Aston University

Aston University is a public research university located in Birmingham’s city centre, England’s second largest city in terms of population.

Its origins date back to the 19th century when a School of Metallurgy was founded in the Birmingham and Midland Institute. By 1895 it had become the Birmingham Municipal Technical School. Several other name changes ensued until Aston gained university status in 1966.

The university is made up of five schools: Engineering and Applied Science, Life and Health Sciences, Languages and Social Sciences, the Aston Medical School and the Aston Business School. It has a total student body of over 11,000 students, comprising around 9,000 undergraduates and more than 2,000 postgraduates.

Aston’s Business School was founded in 1947 and is one of the oldest and largest in the UK. It holds triple accreditation, which is a classification given to only 73 business schools worldwide by the three leading business school accreditation associations.

The university campus is spread across 60 acres of land in the Gosta Green area of Birmingham and comes complete with a swimming pool, sports centres, a library, cafés, restaurants, pubs, and shops, hairdressers, health centres and lots of green space.

The library is spread over four floors and holds more than 250,000 books and 800 periodicals with room for around 700 reading spaces. It also has access to nearly 3,500 electronic journals and 40 electronic databases.

Aston boasts strong links to industry and business and in 2012 The Telegraph newspaper ranked Aston among the top 10 UK universities for producing millionaires.

It also has partnerships in place with more than 140 universities in 40 different countries, including China, Hong Kong and India.

Among Aston’s alumni are stand-up comedian Frankie Boyle, BBC journalist Ivan Noble, and senior international correspondent at CNN, Nic Robertson.