interstudy: University of Westminster - London

  England

• London: 
London

Term: Academic Year, Fall, Spring 
Dates: Middle September - Middle December / Early January - Early June

Description: The University of Westminster was founded in 1838 as the Royal Polytechnic Institute and was known the world over as simply "The Polytechnic." In the 1960s, when the British government decided to make professionally oriented liberal university education generally available to all, it used "The Good Old Poly" as the model for its thirty new polytechnics, and changed its name to The Polytechnic of Central London. PCL, as it was then called, had become a great university in all but name, its students earning BA Honors degrees, Masters and Doctorates as well as special qualifications in liberal arts, business, science, technology, law, film, photography, the built environment and a host of other subject areas. Recognizing these qualifications, all polytechnics received, in 1992, the Royal Assent, giving them full University status, and thus establishing what is now The University of Westminster. The University of Westminster has four campuses in total, three within the West End of London; Cavendish Campus where courses are taught in Biosciences and Computer Science, Marylebone Campus where courses are taught in Business and the Built Environment and the Regent Campus where courses in Social and Behavioral Sciences, Languages and Law are taught. The fourth campus is in Harrow, which is a twenty-minute tube ride from Central London. The Harrow campus was designed to meet the needs of the new Millennium and was opened by the Queen in 1995. It is of modern design and is set within Parkland with the student residence on campus. The Harrow campus has state-of-the-art facilities for all of the courses taught there: Communications, Design, Media, Business and Computer Science.

The University of Westminster is certainly the most central of all those claiming London as their base; within no more than a few blocks in every direction lie the sites familiar to anyone who has read English novels, seen films set in London, and resolved someday to live there! One walks south from the University's headquarters on Regent Street, through the restaurants of Soho or the elegant shopping of Bond Street, through Piccadilly and Leicester Square, on through Whitehall, Downing Street and the palaces of Westminster and finally to Hyde Park and Harrods. East from here you will find the Royal Opera House and Covent Garden. To the north, opposite the University's Marylebone Road lecture hall and its high rise Hall of Residence, is Baker Street, Madame Tussaud's and Regent's Park.

Highlights: There are several aspects of the interstudy University of Westminster program that set it apart from other study abroad experiences. Among these are:

- Academic flexibility - interstudy's open academic policy allows students to take virtually any course in the undergraduate course catalog, without imposing interstudy course requirements.
- Modern urban campus within walking distance of all the major attractions, restaurants, shopping and nightlife that make London the vibrant city that it is
- Full academic integration - courses are taught by British professors, in classes filled with British students
- Convenient access to sites such as Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, and Tate Britain
- Specific academic strengths in Bioscience, Communications, Harrow Business School, Marketing, and Socio-Legal Studies & Criminology

Cost in US$: See interstudy website

Experience Required: no

This Program is open to American and Canadian Participants.

Participants Travel to England Independently Or in Groups

Scholarships are Available. - interstudy awards scholarships each semester based on academic merit and/or financial need. Award amounts vary. Scholarship applications may be downloaded from the interstudy website, and must be submitted no later than May 1st for Fall Semester and November 1st for Spring Semester.

Application Process Involves:

• Letters of Reference
• Transcript
• Written Application

Post Services Include:

• Alumni Network

Year Founded: 1980