Liverpool Hope University

Liverpool Hope University (abbreviated LHU) is a public university with campuses in Liverpool, England. ‌The university grew out of three teacher training colleges: Saint Katharine's College (originally Warrington Training College), Notre Dame College (originally Our Lady's Training College), and Christ's College. Uniquely in European higher education, the university is ecumenical, the only one in Europe, with Saint Katharine's College being Anglican and Notre Dame and Christ's Colleges being Catholic. The Anglican Bishop of Liverpool, David Sheppard and the Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool, Derek Worlock (who gave their names to the university's Sheppard-Worlock Library) played a prominent role in its formation. Its name derives from Hope Street, the road that connects the city's Anglican and Catholic cathedrals, where graduation ceremonies are alternately held.

The university is a research and teaching intensive institution. It has gained recognition for its teaching.

In 2023, it achieved an overall Silver rating in the UK Government's Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), and rankings in teaching-focused league tables is comparable with lower-performing Russell Group universities.

Former vice chancellor Gerald Pillay summarised the university as a liberal arts college-style environment where "[students are] a name, not a number." Powys, who has a lecture theatre named in his honour in the EDEN Building, was the first Secretary of the Board of Education set up by the Diocese of Chester in 1839. The Warrington Training College was the second college set up by the Chester Diocesan Board within the current boundaries of Cheshire; the first having been established in Chester itself in 1839 (similarly the point of origin of the University of Chester).

In 1856, the second of the university's predecessor colleges, "Our Lady's Training College", also referred to as "Notre Dame" and "Mount Pleasant", was opened by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. at a cost of £170,000 in partnership with a young Reginald Uren (who handled the construction phase), it is described by Historic England as being laid out "on a grand scale with accomplished Vernacular Revival styling reminiscent of Lutyens' Home Counties architecture" and "[an] impressive main court [that] maximises views over the Rector's Lawn and is complemented by a cloister-like rear quadrangle".

A third college and university affiliation

In 1930, by coincidence the same year as Saint Katharine's (then Warrington Training College) College arrived in Liverpool, the Victoria University of Manchester (VUM) and the University of Liverpool had set up a Training College Examinations Board covering the teacher training colleges that existed at that point within Lancashire – which at that time included both Merseyside and Greater Manchester – and Cheshire. This followed the blueprint for universities being involved in "Joint Examining Boards" for teacher training, initiated by the Board of Education in 1926 and based on the idea of making the curriculum and organisation of teacher education more in tune with other forms of higher education.

Both Notre Dame (in the guise of Mount Pleasant Training College) and Warrington Training College (now Saint Katharine's College) were on a list of eight such colleges overseen by the VUM/University of Liverpool Examinations Board; among the others were the Diocesan Training College in Chester (the future University of Chester) and the non-denominational Edge Hill Training College in Ormskirk (forerunner of Edge Hill University). In response, the three colleges set up a joint committee in 1973 to discuss federation, establishing an Interim Federal Academic Council in 1974. Student social life was also largely carried on separately in the two colleges.

In 1990, the colleges merged and LIHE became a single institution as opposed to a federation of two colleges. The name-change represented an attempt to establish a more striking, characterful identity that reflected the original religious purpose of the three founding colleges. Reflecting upon the renaming in 2003, Elford asserted that "Hope is now arguably one of the most mission-explicit Christian institutions in British higher education".

The Taggart Avenue site was accordingly renamed Hope Park, with the site of the former St Francis Xavier's School site in Everton (the school itself having moved to Woolton in the 1960s) being purchased and developed as the Creative Campus in 1999.

The present-day university

Hope achieved taught degree awarding powers in 2002, and three years later was awarded university status, becoming Liverpool Hope University. Research degree awarding powers and full independence followed in 2009.

