University Of East Anglia

Established in 1963 on a 320-acre (130-hectare) campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and twenty-six schools of study. It is one of five BBSRC funded research campuses with thirty businesses, four independent research institutes (John Innes Centre, Quadram Institute, Earlham Institute, and The Sainsbury Laboratory) and a teaching hospital (Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital) on site.

University of East Anglia

Coat of arms
Latin: Universitas Angliae Orientalis
Motto	"Do Different"
Type	Public research university
Established	September 29, 1963; 60 years ago (1963-09-29)
Endowment	£13.7 million (2023)
Budget	£315 million (2022/23)
Chancellor	Dame Karen Jones
Vice-Chancellor	David Maguire
Academic staff	1,980 (2021/22)
Administrative staff	2,130 (2021/22)
Students	19,130 (2021/22)
Undergraduates	13,935 (2021/22)
Postgraduates	5,200 (2021/22)
Location	Norwich , Norfolk , England 52°37′18″N 1°14′30″E / 52.62167°N 1.24167°E / 52.62167; 1.24167
Campus	Large suburb: 320-acre (130-hectare)
Chair of Council	Sally Howes
Colours	Blue & Black
Affiliations	ACU AMBA Eastern ARC EUA Norwich Research Park Universities UK
Website	uea.ac.uk

The university is a member of Norwich Research Park, which has one of Europe's largest concentrations of researchers in the fields of agriculture, genomics, health and the environment. UEA is one of the nation's most-cited research institutions worldwide. The postgraduate Master of Arts in creative writing, founded by Sir Malcolm Bradbury and Sir Angus Wilson in 1970, is competitive and the programme has produced several distinguished authors. The annual income for 2022/23 was £315m (£34.2m from research grants and contracts) with a £312.2m expenditure and a £559m contribution to the regional economy.

UEA alumni and faculty include three Nobel Prize winners, a co-discoverer of the Hepatitis C and D genomes, as well as the small interfering RNA, a co-inventor of the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, one President of the Royal Society, three Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences, six National Teaching Fellows, eight Fellows of the British Academy, and a number of Fellows of the Royal Society. Alumni also include multiple CEOs, one current monarch and former prime minister, two de facto heads of state, one vice president, one deputy prime minister, two former Leaders of the House of Lords, along with winners of the Lasker Award, Booker Prize, Caine Prize, and Costa Book Award.

1960s

 

Attempts to establish a university in Norwich were made in 1919 and 1947, but due to a lack of government funding on both occasions the plans had to be postponed. The University of East Anglia was eventually set up in April 1960 for biological sciences and English studies students. Initially, teaching took place in the temporary "University Village", which was officially opened by chairman of the University Grants Committee, Keith Murray, on 29 September 1963. Sited on the opposite side of the Earlham Road to the present campus, this was a collection of prefabricated structures designed for 1,200 students, laid out by the local architectural firm Feilden and Mawson. There were no residences with the vice-chancellor and administration being based in nearby Earlham Hall.

In 1961, the first vice-chancellor, Frank Thistlethwaite, had approached Denys Lasdun, an adherent of the "New Brutalist" trend in architecture, who was at that time building Fitzwilliam College, to produce designs for the permanent campus. The site chosen was on the western edge of the city, on the south side of Earlham Road. The land, formerly part of the Earlham Hall estate was at that time occupied by a golf course. Lasdun presented a model and an outline plan at a press conference in April 1963, but it took another year to produce detailed plans, which diverged considerably from the model. As a result, the first buildings did not open until late-1966.

Lasdun moved the teaching and research functions into the "teaching wall" which was a single 460-metre (1,510-foot) long block following the contour of the site. Alongside this a walkway was built, giving access to the various entrances of the wall, with frontage roads beneath. Attached to the southern side of the walkway, groups of terraced residences were added that became known as "Ziggurats". In 1968, Lasdun was replaced as architect by Bernard Feilden, who completed the teaching wall and library and created an arena-shaped square as a new social space. They would later receive Grade II* listed status. In 1964, Arthur Miller's The Crucible became the first drama production to be staged at UEA with John Rhys Davies, the drama society's first president. In 1965, Benjamin Britten was appointed music adviser for UEA and in 1967, he conducted the UEA Choir in a performance of his War Requiem. In 1968, there were two royal visits from Princess Margaret and Queen Elizabeth II who each came to tour the new university for the first time.

