University of Nottingham

The University of Nottingham is a public research university based in Nottingham, UK. Although it received its Royal Charter in 1948, its predecessor institution, University College, Nottingham, has been in existence since 1881. With the recent opening of further campuses in Ningbo, China and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the university has been described by the Times as Britain's "only truly global university".

In 2010/11, Nottingham had 30,370 full-time students, 2,735 full-time staff and a total income of ₤511 million.

Nottingham was ranked 13th in the UK in the 2011 QS World University Rankings, and 9th in the UK in the 2011 ARWU. The 2008 RAE ranked it 7th in the UK for "research power", and The Graduate Market Report of 2012 placed it amongst the five most targeted universities in the country by graduate employers. It was named the THE "University of the Year" in 2006 and "Entrepreneurial University of the Year" in 2010. In 2011, Nottingham was ranked the greenest campus in the world, ahead of Northeastern University (2nd) in the United States of America.

Nottingham traditionally has one of the highest application to place ratios in the UK, leading The Sunday Times to describe a place there as "among the most sought-after in higher education" and "with almost 10 applicants per place, Nottingham is one of the hardest universities to get into in the UK". It is particularly strong in traditional courses such as Law, Economics and Medicine. Entry into these courses are among the most competitive in the country. Thus, entry into Nottingham is extremely competitive, with new undergraduates consistently averaging a UCAS tariff score in excess of 420 points (equivalent to over AAAa at A-Level) and "more than 80% of its students having at least three A grades at A-Level" according to the Times. It has been described by the Times as a "prime alternative to Oxbridge". It received 49,000 applications for 5,500 places in 2012, making it the most oversubscribed in the UK. Admission into popular courses such as law and economics are among the most competitive in the country.

It is ranked among the top 15 universities worldwide for the number of alumni listed as CEOs of the largest 500 firms in the world. In the past decade, Nottingham has produced two Nobel Laureates in the fields of Medicine and Economics. It is the alma mater of the CEOs of Rolls-Royce and GlaxoSmithKline

Nottingham is a member of the Russell Group, Universitas 21, the Sutton Trust, the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the European University Association and Universities UK.

History
The University of Nottingham traces its origins to the founding of an adult education school in 1798, and the University Extension Lectures inaugurated by the University of Cambridge in 1873 – the first of their kind in the country. However, the foundation of the university is generally regarded as being the establishment of University College, Nottingham, in 1881 as a constituent college of the University of London. In 1875, an anonymous donor provided £10,000 to establish the work of the Adult Education School and Cambridge Extension Lectures on a permanent basis, and the Corporation of Nottingham agreed to erect and maintain a building for this purpose and to provide funds to supply the instruction. The foundation stone of the college was duly laid in 1877 by former UK Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, and the college's distinctive neo-gothic building on Shakespeare Street was formally opened in 1881 by Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany. In 1881, there were four professors – of Literature, Physics, Chemistry and Natural Science. New departments and chairs quickly followed: Engineering in 1884, Classics combined with Philosophy in 1893, French in 1897 and Education in 1905; in 1905 the combined Department of Physics and Mathematics became two separate entities; in 1911 Departments of English and Mining were created, in 1912, Economics, and Geology combined with Geography; History in 1914, Adult Education in 1923 and Pharmacy in 1925.

The university underwent significant expansion in the 1920s when it moved from the centre of Nottingham to a large campus on the city's outskirts. The new campus, called University Park, was completed in 1928, and financed by an endowment fund, public contributions, and the generosity of Sir Jesse Boot (later Lord Trent) who presented 35 acre to the City of Nottingham in 1921. Boot and his fellow benefactors sought to establish an "elite seat of learning" committed to widening participation, and hoped that the move would solve the problems facing University College Nottingham, in its restricted building on Shakespeare Street. Boot stipulated that whilst part of the Highfields site, lying southwest of the city, should be devoted to the University College, the rest should provide a place of recreation for the residents of the city, and by the end of the decade the landscaping of the lake and public park adjoining University Boulevard was completed. The original University College building on Shakespeare Street in central Nottingham (known as the Arkwright Building), now forms part of Nottingham Trent University's 'City campus'.

