Study abroad at Keele University
Officially known as the University of Keele, Keele University is a public research university located near Staffordshire, England. The university was founded in the year 1949 as the University College of North Staffordshire. Having been around for more than seventy years, the university has a rich history and tradition. In the first decade, the institute grew a lot and gained prominence in the region. By the year 1962, the college already had 1,200 students and it was in the same year that it was granted university status. It received a new royal charter in January the same year. Moreover, it was at this time only that the institution adopted its current name, i.e. ‘The University of Keele’.
The university has come a long way and is currently recognized as an institute that imparts a high quality of education to all its students. One interesting fact about the university is that it has a 625-acre rural campus that consists of lakes, woods, science parks, and a conference centre. This makes it the largest campus university in the entire United Kingdom. Over the last few decades, the university has become immensely popular among the pool of international students all around the world. Every year, hundreds of students from all over the world apply to this university to pursue a course of their choice and obtain some really good quality of education.
Courses offered:
Irrespective of whether you are looking for a foundation course or an undergraduate course, a master’s degree, or even a Ph.D., Keele University the place for you to be at. It is the place where the students thrive and get chances to have an all-round experience. The university has hundreds of courses across disciplines and subjects for the students to choose from. In terms of the number of courses, it is quite comfortable to say that the university has something for everyone. The students of all interests and passions can find the course that they wish to study at Keele University.
All the academic activities that are carried out at Keele University are organized into the following three faculties and different schools:
1. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
- School of Social, Political, and Global Studies
- School of Humanities
- Keele Business School
- School of Law
2. Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
- School of Primary, Community, and Social Care
- School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Engineering
- School of Nursing and Midwifery
- School of Medicine
- School of Allied Health
3. Faculty of Natural Sciences
- School of Geography, Geology, and the Environment
- School of Chemical & Physical Sciences
- School of Veterinary Sciences
- School of Psychology
- School of Life Sciences
- School of Computing and Mathematics
Through these schools and faculties, the university offers almost all the courses that a student can think of. These courses range from Astrophysics, Accounting and Business Management, Accounting and Mathematics, Biology, Biochemistry, Forensic Science, Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry, Neuroscience, Criminology, Economics, Politics, Psychology, Education, Sociology, Literature, Film Studies, Environmental Science, Geography, Geology, History, International Business, International Relations, Public Policy, Law, Business, Disability Nursing, Liberal Arts, Management, Marketing and Business, Mathematics, Music, Natural Sciences, Nursing Studies, Pharmacy, Philosophy, Public Health, Sociology, Veterinary Medicine, and many more.
Such a huge variety and range of courses that the university has to offer to all its students proves to be helpful. It especially benefits all the students who do not have a clear idea of what course they wish to pursue. Having such a high number of courses to look at gives them the bandwidth and space to take one of the most important decisions of their academic career. This list of courses is the reason why the university’s student population consists of students from all parts of the world.
Reasons for international students to attend Keele University:
A student has to go through an entire journey of thoughts and emotions while deciding which college to attend. Deciding where to attend college is not an easy decision. In this day and age, the college that a student attends ends up deciding the entire path or quality of the opportunities that he gets, at least in the initial stage of the career. Therefore, no student can commit the mistake of taking this decision lightly.
Moreover, it is no secret that international students are always at a disadvantage while they are deciding on their college. Since they live in a different country altogether, they can’t know as much about a college as a native student would know. Therefore, to help, here we list some reasons why international students would want to study at Keele:
1. A highly beautiful campus
Studying abroad is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for all international students. Although the primary aim of leaving the country and travel thousands of miles is to get a higher quality of education, it cannot be denied that studying abroad is an experience and many other factors go on into making the quality of this experience. The campus that a student lives on is one of these factors. Keele University ranks at the very top when it comes to the campus. It has an extremely beautiful campus that any student would love to live on. Times Higher Education Rankings placed Keele University among the top 5 most beautiful universities in the entire United Kingdom. The Telegraph also ranks Keele as one of the top 10 most beautiful universities in the whole of Britain.
Moreover, Keele University has a campus that spans across over 600 acres of land, which makes it the largest university with a single-site campus in the entire United Kingdom. With such a large and beautiful campus, it is only natural that the university is highly popular among international students. After all, a campus that is large and beautiful doesn’t hurt on the top of a good quality of education.