1970s

Malcolm Bradbury and Angus Wilson helped establish the first creative writing course in the United Kingdom and founded The School of Literature, Drama, and Creative Writing. In the early-1970s, UEA:TV (under the name of Nexus), was formed and created student-made television with it operating for two hours a day over lunchtime. The student newspaper Concrete was first officially launched in 1973, replacing Mandate which launched in 1965. Additional publications included Phoenix, Can Opener, Mustard Magazine and Kett before Concrete re-launched in 1992. In 1972, the Centre for Climatic Research opened and was founded by climatologist Hubert Lamb. In the same year, architect Bernard Feilden helped the university win a Civic Trust Award for the design of the Square, the university's main social area. In 1973, work began on the UEA Broad, which involved excavating an 18-acre (7.3-hectare) area of gravel and was arranged as part of a "no money" deal where a local aggregate company took the gravel for free leaving with a landscaped body of water fed by the River Yare.

 

In the mid-1970s, the School of Computing Sciences first opened at UEA, and the university started offering postgraduate and undergraduate education degrees from Keswick Hall, a manor house owned by the Gurney family. In 1978, the gift of a collection of tribal art and 20th-century painting and sculpture, by artists such as Francis Bacon and Henry Moore, from Sir Robert Sainsbury resulted in the construction of the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the western end of the main teaching wall, one of the first major works of architect Norman Foster. The UEA's School of Fine Art opened that same year.

1980s

 

In 1984, the School of Law first moved to Earlham Hall which dates back to 1580, and was once home to residents including Elizabeth Fry and the Gurney family. In 1986, the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) was opened within the Hubert Lamb Building and in 1988, for the university's 25th-anniversary celebrations, King Charles III visited the CRU building. In 1989, the British Centre for Literary Translation was founded by W. G. Sebald, and The Arthur Miller Centre for American Studies was set up to encourage and facilitate the study of the United States. Miller later spent his 85th-birthday at UEA when he was made an honorary graduate in 2000. That same year, Kazuo Ishiguro won the Booker Prize and became one of three UEA graduates who would receive the award, along with Ian McEwan and Anne Enright.

1990s

In 1990, the student radio station Livewire1350AM launched, completing the university's student media collective of print, television, and radio. It was opened by Radio 1 DJ John Peel and is now one of the longest running student radio stations in the country. In 1993, the Union of UEA Students took over the management of The Waterfront, a music venue and nightclub. In 1994, Queen Elizabeth II returned to UEA to open the Queen's Building, which hosts classes within the School of Health Sciences. In 1995, the Elizabeth Fry Building was opened, providing new facilities for almost 800 students.

2000s

In 2000, UEA's reputation within the field of environmental research led to the government choosing the university as the site for the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. The centre, named after the 19th-century scientist John Tyndall, brings together scientists, economists, engineers and social scientists from eight partner institutions. In 2001, the Sportspark, a multi-sports facility was built due to a £14.5 million grant from the Sport England Lottery Fund and was formally opened by Princess Anne and brought international sporting facilities to Norwich. The Sportspark houses an Olympic-sized pool, floodlit astro-pitches, and the tallest climbing wall in Norfolk.

In 2001, UEA alumnus Sir Paul Nurse was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine which he shared jointly with Timothy Hunt and Leland Hartwell "for their discoveries of key regulators of the cell cycle". In 2002, UEA's Medical School opened with 110 students enrolled as a collaboration with the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and centres at Norwich Research Park. In 2003, the School of Pharmacy opened along with the Zuckerman Institute for Connective Environmental Research (ZICER).

In November 2009, computer servers at the university's Climatic Research Unit were hacked and the stolen information made public. Over 1,000 emails and 2,000 documents were released. Because the Climate Research Unit was a major repository for data regarding man-made global warming, the release, which occurred directly prior to the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference, attracted international attention and led to calls for an inquiry, with the controversy gaining the nickname "climategate". As a result, eight investigations were launched in both the UK and US, but none found evidence of fraud or scientific misconduct, and the academics were subsequently fully exonerated.