University College Nottingham was initially accommodated within the Trent Building, an imposing white limestone structure with a distinctive clock tower designed by Morley Horder and formally opened by King George V on 10 July 1928. During this period of development, Nottingham attracted high-profile lecturers including Albert Einstein, H. G. Wells and Mahatma Gandhi, and the blackboard used by Professor Einstein during his time at Nottingham is still on display in the Physics department. Apart from its physical transfer to surroundings that could not be more different from its original home, the College made few developments between the wars. The Department of Slavonic Languages (later Slavonic Studies) was established in 1933, the teaching of Russian having been introduced in 1916. In 1933–34, the Departments of Electrical Engineering, Zoology and Geography, which had been combined with other subjects, were made independent; and in 1938 a supplemental Charter provided for a much wider representation on the Governing Body. However, further advances were delayed by the outbreak of war in 1939.

Students at University College Nottingham received their degrees from the University of London, but this changed when Nottingham was granted its Royal Charter, bestowing upon it the title of "university" and the power to confer degrees in its own name as The University of Nottingham. In the 1940s, the Midlands Agricultural and Dairy College at Sutton Bonington merged with the university as the School of Agriculture, and in 1956 the Portland Building was completed to complement the Trent Building. In 1970, the university established the UK's first new medical school of the 20th century. In 1999, a new Jubilee Campus was opened on the former site of the Raleigh Bicycle Company, one mile (1.6 km) away from the University Park Campus. Nottingham then began to expand overseas, opening campuses in Malaysia and in China in 1999 and 2004 respectively. In 2005, the King's Meadow Campus opened near the University Park Campus.



Nottingham has used several logos throughout its history. Nottingham's coat of arms with the cross, book, and towers was used initially and is still used in books owned by the university's various libraries. Later Nottingham adopted a simpler logo, in which a stylised version of Nottingham Castle was surrounded by the text "The University of Nottingham". In 2001 Nottingham undertook a major rebranding exercise, including replacing this logo with the current one, with the text to the right of the stylised castle.

Organization
The chief officer is the Chancellor, elected by the University Court on the recommendation of the University Council. The chief academic and administrative officer is the vice-chancellor, who is assisted by six pro-vice chancellors. The governing body is the University Council, which has 35 members, mostly non-academic. The academic authority is the Senate, consisting of senior academics and elected staff and student representatives. The largest forum is the University Court, presided over by the chancellor. The current Chancellor and President is Professor Fujia Yang; its current Vice-Chancellor is Professor David Greenaway who replaced Sir Colin Campbell in 2008, who as the UK's highest paid Vice-Chancellor, oversaw the university's expansion plans, leading the Times to call him "the Sir Alex Ferguson of Vice-Chancellors".

UK campuses


University Park Campus, to the west of Nottingham city centre, is the 330 acre historic home of The University of Nottingham. Set around its lake and clock-tower and with extensive parkland greenery, the campus is widely regarded as the most attractive in the country. University Park has won numerous awards for its architecture and landscaping, and has been named the greenest campus in the country thanks to a new Green Flag Award. The 2009 award is the seventh in a row for University Park – more than have been awarded to a UK university over successive years. Nottingham has several additional campuses, all of which share similar design features to the original, being "garden campuses", consisting of grade 1/2 period houses or halls situated around a lake with extensive botanic gardens (with the exception of Sutton Bonington campus, which predates the creation of University Park Campus).



Jubilee Campus, designed by Sir Michael Hopkins, was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1999 and is 1 mi from University Park. The campus's facilities house the Schools of Education and Computer Science, and The Nottingham University Business School. The site is also the home of The National College for School Leadership. Additional investment of £9.2 million in the Jubilee Campus was completed in 2004 with a second building for Nottingham University Business School opened by Lord Sainsbury. The environmentally-friendly nature of the campus and its buildings have been a factor in the awards that it has received, including the Millennium Marque Award for Environmental Excellence, the British Construction Industry Building Project of the Year, the RIBA Journal Sustainability Award and the Civic Trust Award for Sustainability.