Special collections

{| class="wikitable"

!Name!!Description

|Gradwell Collection||Entrusted to the university upon the closure of St Joseph's College at Up Holland in 1991. Contains material covering theology, philosophy, church, secular and local history, ecclesiastical history, art, architecture, sociology, education and works of general reference. Also includes recusant works and early printed works.

|Picton Collection||Contains many of the classic New Testament works published before 1975, linguistic studies including older Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek lexicons, and several sets of theological texts.

|Archbishop Stuart Blanch (1918–1994) Collection||Materials from the estate of Archbishop Blanch. Includes notes from his time as a student at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford and notes for sermons, lectures, talks and speeches made while Bishop of Liverpool (1960–1966) and Archbishop of York (1975–1983).

|Library for the Andrew F. Walls Centre for the Study of African and Asian Christianity||Materials donated by Walls himself on the history of missionary activity, principally in Africa and the Asia-Pacific region but also in other parts of the world, and also on mission theology and practice, non-Christian faiths, and the history of religions.

|Education Research Collection||Books, pamphlets and journals on education and related subjects donated by the University of Liverpool. Contains 30,000 books and pamphlets, and books on all aspects of education (especially historical) with large sections on special education and religious education. Includes bibliographies, Government and other statistical publications, and annual reports of organisations connected with education. Also includes 400 journals, with strengths in learning difficulties and special education, educational psychology, and education overseas.

|Josephine Butler Collection||Small collection of materials received from the University of Liverpool on Butler and her work.

File:Liverpool Hope University sign, Shaw Street.jpg|Entrance sign

File:Angel Field, Liverpool Hope University.jpg|Garden against the backdrop of St Francis Xavier's Church

File:View to Shaw Street entrance, Liverpool Hope University.jpg|Looking towards the campus exit

File:The Cornerstone, Liverpool Hope University, Shaw Street.jpg|Entrance to the Cornerstone Building

File:Column in front of The Cornerstone, Liverpool Hope University.jpg|Statuette in front of the Cornerstone Building

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The university's specialist campus for music and visual and performing arts teaching is the Creative Campus in Everton next to St Francis Xavier's Church. The university also has a residential-only campus, Aigburth Park in St Michael's, and Plas Caerdeon, an outdoor education centre in Snowdonia, North Wales.

The university's teaching campuses contain three Grade II listed buildings. One of these is the former main building of Saint Katharine's College at Hope Park, now renamed as the Hilda Constance Allen Building. The Creative Campus includes the other two: the former Saint Francis Xavier's School (now the Cornerstone Building) designed by Henry Clutton, and the former LSPCC (Liverpool Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) building at 3 Islington Square.

Hope Park is bisected by Taggart Avenue, which runs north–south through the middle of the campus and divides the former sites of two of the university's three predecessor colleges. On the western side of Taggart Avenue is the former campus of Christ's College, while the eastern side (which besides Hilda Constance Allen also includes the EDEN Building and the Sheppard-Worlock Library) was formerly the campus of Saint Katharine's. In the era when the two colleges existed, high walls ran along both sides of Taggart Avenue, physically separating the institutions. Together with an adjoining townhouse it forms LJMU's John Foster Building.

Organisation and administration

The university follows a Christian principle to avoid bank loans and has not taken out a new bank loan since the mid-2000s. Expenditure is financed from university cash reserves, and the university budget is set from zero each year with only permanent staffing rolled over. The School of Creative and Performing Arts is located at the Creative Campus, with all other schools/departments at Hope Park.

Faculty of Business, Law and Criminology
Liverpool Hope Business School
School of Law and Criminology
Faculty of Creative Arts and Humanities
School of Creative and Performing Arts
School of Humanities
Faculty of Education and Social Sciences
School of Education
School of Social Sciences
Faculty of Human and Digital Sciences
School of Health and Sport Sciences
School of Computer Science and the Environment
School of Psychology

Branding

thumb|right|University coat of arms in a [[stained glass window at the southern end of the EDEN Building]]

Elford's The Foundation of Hope discusses how brand management was of particular importance to the university in the 1990s, with the inception of the "Hope brand" in 1995: "The Hope brand was vigorously developed and marketed"; "New corporate colours [were developed]". The university had previously struggled to unite its three predecessor colleges into a single corporate identity, with "internal dissonances" persisting. Elford argues that, during its time as Liverpool Institute of Higher Education, the university "had effectively failed to establish an identity of its own". Its original (1995–2006) logo (the word "hope" written in red in lower case italics with the tail of the "e" turning upwards and encircling the word) can be found in The Foundation of Hope on the book's title page and rear cover.