2010s

In 2010, the Thomas Paine Study Centre was opened by playwright Trevor Griffiths; the building became the Norwich Business School. In 2012, the university won its second Queen's Anniversary Prize for its distinguished creative writing programme, having won one previously for its School of International Development. The award bolstered the region's reputation as a literary hub and helped Norwich to achieve its status as England's first UNESCO City of Literature in 2012. In 2013, the university celebrated its 50th-anniversary, ranking No. 1 in the Times Higher Education Magazine Student Experience league table. UEA also launched its first free Massive open online course (MOOC) in partnership with Future Learn.

In 2014, UEA opened an environmentally friendly accommodation block, Crome Court, which has won a number of awards for sustainability. The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at UEA was used in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War and Spider-Man: Homecoming. In 2015, "Britain's Greenest Building" (The Enterprise Centre) opened on campus, helping the university win further awards for its environmental credentials. Also, parts of the campus played host to Radio 1's Big Weekend which was located at Earlham Park where acts such as Fall Out Boy, Muse, Foo Fighters and Taylor Swift performed.

In late-September 2016, two new accommodation blocks opened; Barton House and Hickling House were named after two of the Norfolk Broads and increased the number of rooms available to new students. That year, Vice-Chancellor David Richardson unveiled a "2030 vision" which included a £300m investment in campus – refurbishing existing buildings as well as building new teaching and learning spaces. In January 2017, Queen Elizabeth II visited the UEA campus to attend the latest exhibition at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts. This was the her third and final visit, and was the eighth visit by the Royal Family to the institution.

2020–present

During the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020, the university gave empty student accommodation to NHS staff, allowing them to isolate from at-risk family members and to avoid commuting. In June 2021, plans for a BBC film documenting the 2009 CRU email controversy were announced, featuring Jason Watkins playing the role of climatologist Phil Jones. The film (The Trick) was shot on location at the university and aired in October 2021. In 2023, the university entered a financial crisis when it made a £74m loss in the financial year ending on 31 July 2022. The university's income was £295m, but it spent £370m: 48% staff costs, 16% pension scheme provision, 26% other costs, 8% depreciation, and 2% interest on loans. The university expected to make a £34m loss in the financial year 2023/24, and had predicted that there would be £45m yearly losses by 2026/27.

The university's teaching block, known as the Lasdun Wall, urgently required major repairs; its condition was described as "deteriorating fast" and it was said that if repairs were not done it might have "to be closed permanently". The financial turmoil alongside a previous vote of no-confidence by the UCU branch of East Anglia, and a "scathing" letter written to the UEA Council by the professoriate demanding change at the top, led to the immediate resignation of Vice-Chancellor David Richardson on 17 February 2023, who had been the Vice-Chancellor for ten years.

Questions were asked about the university's sudden crisis in Parliament, with the local MP Clive Lewis talking of the institution being in a "death spiral". Professor David Maguire, formerly Vice-Chancellor at the University of Greenwich, was appointed as the new Vice-Chancellor on 22 May 2023. According to a UEA press release, Maguire "will lead UEA through a significant period of transformation and change as it works to secure its future financial stability, and continue its success as a world-leading teaching and research University for future generations of students and staff". In practice this meant job cuts, and threats of compulsory redundancy (113 staff posts were lost over the summer).

In September 2023, it was announced that some of the university's student accommodation would be temporarily closed, due to government guidance on the unsafe nature of the building material RAAC. The accommodations affected were the Ziggurats (Norfolk and Suffolk Terrace), visitor accommodation Broadview Lodge, and the top floors of Constable Terrace and Nelson Court. Students were moved to alternative accommodation either on campus or off-campus. Vice-Chancellor Professor Maguire noted that they would be closed "until we can be certain that they are safe" and that there would be "no additional costs to students as a result of any changes" to accommodation.

 

Features of the UEA campus include Earlham Hall, childhood home of Elizabeth Fry, which is now home to the UEA Law School; the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the western end of the main teaching wall designed by Norman Foster to house the art collection of Sir Robert Sainsbury, it also features the Sportspark, a multi-sports facilities built in 2001, and the Enterprise Centre. The campus now covers the Norwich Research Park and the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. Up until 1994, former RAF accommodation blocks at RAF Horsham St Faith, known as "Fifers Lane" or "Horsham" halls, to the south of Norwich Airport housed roughly half of the university's first year students. Other features include the UEA Broad at the southern edge of campus and "The Square", a central outdoor meeting place flanked by concrete steps. There are three statues by Antony Gormley which were placed on campus in 2017, and drew controversy due to the fact that the figures resemble people balancing on high ledges.