The Jubilee Campus won the commendation of the Energy Globe Award judges in 2005. The campus is distinct for its modern and unique architecture, culminating in Aspire, a 60 metre tall artistic structure is the tallest freestanding structure in the UK. The University plans to invest £200 million in a new scheme designed by Ken Shuttleworth, designer of the iconic and award-winning London 'Gherkin' and founder of Make Architects, and at the heart of the new scheme will be the Nottingham 'Volcano'. However, the architecture of the Jubilee Campus is not admired by all, and the newly completed Amenities buildings have been labelled the second worst new architectural design in Britain in a recent survey.

The City Hospital Campus is near Bestwood and houses staff and postgraduate students specialising in respiratory medicine, stroke medicine, oncology, physiotherapy, and public health. The campus will be expanded in 2009 to house a new institute of public health and a specialist centre for tobacco research.

Sutton Bonington Campus houses Nottingham's School of Biosciences and the new School of Veterinary Medicine and Science and is about 12 mi } to the south of the City of Nottingham, between the M1 motorway, Ratcliffe power station, and the Midland Main Line railway. The campus is centered around the historic manor of Sutton Bonington and, like University Park campus, retains many of its own private botanic gardens and lakes open only to its students. The University Farm including the Dairy Centre is at the Sutton Bonington Campus.

King's Meadow Campus was established in 2005 on the former Central Independent Television Studios site on Lenton Lane. It mainly accommodates administrative functions but also the Department of Manuscripts and Special Collections. A functioning television studio remains at the site that continues to be rented to the film and television industry.



International campuses
Nottingham has introduced overseas campuses as part of a growth strategy. The first stage in this strategy was the establishment in 1999 of a campus in Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia, a short distance from Kuala Lumpur. This was followed in 2004 by a campus in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, China. The Malaysia campus was the first campus of a British university in Malaysia and one of the first anywhere in the world, earning the Queen's Award for Enterprise 2001 and the Queen's Award for Industry (International Trade) 2006. In September 2005, the Malaysia campus moved to a purpose-built campus at Semenyih, 18 mi south of Kuala Lumpur city centre. Occupying a scenic position overlooking green hills on a 101 acre site, the campus was designed to mirror the attributes of University Park in the UK. The £40 million Ningbo campus was completed in 2005 and was officially opened by John Prescott, the UK's Deputy Prime Minister, in February 2006. Like the Malaysia Campus, Ningbo Campus builds on the University Park in the UK and includes a lake and its own version of Nottingham's famous Trent Building. In November 2010, the university announced that it has been invited by Chinese officials to establish a new campus in Shanghai to complement its operations in Ningbo, and that discussions on this new campus are ongoing.

Academic structure
The University is made up of a number of schools and departments organised into five faculties:

Faculty of Arts

 * American and Canadian Studies
 * Archaeology
 * Art History
 * Classics
 * Culture, Film and Media
 * Cultures, Languages and Area Studies
 * English Language Education
 * English
 * French and Francophone Studies
 * German Studies
 * History
 * Humanities
 * Language Centre
 * Music
 * Philosophy
 * Russian and Slavonic Studies
 * Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies
 * Theology and Religious Studies

Faculty of Engineering

 * Architecture and Built Environment
 * Chemical and Environmental Engineering
 * Civil Engineering
 * Electrical and Electronic Engineering
 * Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering

Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences

 * Biomedical Sciences
 * Clinical Sciences
 * Community Health Sciences
 * Graduate Entry Medicine and Health
 * Midwifery
 * Molecular Medical Sciences
 * Nursing
 * Nursing, Midwifery and Physiotherapy
 * Physiotherapy
 * Veterinary Medicine and Science
 * Work, Health and Organisations

Faculty of Science

 * Biology
 * Biosciences
 * Chemistry
 * Computer Science
 * Mathematical Sciences
 * Pharmacy
 * Physics and Astronomy
 * Psychology

Faculty of Social Sciences

 * Contemporary Chinese Studies
 * Economics
 * Education
 * Geography
 * Law
 * Nottingham University Business School
 * Politics and International Relations
 * Sociology and Social Policy



