campus in the nearby city of Winchester which is the home of the University’s School of Art, known as the Winchester School of Art. The Avenue Campus houses most of the Humanities subjects taught at the University, including History, English, Film, Philosophy and Modern Languages. The Centre for Language Study is based at Avenue Campus. Archaeology is also located there in a series of purpose-designed buildings (the most modern archaeology facilities of any British university). Music is taught on the Highfield Campus, near the Turner Sims Concert Hall.

The University of Southampton and the MIT recently announced the launch of a long-term research collaboration, the Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI), that aims to produce the fundamental scientific advances necessary to guide the future design and use of the World Wide Web.

The School of Electronics and Computer Science, generally abbreviated “ECS”, is regarded by the IET (Institution of Engineering and Technology) as having the “biggest and strongest academic unit in the country in Electrical and Electronic Engineering” and has been at the forefront of the Open Access movement. Its research has achieved the top 5* rating in the last two Research Assessment Exercises, and in 2003 it was awarded the prestigious ‘best 5*’ rating by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).

Chaired by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the school is regarded as one of the best in the UK for both computer science and electronics, scoring 5th and 1st for the subjects respectively in the Guardian Unlimited University Guide 2008 and 5th and 2nd respectively by both the Times Online Good University Guide and the Good University Guide.

ECS was the first academic institution in the world to adopt a self-archiving mandate (2001) and since then much of its published research has been freely available on the Web. It created the first and most widely used archiving software (EPrints) which is used worldwide by 213 known archives and continues to be evolved and supported from the School.

The University of Southampton did particularly well (25th) on the G-factor metric, which uses Google links to measure the influence of universities’ research. Southampton came third among British universities, behind Cambridge and Oxford.

The University of Southampton Students’ Union (SUSU), is sited in three buildings opposite the main Library.The multiple award winning student radio station, Surge, broadcasts from new studios in the main Union building. The award winning website SUSU.org was created and run by students at the university. The student newspaper, originally Wessex News, is now published once every three weeks as Wessex Scene following a name change in 1996.

The University provides accommodation for all first year students who require it. Places in halls are also available for international and postgraduate students. Accommodation may be catered or self catered.

Notable academics to work at the university include Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, Erich Zepler who made leading contributions to radio receiver development, Professor David N. Payne who invented EDFA for use in fibre optics cables.

List of Faculties, Schools and Centres

The Tizard Building, home of the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research
National Oceanography Centre, Southampton

* Faculty of Engineering, Science and Mathematics

o School of Chemistry
o School of Civil Engineering and the Environment (includes the centre for Environmental Sciences)
o School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS)
o School of Engineering Sciences (includes Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Ship Science)
o School of Geography
o School of Mathematics
o School of Ocean and Earth Science (SOES)
o School of Physics and Astronomy
o Institute of Sound and Vibration Research (ISVR)
o Optoelectronics Research Centre
o Transportation Research Group (TRG)
o National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (home of the School of Ocean and Earth Science) (NOCS)
o Southampton E-Science Centre

* Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences

o School of Social Sciences
o School of Management – see below
o School of Education
o School of Law
o School of Art (based at Winchester School of Art)
o School of Humanities
o Parkes Institute
* Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
o School of Biological Sciences
o School of Health Professions and Rehabilitation Sciences
o School of Medicine
o School of Nursing and Midwifery
o School of Psychology
o Health Care Innovation Unit

* Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute
ESRC National Centre for Research Methods
The university has 24,735 students, 17,120 of whom are undergraduates and 7,615 postgraduates. Acceptance rates are low, which make it one of the most competitive universities in UK to get into. If you are planning to start classes in the upcoming Septemeber Session, its high time that you should start the application process. More information can be found in the university website: http://www.soton.ac.uk/

Information Source: Internet