 

Accommodation blocks on the university campus include Constable Terrace, Nelson Court, and Britten, Paston, Colman, Victory, Kett and Browne Houses, and the University Village. Residences are named after Horatio Nelson, John Constable, Benjamin Britten, Jeremiah Colman, Nelson's ship HMS Victory, Robert Kett, Sir Thomas Browne and the Paston family, the authors of the Paston Letters. UEA's accommodation block, Crome Court, opened in September 2014, containing the university's most eco-friendly flats. Two new blocks; Hickling and Barton House opened in September 2016.

 

Facilities on campus include the Union Pub and Bar, a 24-hour library, a concert venue called the Lower Common Room (LCR), a canteen called the Campus Kitchen, a café called the Blend, a bar called Unio, a graduate bar called the Scholar's Bar and The Street with a 24-hour launderette, the Union shop, and a coffee shop called Ziggy's. Other food establishments situated on campus include Café 57 and the Bio Cafe. There is also a medical centre, dentist, and pharmacy, located on the eastern side of the campus.

The campus is linked to the city centre and railway station by frequent buses, operated by First Eastern Counties, via Unthank Road or Earlham Road. Other transport links include First buses to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and to Bowthorpe, as well as Konectbus services to Watton, Dereham and Costessey via park & ride. National Express provides coach services to London, and Megabus operates low cost intercity travel to cities including Cambridge, Birmingham, Bristol and Cardiff.

Overview

Experimental novelist Alan Burns was the university's first writer-in-residence. The university library is home to the British Archive for Contemporary Writing, which is an archive of material from a range of classical and contemporary writers, including Doris Lessing, Lee Child, and Naomi Alderman. Between September 2022 and November 2023, the library also worked on a project entitled "Towards a Centre for Contemporary Poetry in the Archive", which has included hosting four Poets in Residence: Joelle Taylor, Jay Bernard, Anthony Vahni Capildeo and Gail McConnell. The German émigré novelist W. G. Sebald taught at the School of Literature and Creative Writing, and founded the British Centre for Literary Translation.

The Climatic Research Unit, founded in 1972 by Hubert Lamb in the School of Environmental Sciences, has been an early centre of work for climate change research. The school was also stated to be "the strongest in the world" by the chief scientific adviser to the British government, Sir David King, during a lecture at the John Innes Centre in 2005. The university was one of the first in the United Kingdom to establish Film Studies as a serious academic discipline, with developmental funding to support a new lectureship in the field awarded from the British Film Institute. It is also the home of the East Anglian Film Archive which collects and preserves film and videotape primarily from the Eastern counties.

National and international partnerships

In 2005, UEA in partnership with the University of Essex, Suffolk County Council, the East of England Development Agency, Ipswich Borough Council, and the Learning and Skills Council, secured £15m funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England for the creation of a new campus in the Waterfront area of Ipswich, called University Campus Suffolk (UCS). The campus opened in September 2007. In May 2016, it became independent of UEA and was named the University of Suffolk. In 2008, INTO University Partnerships opened a £35m six-storey building named INTO University of East Anglia with 415 en-suite study-bedrooms and classroom space for 600 students. The institution focuses on the provision of foundation courses for international students, including English language for academic purposes. Nationally, UEA is also involved in a number of partnerships including the Nexus Network (with the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and the University of Sussex) which fosters research and practical collaborations across the domains of energy and the environment.

Additionally, UEA is involved in several Doctoral Training Partnerships (DTPs) and Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs), including AgriFoRwArdS (collaboration with the University of Cambridge and the University of Lincoln which focuses on robotics within the agricultural sector), SENSS (partnership promoting social science research training with City, University of London, Cranfield University, University of Essex, Goldsmiths, University of London, University of Lincoln, Middlesex University and the University of Roehampton), ARIES (partnership offering environmental science research with University of Essex, University of Kent, University of Plymouth and Royal Holloway University), as well as CHASE (collaboration providing humanities training with Birkbeck, University of London, Goldsmiths, University of London, The Courtauld Institute of Art, The Open University, SOAS, University of London, University of Essex, University of Kent, and the University of Sussex).