Research


Nottingham is a research-led institution and the alumni of the university have been awarded two Nobel Prizes this decade. Much of the work on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) was carried out at Nottingham, work for which Professor Sir Peter Mansfield received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2003. Nottingham remains a strong centre for research into MRI. Nottingham has contributed to a number of other significant scientific advances. Professor Frederick Kipping, Professor of Chemistry (1897–1936), made the discovery of silicone polymers at Nottingham. Major developments in the in vitro culture of plants and micropropogation techniques were made by plant scientists at Nottingham, along with the first production of transgenic tomatoes by Professor Don Grierson in the 1980s. Other innovations at the university include cochlear implants for deaf children and the brace-for-impact position used in aircraft. Other facilities at Nottingham include a 12 teraflop supercomputer.

Nottingham had 26 departments rated 5 or 5* (internationally excellent) in the UK Funding Councils' 2001 Research Assessment Exercise, and the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise found 60 per cent of Nottingham's research to be "world-leading" or "internationally excellent"., ranking 7th in the UK in terms of 'Research Power'. Nottingham is also in the top four universities in Britain for the amount of research income received, being awarded over £150 million in research contracts for the 2009–2010 academic year. Indeed, League tables compiled by the Times Higher Education based on UK Research Councils grants have revealed that The University of Nottingham came joint second in Britain in 2009 for its success rate for grant applications, ahead of Oxford, University College London (UCL) and Imperial College.

Economics
The university is home to the Leverhume Centre for Research on Globalisation and Economic Policy (GEP). GEP was established in the Nottingham School of Economics in 2001, and conducts research activities structured on the theme of globalisation.

Rankings and reputation
The university was named Times Higher Education "University of the Year" in 2006, Times Higher Education "Entrepreneurial University of the Year" in 2008, and finished runner up in the 2010 Sunday Times "University of the Year". Nottingham has consistently ranked amongst Britain's top 10 leading universities in the various national and international rankings published over the last 15 years, and is described by the Fulbright Commission as "one of the UK's oldest, largest, and most prestigious universities". Indeed, Nottingham finished 8th in The Sunday Times 10 year average ranking of British universities based on consistent league table performance over the past decade, and is ranked in the UK's Top 10 in the Shanghai Jiao Tong (SJTU) 2010 World University Rankings. Internationally, Nottingham University was ranked 74th in the 2011 QS World University Rankings,.

Nottingham is also a member of the 'Sutton Trust 13', a collection of the 13 highest ranking British universities compiled by the educational charity The Sutton Trust, which aims to challenge educational inequality at top universities. Nottingham traditionally has one of the highest application to place ratios of any university in the United Kingdom, leading The Sunday Times to describe a place there as "among the most sought-after in higher education" and "with almost 10 applicants per place, Nottingham is one of the hardest universities to get into in the UK". Therefore entry into Nottingham is extremely competitive, and as a result new undergraduates average a UCAS tariff score well north of 400, with "more than 80% of its students having at least three A grades at A-Level" according to The Times. This had put its admissions selectivity consistently in the top 10 in Britain and has lead the Times to describe Nottingham students as "the brightest in their peer group". Moreover, according to the last statistical analysis by the Times Higher Education Supplement, Nottingham students averaged the 6th highest A-level grades in the United Kingdom throughout the 1990s and early 2000s.

The University has experienced a climb up the rankings of Great Britain's higher education system over the past two decades according to the Good University Guide, going in less than 20 years "from being a solid civic university to a prime alternative to Oxbridge", as well as "The nearest thing Britain has to a truly global university". The University has mirrored this expansion abroad with a rise in international rankings, establishing itself amongst the top universities worldwide, leading The Sunday Times to state that Nottingham now has "one of the strongest international profiles of any UK university". Indeed, due to Nottingham's international profile and entrepreneurial culture, economist Andrew Oswald described Nottingham as one of only 5 British universities capable of privatisation and competing with the major universities in the US. Nottingham is also ranked as the 8th best international university in the global "Best Places to Work in Academia 2010" survey. The University is also "one of the most employer friendly universities in the world" according to Virgin Alternative Guide to British Universities, ranking amongst the top 15 most targeted universities in the world by leading employers in the THES world rankings, and in the 2008 Times High Fliers survey being named in the top 3 most targeted British universities by leading graduate recruiters. Nottingham is also ranked 31st in the world, and 7th in Britain, according to a 2011 New York Times survey of leading CEO's who were asked to assess which universities they most liked to recruit from. In addition, according to the 2011 edition of the International Professional Classification of Higher Education Institutions, which assesses the number of alumni listed among CEOs in the 500 largest worldwide companies, Nottingham is ranked 2nd in the UK (after Oxford University) and 13th in the world (tied with Stanford University).

