About us

Arte et Industria: By art and industry

Open for business in 1893

It is a little known fact that Bucks owes its existence – at least in part – to an unpopular tax that was imposed on beer and spirits towards the end of the nineteenth century. A fund was created to compensate owners of licensed premises who’d been forced to close, but it eventually became so large that Parliament agreed to make it available for educational purposes too. With additional money from the local County Council, a Science and Art School emerged in 1893, which immediately started to play an important role in providing evening classes to the residents of High Wycombe and the surrounding region.

A changing role in the new century

After the First World War, the School also began to give special tuition to disabled ex-soldiers and sailors. The veterans were trained in a range of traditional skills including cabinet making, carving and polishing to help them find work in local factories. By 1920, daytime technical classes in metalwork and woodwork had been introduced – the first in the country. The school was then renamed as The Wycombe Technical Institute.

After the Second World War

Following the defeat of Hitler in 1945, there was a greater urgency for technical education to rehabilitate returning servicemen. The increased demand – along with the introduction of day release schemes for apprentices – required immediate additional classroom space and it was proposed to site a new College of Further Education in Queen Alexandra Road. These facilities were built over a period of ten years and officially opened by the Right Honourable Sir Edward Boyle, MP on 6th May 1963.

Newland Park and Missenden Abbey

The growth of the High Wycombe College of Art and Technology, as it was then known, continued. In 1975, it merged with the Newland Park College of Education in Chalfont St Giles (a former Teacher Training College) to form Buckinghamshire College of Higher Education.
During this time the university also acquired Missenden Abbey Conference Centre. The Abbey, which dates back to 1133, was officially opened as a management centre by the Duke of Gloucester in May 1988, having been dramatically restored after a fire in 1985.

University status

In 1989, the College became one of the UK's new independent Higher Education Corporations. At this time the College made a strategic commitment to become a polytechnic institute by 1992, en route to attaining university status. In 1992 it became a College of Brunel University.
In March 1999, Buckinghamshire College was awarded University College status by the Government, in recognition of its high standards of teaching, training and research, and became Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College (BCUC). The university college had its own degree awarding powers and became the principal provider of higher education in the region.
In June 2007, the institution was informed that it had met all the necessary criteria for the award of university title, and would become the new university in Buckinghamshire subject to Privy Council approval of a new name.
The new name, Buckinghamshire New University, was approved in October 2007. The approval of the name means that the institution is now officially a university, and marked a significant new chapter in the history of the University.

A New University

The university has invested heavily in its centralisation with the consolidation of its previously divided Wellesbourne and Chalfont campuses into a renovated and expanded High Wycombe campus. With the completion of the state-of-the-art Gateway building Bucks can now boast a modern integrated learning resources centre, music recording studios, video production suites and a fitness centre. The building itself won a RIBA award in 2010. A new site in Uxbridge, west London, has also been established providing cutting edge theatres enabling nursing students to take a much more hands on approach to their education.
Alongside this a major internal restructure has taken place to improve how effectively degree courses are delivered, with the merge of six faculties into two, the Faculty of Design, Media and Management and The Faculty of Society and Health. The University has also embraced its corporate social responsibility with a huge emphasis on green initiatives, such as an increased use of public transport between campuses, and a greater presence in the local community.

Past, Present and Future: Bucks's history documented

The history of Buckinghamshire New University has been documented in a book by Muriel Pilkington, Past, Present and Future, published in 2010. Muriel is an honorary graduate of the University and served as a Council (governing body) member between 1994 and 2006.