Internationally, UEA has multiple international partner institutions where there are formal agreements for student exchange, research collaborations, staff and faculty mobility and study abroad schemes (semester or year) including: University of California (Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz), Georgetown University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Arizona, Temple University, University of Colorado Boulder, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Notre Dame, Middlebury College, Bennington College, University of British Columbia, University of Calgary, Australian National University, Monash University, University of Melbourne, University of Sydney, Nanyang Technological University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the University of Hong Kong.

Admissions

UEA had the joint twenty-fifth highest average entry qualification for undergraduates of any UK university in 2015, with new students averaging 407 UCAS points, equivalent to ABBbc in A-Level grades. In 2014, the ratio of applications to acceptances was 5.9 to 1. According to the 2017 Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide, approximately 10.5% of East Anglia's undergraduates come from independent schools.

Grade distribution and inflation

Data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) showed that UEA has one of the highest proportions of First Class and Upper Second Class degrees achieved by students with more than Oxford and Cambridge. Only three universities in the United Kingdom have been awarded a higher proportion of First Class degrees than UEA between the academic years 2014/15 and 2017/18. There is a concern about grade inflation with the degrees awarded by English universities, with the University of East Anglia awarding 35.7% First Class degrees, 52.1% Upper Seconds (2:1), 11.2% Lower Seconds (2:2), and 1% Third Class degrees in 2016/17.

Rankings and reputation

 

The results of the 2021 Research Excellence Framework, published on 12 May 2022, showed that over 91% of the university's research activity was deemed to be "world leading" or "internationally excellent" with more than 47% having the highest category of 4* of World Leading Research, significantly higher than the national average of 41%. UEA was ranked thirteenth in the UK for the quality of its research outputs and twentieth overall amongst all mainstream British institutions – a rise of nine places since the last assessment in 2014. The university ranks in the Top 1% worldwide according to the Times Higher Education world rankings, and within the world Top 100 for research excellence in the Leiden Ranking, with UEA "often out-performing Russell Group universities". In 2022, UEA was ranked within the Top 50 globally for research citations by the Times Higher Education world rankings.

In 2012, UEA was named the tenth best university in the world under 50-years-old, and third best within the United Kingdom. In national league tables, UEA has been ranked within the Top 20 by The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, and The Complete University Guide. In April 2013, the university was ranked first for student experience according to the Times Higher Education Magazine. It currently ranks third for student satisfaction in the National Student Survey when ranking mainstream English universities. UEA is the only institution to have ranked within the Top 5 since the survey began. In 2022, UEA was ranked first for "UK University Job Prospects" by students in the Student Crowd Survey. In 2017, the university was rated "gold" by the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) for quality of teaching. In the 2023 TEF assessment, UEA's award was revised to "silver".

Faculties and schools

 

The university offers over 300 courses in its four faculties, which contain twenty-six schools of study:

 

All students at the university automatically become members of the union but do have the right to opt out of membership. Membership confers the ability to take part in the union's activities such as clubs and societies and being involved in the democratic processes of the union. The union is a democratic organisation run by its members via an elected student officer committee and student council. It is affiliated to the National Union of Students. The UEA Student Union has over 200 clubs and societies; sports teams include men's and women's football clubs, a British Universities American Football League (BUAFC) Premier South Division American Football Team, The UEA Pirates, and cheerleading society to a Quidditch team. The UEA Media Collective encompasses the student newspaper Concrete, UEA:TV (previously named Nexus UTV) and the student radio station Livewire 1350AM.

The UEA Student Union hosts events like Pimp My Barrow, which was an annual fundraising event for The Big C, and involved decorated wheelbarrows from 2006 to 2018. It has raised more than £50,000 for the Norfolk charity. The annual Derby Day sports event sees UEA take on the University of Essex in approximately 40 sports. UEA has won the Derby Day trophy all seven times since 2013. The UEA Student Union also organises gigs and club nights at the Lower Common Room in Union House.

 

The students' union also runs The Waterfront venue, off campus in Norwich's King Street, which was awarded a Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) award in 2018 for engagement with alumni. Acts to have performed at these venues include Captain Beefheart, The Cure, Coldplay, Pere Ubu, U2, Haim, The Smiths, Sparks, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Radiohead, and Iron Maiden. The union also operates a number of other services within Union House which underwent a refurbishment in 2015 after a £6 million investment from the university.