Enrolment and student life


According to the latest statistics compiled by the Higher Education Statistics Agency, Nottingham is the UK's fifth largest university based on total student enrolment, with over 30,000 students from more than 130 countries. In 2010, the university received over 49,000 applications for 5,500 places, placing it in the top 3 most popular universities in the UK. However, the university has traditionally been popular with many British public schools, with privately educated students making up 40% of the student body. This has proven controversial and has led Nottingham, like other middle-class dominated universities such as the University of Bristol, Durham University and the University of Edinburgh, to introduce a variety of initiatives to help widen access and participation, culminating in the introduction of a Summer School scheme open to applicants from non-traditional backgrounds.

Students' Union


The University of Nottingham Students' Union is heavily involved with providing student activities at the university and has more than 190 student societies affiliated to it. A further 76 clubs are affiliated to the Students' Union's Athletic Union. Nottingham participates yearly in the Varsity Series, a number of sporting events between the students and staff of the university and traditional rivals Nottingham Trent University.

The student magazine Impact is published regularly during term time. A range of student theatre takes place at The New Theatre. The Students' Union also operates a student run, professional sound and lighting company, TEC PA & Lighting, who provide services for many events such as: Summer parties, Fresher's Address, Graduation and Society Ball's and many other events, both within the University and to external clients. The Union boasts Europe's largest student-run RAG organisation 'Karnival' (or Karni), which raised £1.36 million in 2011 for a host of good causes. The University radio station is the URN/Student Radio for Nottingham.

The Students' Union also organises a number of activities and events involving students and staff with the local community. The Student Volunteer Centre sees more than 600 students each year volunteering in local schools and community organisations, as well as a range of other projects throughout the city of Nottingham. The Students' Union also runs an international volunteering project, InterVol, which sends student volunteers to work in rural African communities. Nottingham's Active Communities initiative cooperated with the Students' Union to set up the Crocus Cafe in nearby Lenton. This cafe provides a meeting place for both students and local residents where they can sit over a Fair Trade cup of coffee and organic, vegetarian food.

Students in Free Enterprise
The Students in Free Enterprise ("SIFE") team from the University of Nottingham have won the SIFE United Kingdom National Competition for four consecutive years, making them the most successful UK SIFE team to date. Based at the Nottingham University Business School, SIFE Nottingham are the 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 national champions. They have competed at SIFE World Cups in Toronto, Paris, New York and Singapore, ranking them as one of the leading SIFE teams in the world. SIFE Nottingham is a company limited by guarantee and can be found at Companies House. The team have run projects across Nottingham and in keeping with the University's global theme, have also run projects in Ghana, Cambodia, China, India, Kenya and Sri Lanka.

Student accommodation
Nottingham's accommodation provides more than 6,000 rooms, owned by the university or provided by external developers, all close to the campuses and ranging from modern self-catering flats to traditional caterd halls of residence. Catered halls of residence provide a more "home from home" service. Fifteen halls, housing about 4,000 students across the University Park, Jubilee, and Sutton Bonington campuses, are owned and managed by Nottingham. Three meals a day are provided as part of the accommodation fee with a varied menu catering for various dietary requirements. Nottingham's accommodation features rooms on each campus that are accessible to students with disabilities, including larger rooms for extra storage or work space, adapted bathrooms and facilities for those with hearing impairments.

