University of St Mark & St John

Coordinates: 50°25′14″N 04°06′36″W / 50.42056°N 4.11000°W / 50.42056; -4.11000

University of St Mark & St John (Marjon)

Motto	Abeunt studia in mores "out of studies comes character".
Type	Independent Church of England voluntary
Established	1923 (joint college) St John's (1840) St Marks (1841)
Students	2,420 (2014/15)[1]
Undergraduates	2,035 (2014/15)[1]
Postgraduates	385 (2014/15)[1]
Location	Plymouth, United Kingdom
Website	marjon.ac.uk

The University of St Mark & St John and commonly referred to as Marjon is based on the northern edge of the city of Plymouth, England. It has a single campus, a long heritage and specialisms in creative arts, education, health sciences, speech and language therapy and sport.

Marjon is ranked best University in the South West for Education degree programmes^[2] and fourth best university in the UK for sports facilities.^[3]

Formerly called University College Plymouth St Mark & St John, the institution was awarded full university status in 2012.^[4] The Acting Vice-Chancellor of the university is Dr Karen Cook.

History

A model of the Chelsea Campus

The university's history dates back to the foundation by the National Society (now National Society for Promoting Religious Education) of the constituent London colleges of St John's College in Battersea, London (1840) and St Mark's College in Chelsea, London (1841).

The St Mark's College was founded on the belief of Rev Derwent Coleridge, its first principal and son of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge that its primary purpose was to widen the educational horizons of its students. St John's College was established by Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth, together with Edward Carleton Tufnell, to provide teacher training to meet the social and economic needs of 19th-century industrialisation and promoted the concept of education as self-realisation. Both colleges stressed the importance of applied education, the interface between academic study and broader experience and the role of an enlightened teaching profession in furthering social and economic development. The two colleges were among the first to open access to degree level study outside the established universities.

The colleges merged in 1923, establishing a single institution in Chelsea which developed a wider reputation for academic excellence and commitment to teaching. The College of St Mark & St John then moved to Plymouth in 1973 when the Chelsea site became too small, and its educational activities have continued to evolve in response to local, regional, national and international needs.

In 1991 the college became affiliated to the University of Exeter, which accredited it to run undergraduate and postgraduate programmes leading to degree awards of the University of Exeter. In 2007, the College of St Mark & St John gained University College status and was able to award its own degrees. With the new status came the temporary name of University College Plymouth St Mark & St John. The University of St Mark & St John, which now awards its own undergraduate and taught postgraduate degrees, still enjoys a strong relationship with the University of Exeter which continues to award research degrees to students of the university.

Campus

The main entrance to the campus in Derriford, Plymouth in April 2014

The university campus is between Dartmoor National Park and the coast, a few miles from Plymouth city centre and next to Plymouth's teaching hospital and a range of sports facilities north of the city. There are frequent buses to the city centre.

In 2013 a major investment programme in campus facilities was completed. Students now enjoy some of the best sports facilities of any UK university, including sport and exercise science laboratories, a 90 station fitness suite, swimming pool, climbing wall, sports hall, gyms and outdoor pitches. There are new state-of-the-art teaching facilities for business innovation, theatre, JaM centre (Journalism and Media) and live music production studio. Library and dining facilities are also new and upgraded residential accommodation is provided on campus with all first year students guaranteed a place in residential accommodation. Other students tend to share rented accommodation in the popular student quarters of Plymouth such as Mutley which is close to the campus.

The university campus houses the Peninsula Allied Health Centre (PAHC) which enables 814 University of Plymouth students to study a range of allied health professions that complement the university's expertise in sports therapy, speech and language therapy and physical activity and health.