Community

UEA offers many free public events, both on-and-off campus, alongside public access to the Sainsbury Centre, Sportspark and open campus spaces. The university's lecture theatres regularly host film screenings, discussions, lectures and presentations for the public to attend. UEA also has a long-term partnership with the Norwich Science Festival which is an annual event that takes place at The Forum in Norwich where organisations from Norwich Research Park hold workshops and exhibit science activities for the public.

UEA Literary Festival

The university hosted its inaugural literary festival in 1991 and has welcomed notable speakers including Madeleine Albright, Martin Amis, Martin Bell, Alan Bennett, Cherie Blair, Melvyn Bragg, Eleanor Catton, Richard Dawkins, Alain de Botton, Sebastian Faulks, Niall Ferguson, Stephen Fry, Frank Gardner, Richard E. Grant, Germaine Greer, Seamus Heaney, Clive James, P. D. James, Doris Lessing, Mario Vargas Llosa, Hilary Mantel, Iris Murdoch, Rageh Omaar, Michael Palin, Jeremy Paxman, Harold Pinter, Stephen Poliakoff, Terry Pratchett, Salman Rushdie, Simon Schama, Will Self, John Simpson, Zadie Smith, Paul Theroux, Peter Ustinov, Shirley Williams and Robert Winston.

Alumni

UEA alumni in the sciences include the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine laureate and former President of the Royal Society Sir Paul Nurse (PhD, 1973); the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine winning co-discoverer of the Hepatitis C and D genomes Sir Michael Houghton (Biological Sciences, 1972); vaccinologist Dame Sarah Gilbert (Biological Sciences, 1983) who designed the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, Dame Emily Lawson (PhD, 1993) who leads the NHS COVID-19 vaccine programme, Darwin Medal, Darwin–Wallace Medal and Erwin Schrödinger Prize winning evolutionary biologist Nick Barton (PhD, 1979); Potamkin Prize winning pathologist Karen Duff (Biological Sciences, 1987); climate scientists Tim Lenton, Chris Turney, Neil Adger, Benjamin D. Santer, Timothy Osborn, Keith Briffa, Sarah Raper, and Peter Thorne; and the Fellows of the Royal Society James Barber, Keith Beven, Mervyn Bibb, Lucy Carpenter, Richard Flavell, Don Grierson, Louise Heathwaite, Brian Hemmings, Terence Rabbitts, William Sutherland, and Nick Talbot.

 

Vaccinologist Dame Sarah Gilbert (BSc, 1983) was the Project Lead on the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

 

2020 Nobel Prize in Medicine laureate Sir Michael Houghton (BSc, 1972) co-discovered Hepatitis C in 1989.

 

2001 Nobel Prize in Medicine laureate and former President of the Royal Society Sir Paul Nurse (PhD, 1973).

Literary alumni include the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Sir Kazuo Ishiguro (Creative Writing, 1980), renowned German writer W. G. Sebald (PhD, 1973), Booker Prize winners, Ian McEwan (Creative Writing, 1971), and Anne Enright (Creative Writing, 1988); Costa Book Award (formerly Whitbread Award) winners Dame Rose Tremain (Creative Writing, 1967), Andrew Miller (Creative Writing, 1991), David Almond (English Literature, 1993), Tash Aw (Creative Writing, 2003), Emma Healey (Creative Writing, 2011), Susan Fletcher (Creative Writing, 2002), Adam Foulds (Creative Writing, 2001), Avril Joy (History of Art, 1972) and Christie Watson (Creative Writing, 2009); and the Caine Prize winners Binyavanga Wainaina (MPhil, 2010), Helon Habila (PhD, 2008) and Henrietta Rose-Innes (PhD). Other alumni include Tracy Chevalier (Creative Writing, 1994), John Boyne (Creative Writing, 1996), Neel Mukherjee (Creative Writing, 2001), Mick Jackson (Creative Writing, 1992), Trezza Azzopardi (Creative Writing, 1998), Paul Murray (Creative Writing, 2001), James Scudamore (Creative Writing, 2006), Mohammed Hanif (Creative Writing, 2005), Richard House (PhD, 2008), Sebastian Barker (English Literature, 1970), Clive Sinclair (BA, 1969; PhD, 1983), Kathryn Hughes (Creative Writing, 1986), Peter J. Conradi, and Craig Warner (Creative Writing, 2014).