In 2016/17, the university began using its coat of arms as its sole corporate logo, emphasising its brand heritage. This involved retiring its most recent modern logo, which had been designed in partnership with the London-based creative agency Fabrik in 2006. 230 of these (75.41%) were qualified to doctoral level, placing the university 16th highest in the UK on this measure. The university's aim is for 85% of its academic staff to have doctorates and the remainder to be Professional Tutors with industry experience in areas such as education, law and accountancy.

The university has a number of international partnerships with other academic institutions, many of whom are Christian universities. Major partners include Université catholique de Lille in France, Christ University and Stella Maris College, Chennai in India, two American liberal arts colleges Hope College and Ouachita Baptist University, and Sun Yat-sen University in China.

The university's Network of Hope was established in 1998 as a set of partnerships with Catholic sixth-form colleges in the North West. Current Network of Hope partners include Carmel College (St Helens), Holy Cross College in Bury and St John Rigby College, Wigan. Its business school is an AACSB member.

Everton F.C.

In 2016 the university signed a five-year partnership agreement with Everton F.C. The partnership included a monitoring and evaluation project on the club's Everton in the Community Free School (opened in 2011) and graduate scholarships to research the club's history.

Awards

{| class="wikitable sortable"

!Year!!Award!!Result

|2019||The Academic Insights Magazine – International University of the Year||

Reputation and rankings

For many years the university did not take part in university league tables. Upon entering for the first time in 2015 (for the 2016 edition), the university increased its positions, notably in the Guardian league table (which excludes research metrics). In the 2018 table announced in May 2017, the university outperformed its more prestigious neighbour the University of Liverpool for the first time, a fact used by the student news site The Tab in a 2018 April Fool's Day hoax that the University of Liverpool would lose its Russell Group status.

Teaching Excellence Framework

In June 2017 the university was awarded Gold by the UK Government's Office for Students in its Teaching Excellence Framework. It was one of two universities in the Liverpool metropolitan area (the other being Edge Hill) to achieve this rating. The university (alongside Coventry and Nottingham Trent) was named by the Guardian as one of the "excellent modern universities" who had been "rewarded with gold ratings, while some Russell Group institutions had to suffer the indignity of being awarded bronze". In the 2023 TEF assessment, the university's award was revised to "silver".

Andrew F. Walls Centre for the Study of African and Asian Christianity
Archbishop Desmond Tutu Centre for War and Peace Studies
Association for Continental Philosophy of Religion
Centre for Christian Education and Pastoral Theology
Centre for Culture and Disability Studies (CCDS)
Centre for Education and Policy Analysis (CEPA)
Irish Studies Research Group
Ministry Research Project
Popular Culture Research Group
Sand Dune and Shingle Network
Sarcopenia Ageing Trial
Socio-Economic and Applied Research for Change (SEARCH)

Student life

Halls of residence

thumb|right|Entrance to Aigburth Park

There are 12 halls of residence for students enrolled at the university. (The university runs a free shuttle bus between the campuses.)

{| class="wikitable sortable"

!Name!!Campus!!Ensuite!!Open to

|Newman Hall||Hope Park||Yes||First year undergraduates

|Teresa Hall||Hope Park||Yes||First year undergraduates

|Wesley Hall||Hope Park||Yes||First year undergraduates

|Oscar Romero Hall||Hope Park||No||First year undergraduates

|Kitty Wilkinson Hall||Hope Park||No||First year undergraduates

|Josephine Bhakita Hall||Hope Park||No||First year undergraduates

|Catherine Booth Hall||Hope Park||No||First year undergraduates

|Angela Hall||Hope Park||No||First year undergraduates

|Austin Hall||Hope Park||No||First year undergraduates

|Gerrard Manley Hopkins Hall||Creative Campus||Yes||All undergraduates

|Josephine Butler Hall||Aigburth Park||Yes||All students

|St Julie's Hall||Aigburth Park||No||All students

Students' Union

Students at the university are represented by the Students' Union (HopeSU), which is affiliated to the National Union of Students.

Student body

In the university had students including undergraduates and postgraduates, making it the largest university in the UK (out of the universities included in HESA statistics).