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Applied Science at Wolverhampton

The School of Applied Sciences at Wolverhampton is located in the City Campus of Wolverhampton, a city right in the heart of England, with excellent transport links by air, rail and road to all parts of the British Isles and abroad.

Applied Sciences at universities and colleges in the UK . . .

Until recently many science subjects taught at university level were �pure� rather than �applied�, with an emphasis on theory and a down-playing of the practical. In the last decade or so, however � and this has been a worldwide trend � there has been growing emphasis on teaching how science relates to real-world issues and real-life problem-solving: Applied Sciences. Universities and colleges in the UK have been in the vanguard of this shift in emphasis.

. . . and at Wolverhampton

One example is the University of Wolverhampton where a number of scientific disciplines are taught within the School of Applied Sciences, delivered within the framework of four Divisions � Biomedical Sciences, Biosciences, Environmental and Analytical Science, and Psychology. There are 1500 or so full- and part-time Science undergraduate students, as well as 230 taught Masters students and over a hundred graduate research students.

The huge range of Higher National Diploma and BSc courses reflects the School�s size and the expertise of its over ninety academic teaching staff. The School has an international reputation for its teaching, having received �Excellent� ratings from the quality Assurance Agency for the provision of many of its courses. Through its system of Personal, Year and Award Tutors the School provides an effective support system for all students, with an awareness of the kinds of support that might be of particular value to students with special needs such as dyslexia or dyspraxia, or to those from other countries.

Teaching facilities

Our excellent computer facilities make Wolverhampton one of the UK�s leading universities in the Applied Sciences, with a dedicated IT suite of over a hundred fully networked PC work-stations for all Science students, and specialist facilities which support key areas such as Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing.

In Biomedical Sciences, the diagnosis, understanding and treatment of human disease depends on high-quality laboratory-based analysis. Our new teaching laboratories are equipped for all of the specialist areas of Biomedical Science, including biochemistry, microbiology, pharmacology and physiology.

Biosciences laboratories have also recently been refurbished, with a number of specialist as well as general-teaching labs. In microbiology, for instance, we have process-controlled fermenters for culture of micro-organisms, and in plant biology our crop research centre includes greenhouse facilities and environmentally-controlled growth cabinets. Students have access to equipment for DNA separation for the study of biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology.

In Environmental and Analytical Science, as well as a dedicated chemical analytical suite we have a hydrological process lab and instrumentation for water quality analysis, facilities for sediment and rock sample analysis, and large mineral, rock and microfossil collections. There is a wide range of survey and geophysical equipment, and meteorological data is acquired through three automatic weather stations. Three local field stations allow investigation into soil erosion and conservation. Arcview is used as our Geographical Information System, while image-processing capabilities for remote sensing uses ERDAS Imagine.

A multi-million pound investment programme for Psychology has provided state-of-the-art laboratories, considered to be among the best � if not the best � in the UK. The Social and Developmental Psychology lab is equipped for video work with children; a Counselling Psychology suite supports group work and video-based skills training; and Cognitive and Experimental Psychology has specialist rooms for work involving memory, cognition and reasoning. A fully-equipped Health Psychology lab offers facilities for capturing biophysical and behavioural data.

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