h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Graduated in 2000, so it wouldn't be the most up to date (the union building (good old Alex House) as I knew it is now a car park), but quite happy to write it, or help if someone else wants to collaborate...

Eeek! Hit return early. Meant to add, as a starting point that it was made a University in 1992, formely Portsmouth Polytechnic, which itself grew from the Portsmouth and Gosport School of Science and Arts, founded in 1869.

Thanks very much Rockhound - that's fab! My university's already got a very good Entry on it (which I'll try and add to later) but in the meantime I'll post some snippets to try and get the ball rolling...

The student magazine is called Pugwash! And in its time has won the Best Student Magazine award from the National Students Union.

Famous alumni include the writer Shirley Contran, poet/novelist Simon Armitage and Labour MP Ron Davis.

The university's website is: http://www.port.ac.uk/
The students' union website is: http://www.upsu.net/

Was it a good place to spend your student years?

Yes!

Right, being as it seems like we're to post the info here (or am I meant ot be writing this as a proper entry?), and bear in mind this is un-spellchecked, un-typo-ed bare facts as I finds them

*Number of students - 19,155 @ time of writing

*Popular courses - strong departments

faculty of humanities and social sciences - Criminology, Education, History, Film Studies, Languages, Politics and Sociology

faculty of science - Biological Sciences, Earth Sciences, Pharmacy, Postgraduate Medicine, Psychology, Radiography and Sports Science

faculty of technology - Computer Science, Creative Technologies, Electronic Engineering, Information Systems, Mathematics and Mechanical Engineering

faculty of the environment - Architecture, Art Design & Media, Civil Engineering, Geography and Quantity Surveying

portsmouth business school

I'm doing digging on the Times rankings.... oddly enough they didn't have Portsmouth listed in their subject rankings for geology as far as I could see. Hmmmm!

Union - Formerly housed in the ex-NAFFI building Alexandra House (demolished to make way for a car park, older students will get all misty-eyed at the mention of the Dry Dock, later the Lighthouse/Globe Cafe, the Ranch Bar, and the Garage) a new purpose built Union was opened in 2003 (? must check) at the other end of Ravelin Park, to the north of Frewen Library, though it too has been significantly altered with the main entertianment area (yup, the bars!) redesigned.

Frewen Library in Ravelin Park, currently undergoing a major extension. Home to all the usual books, journals, computers and study areas you'd expect to find in an academic library.

St Pauls Gym and the nearby Nuffield Sports Centre offer cardiovascular, free weights and resistance training equipment, exercise classes are held and squash courts.

Student Newspaper as well as Pugwash as Natalie mentioned, there's Purple Wednesdays - the weekly sports paper. The name stems from the ubiquitous day for BUSA (British Universities Sports Asocaition) activities, and Purple being the corporate colour of the University (though strangely enough, it doesn't feature prominantly on the University's armorial bearings). Sporting "Colours" (awarded annually for achievement and effort) are thus Purples and half-Purples.

Legend has it there are five types of Pub in Portsmouth: Locals only, Students only, Navy only, Locals & Students and Navy & Locals. You generally find out which are which, and generally all three aspects of Portsmouth, city, uni and navy get along fine.

Thanks for that, Rockhound! You can post info on here, of course, but if you'd like to set up a page and collate the info, that would be fabulous! If not, that's fine - you've given us lots of stuff to be going on with here!

Nae probs! Will knock an entry into shape with Guide ML over the weekend, and if no-one else appears to help out, fling it into the Writing Workshop or PR on Monday depending on how I feel about it

Peer Review Thread F48874?thread=2982596

Entry: University of Portsmouth - A11753642

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'h2g2's Alternative Prospectus' to 'University of Portsmouth '.