Academic profile

The university has over 70 taught programmes of study with teaching informed by research. There are three faculties. These are Sport & Health Sciences, Education & Social Sciences and Culture & Language Sciences. It has a reputation for teaching quality and student support and offers small classes. Programmes have links with employers. In 2013 the university became the first in Devon and Cornwall to be awarded Stonewall Diversity Champion status.^[7]

In the news

In 2016, students gave the university 89% overall satisfaction, making the university joint 35th out of 160 universities across the country. Several of the courses received a 100% satisfaction rate (Acting Degree, Sport Development with Physical Education and Sport Journalism).^[8]

The University as a whole scored well across a breadth of measures such as Teaching (90% satisfaction), Personal Development (89% satisfaction) and Learning Resources (88% satisfaction). This positioned it above eight of the 10 other universities in the South West including Plymouth, Bristol, UWE, Bath Spa and Falmouth. Out of the 24 Russell Group universities in the UK, only six came in higher than Marjon for student satisfaction^[9]

The university has developed a collaboration with the University of Soran in Kurdistan in Iraq to develop a Centre for Language and Academic Development designed to support the delivery of degrees in English in Kurdistan. Other international collaborations include a 35-year partnership with the Ministry of Education in Malaysia to provide teacher training degrees, a range of business and management programmes with the University of Nicosia in Cyprus and programmes relating to the university’s specialisms in education and languages delivered in Vietnam and Mexico.

There are partnerships, including sport and exercise science support, with Plymouth Albion R.F.C., Plymouth Argyle and Exeter Chiefs. In 2013 and in collaboration with Plymouth College and funded by Sport England, the university is developing a new astro pitch for hockey to supplement existing astro and grass pitches.

Alumni

References

External links

Media related to University of St Mark and St John at Wikimedia Commons

• See current degree courses available at the University of St Mark & St John
• Marjon Student Union website

Universities in the United Kingdom
England	East Anglia Anglia Ruskin BPP Cambridge East Anglia Norwich University of the Arts Suffolk London University of London Birkbeck City Courtauld Goldsmiths Heythrop Institute of Cancer Research KCL London Business School LSE LSHTM Queen Mary Royal Academy of Music RCSSD Royal Holloway Royal Veterinary College St George's SOAS UCL Other BPP Brunel East London Greenwich Imperial Kingston Law London Met London South Bank Middlesex Regent's University London Richmond, The American International University in London Royal College of Art Royal College of Music Roehampton St Mary's University of the Arts London Westminster West London Midlands Aston BPP Birmingham Birmingham City Bishop Grosseteste Coventry De Montfort Derby Harper Adams Keele Law Leicester Lincoln Loughborough Newman Northampton Nottingham Nottingham Trent Staffordshire University College Birmingham Warwick Wolverhampton Worcester North Bolton BPP Bradford Central Lancashire Chester Cumbria Durham Edge Hill Huddersfield Hull Lancaster Law Leeds Leeds Beckett Leeds Trinity Liverpool Liverpool Hope Liverpool John Moores Manchester Manchester Metropolitan Newcastle Northumbria Salford Sheffield Sheffield Hallam Sunderland Teesside York York St. John South Arts Bournemouth Ashridge Bath Bath Spa Bedfordshire Bournemouth BPP Brighton Bristol Buckingham Buckinghamshire New Canterbury Christ Church Chichester Cranfield Creative Arts Essex Exeter Falmouth Gloucestershire Hertfordshire Kent Law Oxford Oxford Brookes Plymouth Portsmouth Reading Royal Agricultural University St Mark & St John Southampton Southampton Solent Surrey Sussex UWE Winchester
Northern Ireland	Queen's Ulster
Scotland	Aberdeen Abertay Dundee Dundee Edinburgh Edinburgh Napier Glasgow Glasgow Caledonian Heriot-Watt Highlands and Islands Queen Margaret Robert Gordon Royal Conservatoire of Scotland St Andrews Stirling Strathclyde West of Scotland
Wales	Aberystwyth Bangor Cardiff Cardiff Metropolitan South Wales Swansea Swansea Metropolitan UW Trinity Saint David Wrexham Glyndŵr
Overseas territories	American University of the Caribbean Bermuda College Cayman Islands Law School International College of the Cayman Islands Saint James School of Medicine St. Matthew's University University of Gibraltar University College of the Cayman Islands University of Science, Arts and Technology University of the West Indies
Crown dependencies	University of the Channel Islands in Guernsey
Non−geographic	Lambeth degrees Open University University of London International Programmes
Related	List by date of foundation (Third-oldest in England) List by endowment List by enrollment Colleges within universities Degree abbreviations National Union of Students Rankings Undergraduate degree classification UCAS HEFCE Scottish Funding Council
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