2. Great rankings
Rankings are perhaps the most authentic source that a student can use to get an idea of the prestige and the reputation associated with the college that they are planning to join. Any student planning to study abroad always takes a look at the rankings. Keele University does not lag at all in terms of the rankings.
It has been consistently ranked among the top 3 universities for student satisfaction from 2014 to 2019 in the National Student Survey. Also, in the 2019 Guardian University League Table, Keele University was ranked jointly at the no. 1 spot in terms of student satisfaction in England. The Times Good University Guide 2020 ranked Keele University among the top 50 overall in the United Kingdom. In the Times Higher Education Europe Teaching Rankings 2019, Keele University was ranked in the Top 100 universities in Europe. Moreover, the university has been ranked among the top 10 universities in the UK in terms of the research opportunities that it offers to postgraduate students. Overall, Keele University sits right at the top when it comes to rankings. This instills a lot of confidence in the international students who look forward to applying to this prestigious university.
3. Highly affordable
Affordability is a huge factor that the students have to consider while applying to institutes abroad. The thigh tuition fee of the colleges these days is one of the primary reasons why a huge number of students drop the idea of studying abroad in the university or college of their choice. The tuition fee, over the years, has been on a constant rise in colleges in countries all around the world and thus, it has become a headache for students, especially for the students who come parts of the world like Asia.
The students coming from Asian countries have to suffer a lot if they decide to study in the United Kingdom because of the drastic difference between the strengths of the currency of their country and that of the UK.
Well, at Keele University, the international students do not face this problem a lot as the university is one of the most affordable institutions in all of the United Kingdom. Keele University was ranked at the number one for affordability in the United Kingdom in the year 2016. Thus, it is no surprise that the university receives such a high number of applications from international students.
Prospects of International students at Keele University:
Keele University is known for the amazing prospects that the international students here enjoy. Here are some of the reasons for the same:
1. Language support for international students
Keele University has been on the rise in terms of its internationalization in recent years. For this reason, the university has established a language centre as it recognizes the major barrier that language becomes for international students. This Language Centre offers a huge range of support services to all international students to study English and modern languages in quite a welcoming and friendly environment. The international students can look at this language centre as a point of cultural and linguistic diversity. This initiative taken by the university helps the international students a lot as it allows them to improve their English skills. For other students, there are other opportunities to develop their skills in modern languages. Moreover, the modules that the language centre offers can also be taken as part of many degree programmes. Thus, the centre also enhances the employability of the students and enriches their experience.
For the students who come from countries where the native language is not English, studying in the United Kingdom can be a stressful experience. Thus, this language centre helps a lot to improve the prospects of international students.
2. The highly diverse student population
A diverse student population is something that proves to be highly beneficial for the students coming from abroad. At Keele University, you get to live with a very diverse student population; and the best part about the diversity in a student body is that as an international student, you do not feel like an outsider anymore. The environment of the university is such that it celebrates everyone irrespective of where they come from. It proves to be immensely beneficial for an international student to know that there are a lot of other students on campus who have the experiences the same as him. Knowing so fills the international students with the confidence that they need to feel comfortable on campus.
Because of such an environment, the university, today, has an alumni base of more than a hundred thousand in over a hundred countries all around the world.
Moreover, this diversity means that the campus has students of all interests, backgrounds, cultures, and locations. This makes sure that all the students get a highly valuable exposure. In addition to this, a diverse student body also takes care of the biggest fear that an international student has, i.e. of not being accepted and welcome.
3. High employability
These amazing rankings of Keele University translate into the high level of confidence that the employers show in the students of the institute. Over the years, the university has developed a reputation for producing highly competent graduates and professionals who can go out in the real world and overcome all the obstacles that the market puts in front of them. The graduates produced by Keele University have performed decently in a wide range of industries. This is the reason that the fresh graduates of Keele find themselves in high demand in the market.
The university has a very high employability rate and it continues to rise. This high employability rate makes sure that all the international students who come in from different parts of the world feel secure in terms of their employment prospects. This sense of security translates into the students feeling free and eventually performing well in terms of academics. This is one of the primary reasons for the international students to enjoy such great prospects at Keele University. Moreover, with such prospects in sight, no student would want to miss out on a chance to study at Keele University.