 

Alumni in international politics and government include the current King of Tonga Tupou VI (Development Studies, 1980) who also served as Prime Minister from 2000 to 2006 and Foreign Minister from 1998 to 2004; Governor General of Grenada Sir Carlyle Glean (Education, 1982); Governor of Gibraltar Sir Robert Fulton (Social Sciences, 1970) who was formerly Commandant General Royal Marines; Kiribati Vice President Teima Onorio (Education, 1990); Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Murat Karayalçın (Development Economics, 1977) who also served as Foreign Minister; Finance Ministers of Australia (Mathias Cormann), South Africa (Tito Mboweni), Rwanda (Donald Kaberuka, later President of the African Development Bank), Uganda (Syda Bbumba), Thailand (Suchart Thada-Thamrongvech), and Venezuela (Pedro Rosas Bravo); Foreign Ministers of Iceland (Össur Skarphéðinsson) and The Gambia (Ousman Jammeh); Defence Minister of The Maldives Adam Shareef; current Mongolian Culture Minister Nomin Chinbat and Democratic Republic of the Congo Budget Minister Aimé Boji; and former Cabinet Ministers of Cyprus (Marios Demetriades), Peru (Gino Costa), South Sudan (Agnes Kwaje Lasuba), Kenya (Hassan Wario), Egypt (Gamal El-Araby), Tanzania (Juma Ngasongwa), Rwanda (Daphrose Gahakwa), Ethiopia (Sinknesh Ejigu and Junedin Sado), Seychelles (Rolph Payet and Peter Sinon), Turkey (Cüneyd Düzyol), Brunei (Suyoi Osman and Adanan Yusof) and Yemen (Yahya Al-Mutawakel).

Alumni in national politics include the Labour Members of Parliament Rachael Maskell (Physiotherapy, 1994), and Karin Smyth (Politics, 1988); two former Leaders of the House of Lords, Valerie Amos, Baroness Amos (Applied Research in Education, 1978), and Thomas Galbraith, 2nd Baron Strathclyde (Modern Languages & European Studies, 1982); and the Liberal Democrat peer Rosalind Scott, Baroness Scott of Needham Market (European Studies, 1999). UEA is also the alma mater of the former Crossbench peer Timothy Bentinck, 12th Earl of Portland (History of Art, 1975); and the former Members of Parliament Caroline Flint (American Literature, History & Film, 1983), Douglas Carswell (History, 1993), Tony Colman (International Development), Jon Owen Jones (Ecology, 1975), Tess Kingham (Education), Judith Chaplin and Ivor Stanbrook (Law, 1995).

In the arts, alumni include the actors Matt Smith (Drama, 2005), John Rhys-Davies, Jack Davenport (English & American Literature, 1995), James Frain (Drama, 1990), and Roger Ashton-Griffiths (PhD, 2015); comedians Paul Whitehouse, Charlie Higson (English & American Literature), Simon Day (Drama, 1989), Arthur Smith (Comparative Literature, 1976), and Nina Conti (Philosophy, 1995); film director Gurinder Chadha (Development Economics, 1983); art historians Philip Mould (History of Art, 1981), Bendor Grosvenor (PhD, 2009), and Paul Atterbury (Archaeology & Landscape History, 1972); Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House Mary Allen (Creative Writing, 2003); Chief Executive of English National Opera Séan Doran (Music 1983); BAFTA award-winning production designer Don Homfray (History, 1999), and the Emmy Award winning choirmaster Gareth Malone (Drama, 1997).

