Birmingham City University

Age: 17

History: Previously Birmingham Poly, then known as University of Central England until last October, formed out of 11 colleges of art, education, music and PE.

Address: Ten sites around Birmingham: the largest is Perry Barr, three miles to the north of the city centre. The Birmingham School of Acting came under the BCU umbrella in 2006 and is housed in purpose-built facilities along with the swanky Technology Innovation Centre at Millennium Point in the city centre. A new £150m central flagship campus is currently being planned.

Ambience: Depends on the setting. Perry Barr is a modern urban campus; Westbourne in Edgbaston has just had a £24m spruce-up and, like Bournville, occupies a leafier suburb. Gosta Green (one of four sites offering art and design courses) rubs shoulders with Aston University.

Vital statistics: Almost 19,500 full-time undergrads and 4,400 part-timers. Just under in five are mature students and those from private schools are a rare breed. Many courses are career-related and nearly half involve a sandwich year.

Added value: The health faculty is part of a new centre of excellence for teaching and learning and the education faculty is highly rated. The new Mary Seacole library (on the Westbourne site) is one of the largest health education libraries in the country. Birmingham City University is the first University in England to have a virtual operating suite on-site, allowing medic students to hone their skills, operating on virtual cancer patients.

Easy to get into? Almost six applications per place. Course entry requirements range from 180-260 UCAS points.

Glittering alumni: Novelist Jim Crace; Alfred Bestall, illustrator of Rupert Bear; comedian Frank Skinner; TV presenter Margarita Taylor, not forgetting X-Factor 2007 runner-up Rhydian Roberts.

Transport links: Buses and trains between Perry Barr and the city centre, Birmingham is easy to get to and from. All of the other campuses are equally close and accessible.

Who's the boss? Vice-Chancellor David Tidmarsh, a Coventry man who joined UCE from Anglia Ruskin University in January 2006.

Teaching: Quality of teaching was given a solid 3.9 out of 5 in the 2006 National Student Survey.

Research: Rated 85th out of 106 in the 2001 research assessment exercise. Awarded a 4 out of 7 in art and design.

Nightlife: Birmingham pulses with student nights, pubs and curry houses. The Union has four main bars and puts on cheap and cheerful club nights.

Any accommodation? Yes - it costs between, on average, £75 (self-catered) and £85 (catered) per week (a number of BCU’s halls have recently undergone major renovation)

Cheap to live there? About average - around £70 per week to rent privately.

Prospectus: 0121 331 5595 or email on choices@bcu.ac.uk or visit www.bcu.ac.uk

UCAS code: B25