The City of Birmingham Polytechnic was designated in 1971, by Mrs Thatcher no less who was the then Minister of Education, but was the second polytechnic of the city of Birmingham. A polytechnic institute was first formed in 1843 and lasted for 10 years. Charles Dickens was among the guest speakers at the polytechnic which at it's height boasted 500 members however support fell away and the polytechnic closed in 1853. The polytechnic was replaced by the Birmingham and Midland Institute which still exists to this day (indeed my OU tutorials are held there).The City of Birmingham Polytechnic was formed in 1971 from a number of different colleges and institutions including the Birmingham School of Music, the Birmingham College of Art & Design and the North & South Birmingham Technical Colleges. The North Birmingham Technical College indeed formed the core campus of the polytechnic at Perry Barr which is still the centre of the university and indeed where i am typing this now!
Over the years more colleges joined the polytechnic including the Bournville College of Art however in 1992 the polytechnic like so many (if not all) in the UK became a university following the passing of the 1992 Further & Higher Education Act which allowed polytechnics to become universities if they should choose to. So by the time of the start of the 1992 academic year the institution was known as the University of Central England in Birmingham. I had just finished my HND and was about to start my degree so can claim to be an alumnus of both the polytechnic and university.
Architect model of the new campus for North Birmingham Technical College which later became Attwood and Baker building of City North Campus of the university.
More colleges joined the university including the Birmingham and Solihull College of Nursing and Midwifery and the West Midlands School of Radiography. In 2005 the university changed it's brand name to UCE Birmingham because it was felt few people knew where UCE was and "Birmingham" needed a higher profile in the name but in 2007 the University went the whole hog and changed it's name again to Birmingham City University. I am an employee now of the institution (and have been since 2001) so have been here for all 3 major name changes.
So that is a basic introduction, in future parts of this series i will go into greater detail and also present a number of interesting photographs. In the meantime you could check out the wiki page for the polytechnic (which i wrote) and the university's own history page.
6 comments:
I was at the heart of the administration of B'ham Poly from the day it began to operate (which actually was in late 1970, before it was officially designated in Autumn 1971) by an extremely corpulent MP who had come up from London to make the official speech. His name was something like "van Streebenhuis".
The first Director of B'ham Poly was Stuart W. Smethurst and his 2, then 3, Assistant Directors were B.C. Whitehouse (Asst. Dir. Resources), formerly Principal of South B'ham Tech., R.J. Hammond (Asst. Dir. Academic), Dr. R. Clarke (Asst. Dir. Research & Development). Dr. Clarke, a really nice guy, didn't stay long and was replaced by Dr. K. Allen, a Welshman with his eye on the main chance.
The Polytechnic Secretary & Chief Administrative Officer was Mr. (Captain, R.N. retd.) W.H. Watts, and his two Assistant Secretarys were Mr. J. Bullock (Asst. Sec. Logistics) and Mr. A.J. Douch (Asst. Sec. Admissions).
Gradually the main campus was built at Perry Barr: 'E' Block and 'B' Block were the already existing nucleus, and The School of Librarianship was the first new block to be built. Mr. Smethurst + architects + officials from B'ham Education Dept. in Margaret Street masterminded that.
I am an ex student and I had a great 3 years at UCE. So sad to see it gone.
Started degree when poly shared with Bournville college in 1977. was very pleasant surroundings. faculty then moved and shared with Aston university in city centre where I finished degree, 1980. obtained 2/2 so disruption did not upset studies too much, I suppose.
I was a student at the School of Photography which was part of Birmingham Polytechnic, in the mid to late 1970s. It was in a converted school in Perry Barr and I've never met such an uninspiring lot of teachers. There was one exception, a man called Tim Harris who was not only technically very good, but also enthusiastic. He lived in Harborne. I have often wished I could thank him for all that he taught and the support that he gave. Another of the teachers (John ?) who specialised in Film and Video was an out and out racist. As for me, My experience was so poor, that I changed careers and spent a further five years as a student and ended up specialising in psychological medicine. I've just retired from one of the London teaching hospitals. I still enjoy photography. I wonder what eve happened to Tim Harris? (mephastopheles@gmail.com)
I too went to the school of Photography. We were the last year through as it lost it's professional validation, largly due to poor leadership. It was a shame as there were some good staff, Terry Butler, Geoff (who's name I've forgotten) and the Spaniard Ramon. Martin Harrison was a brilliant guest lecture. The 'John', who the other person mentioned was a baffoon. In my first job in corporate video I learned alot about him from his former colleagues at GKN. By the evidence I was told, he took the job at the Polytechnic as it was a well paid easy number. A man like wouldn't survive today, in fact he wouldn't be allowed through the front door.
I remember the great patanostas - the rolling lifts that you jumped into and out of. I studied at Coventry but had lots of friends at Birmingham Poly😊
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