Alumni in the media include news correspondents Mark Stone (History of Art and Architecture, 2001), Stuart Ramsay, Razia Iqbal (American Studies, 1985), Geraint Vincent (History, 1994), David Grossman (Politics, 1987), and Selina Scott (English & American Literature, 1972); Radio 1 presenter Greg James (Drama, 2007) and Radio 4 newsreader and author Zeb Soanes (Drama 1997); political commentator Iain Dale (German & Linguistics, 1985); journalists Christina Patterson, Jake Wallis Simons (Creative Writing, 2009) and Emily Sheffield; BBC executives Dame Jenny Abramsky (English), Jonathan Powell (English Literature), and James Boyle; and the weather forecasters Darren Bett (Environmental Sciences, 1989) and Penny Tranter (Environmental Sciences, 1982). UEA alumni in business and economics include the Argentine billionaire businessman and real estate developer Eduardo Costantini, Hong Kong billionaire Billy Kan, the founders of Autonomy (David Tabizel) and Café Rouge (Karen Jones), and CEOs of Computacenter, ICI, Jaguar Land Rover, Premier Foods, Diageo, and Punch Taverns. UEA is also the alma mater of the explorer Benedict Allen (Environmental Sciences, 1981); England rugby player Andy Ripley; and the football commentator Martin Tyler (Sociology, 1967).

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  King of Tonga Tupou VI (BA, 1980)
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  Master of University College, Oxford Baroness Amos (Applied Research in Education, 1978)
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  Mongolian Culture Minister Nomin Chinbat (BA, 2006)
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  Secretary-General of the OECD Mathias Cormann (Law, 1994)
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  Argentine billionaire businessman Eduardo Costantini (MA, 1975)
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  2007 Booker Prize winner Anne Enright (MA, 1988)
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  Former Governor-General of Grenada Sir Carlyle Glean (MA, 1982)
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  Comedian Charlie Higson (BA, 1980)
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  1998 Booker Prize winner Ian McEwan (MA, 1971)
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  Former Leader of the House of Lords Lord Strathclyde (BA, 1982)

Academics

UEA has benefited from the services of academics at the top of their fields, including Sir Malcolm Bradbury and Sir Angus Wilson who both co-founded the Creative Writing programme; Hubert Lamb who founded the Climatic Research Unit; Lord Zuckerman who was influential in the establishment of the School of Environmental Sciences; Nobel Prize–winning chemist Richard Synge, who was an honorary professor; scientists Sir David King, Sir David Baulcombe, Jenni Barclay, Tom Wigley, Godfrey Hewitt, Michael Balls, Andrew Watson, Christopher Lamb, Alan Katritzky, Jean Palutikof, John Plane, Michael Gale, Roy Markham, Geoffrey Boulton, Johnson Cann, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, John Alwyne Kitching, Thomas Bennet-Clark, Jeremy Greenwood and Tracy Palmer; mathematician Peter Chadwick; writers Angela Carter and Sarah Churchwell; poet George Szirtes; poet laureate Sir Andrew Motion historians Sir Richard Evans, Paul Kennedy, Patricia Hollis and Michael Balfour; art historians Peter Lasko and Eric Fernie; historian Stephen Church; philosophers Martin Hollis and Andreas Dorschel; psychologist Dame Shirley Pearce; musician Sir Philip Ledger; political scientists Lord Williams of Baglan and Sir Steve Smith; former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, and the High Court Judges Sir Clive Lewis and Dame Beverley Lang. Present faculty include former IPCC Chairman Sir Robert Watson; scientists Sophien Kamoun, Corinne Le Quéré, Sir David Hopwood, Phil Jones, Jonathan D. G. Jones, Enrico Coen, Frederick Vine and Peter Liss; sociologist Tom Shakespeare; writers Ian Rankin, Giles Foden, Amit Chaudhuri, and Christopher Bigsby; as well as the former Home Secretary Charles Clarke and LBC Radio presenter Iain Dale.

Chancellors

 

• Harold Mackintosh, 1st Viscount Mackintosh of Halifax (1962–1964)
• Oliver Franks, Baron Franks (1965–1984)
• Owen Chadwick (1984–1994)
• Sir Geoffrey Allen (1994–2003)
• Sir Brandon Gough (2003–2012)
• Dame Rose Tremain (2013–2016)
• Karen Jones (2016–present)

Vice-Chancellors

• Frank Thistlethwaite (1961–1980)
• Sir Michael Thompson (1980–1986)
• Derek Burke (1987–1995)
• Dame Elizabeth Esteve-Coll (1995–1997)
• Vincent Watts (1997–2002)
• Sir David Eastwood (2002–2006)
• Bill MacMillan (2006–2009)
• Edward Acton (2009–2014)
• David Richardson (2014–2023)
• David Maguire (2023–present)

• Armorial of UK universities
• List of universities in the United Kingdom
• Plate glass university