University Park
The campus itself, alongside teaching buildings, offers a range of facilities. The main Portland Building which houses the Student Union, Book Shop, Boots and Student Union Shop is at the centre of University Park. There are also a number of libraries and a wide variety of retail outlets. There is a boating lake, arts centre and lots of open spaces.For those interested in playing sport the Highfields Sports Ground and the Nottingham Tennis Centre are both on University Boulevard and the University Sports Centre is on campus. University Park is home to approximately 3,200 undergraduate students within 12 halls of residence:



All the halls on the main campus are in close proximity to each other. Each hall varies in size – the smallest hall is home to 150 whilst the largest hall accommodates 350. Many halls are early Victorian listed buildings and have been donated by the founders of the University. Other halls are more modern in design. Each hall provides excellent facilities including: bar, bistro or cafe, house common room, study lounge, library, dining hall, formal dining hall and private gardens.

Sutton Bonington
Based in the village of Sutton Bonington, half way between Nottingham and Loughborough, this 40-acre campus houses the university's veterinary and biosciences divisions. The campus also houses the National Centre for Macromolecular Hydrodynamics. The Food Sciences School at the campus has been ranked number one in the UK in 2005–06 RAE rankings.

Jubilee Campus
Jubilee Campus is home to 600 undergraduates within two halls: Newark and Southwell. Newark Hall is the largest, offering 400 rooms whilst Southwell is home to 200 students. Both halls provide excellent facilities and support services to help you get most out of your university experience. Jubilee is a vibrant community and the campus was designed with environmentally friendly ideas and is carefully landscaped to incorporate an area to encourage wildlife and to support ecological diversity.With its lake and lakeside promenade it is a comfortable and attractive campus to live, learn and work.There is a sports centre just across the road for basketball, tennis, netball, badminton, squash, martial arts and aerobics. The sports field for football and the outdoor tennis courts are 5 minutes away.

Nottingham also has many self catered apartments that are award winning both for their originality and quality of accommodation e.g.Albion House Bonington Hall Broadgate Park Cloister House Melton Hall Raleigh Park St. Peter's Court

Lakeside Arts Centre


At the south entrance to the main campus, in Highfields Park, lies the Lakeside Arts Centre, the University of Nottingham's public arts facility and performance space.

Since adding the Civic Trust Award Winning D. H. Lawrence Pavilion to its existing portfolio of the Djanogly Art Gallery and Djanogly Recital Hall in autumn 2001, Lakeside has established itself as a successful multi-arts centre in the East Midlands, attracting almost half a million visitors in its first 3 years. Its programme is complemented by two cafés and picturesque parkland, originally purchased and developed by industrialist Sir Jesse Boot.

Beyond the 225 capacity theatre space, the Lawrence Pavilion houses a range of cultural facilities, including a series of craft cabinets selling original works, the Weston Gallery, which displays the prized and unique manuscript collection from the University of Nottingham, the Wallner gallery which exists as a platform for local and regional artists, and a series of visual arts, performance and hospitality spaces specifically designed to be flexible.

Other facilities include the Djanogly art gallery, recital hall, and theatre, which in the past have hosted recordings and broadcasting by BBC Radio 3, the NOTT Dance and NOW festivals, and a series of critically acclaimed contemporary art exhibitions, such as the current display 'The American Scene: Prints from Hopper to Pollock' offered in partnership with the British Museum.

Controversies


Nottingham attracted controversy in 2001 when it accepted £3.8 million from British American Tobacco for the creation of a centre of corporate social responsibility. This donation caused Professor Richard Smith, editor of the British Medical Journal to resign from his post as professor at Nottingham. The tobacco company funds were donated to establish an International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility at Nottingham University Business School. Despite predictions that medical research income and cancer studies would be affected adversely in the long-term at Nottingham, funding for cancer research has been robust in recent years, with significant public-private projects on breast and lung cancer in the laboratory of Professor John Robertson, as well as a successful bid in 2008 to establish a UK centre for Tobacco Control Studies under the leadership of Professor John Britton.

Terror arrests
On 14 May 2008, Hicham Yezza, a member of staff, and Rizwaan Sabir, a postgraduate student, were arrested at the University of Nottingham and were detained for six days under the Terrorism Act 2000. The University of Nottingham informed the police after finding an edited version of the al-Qaeda training manual the student was using for his research. Both were released without charge from terrorism offences, but Yezza was subsequently re-arrested on immigration grounds. In September 2011, Rizwaan Sabir was awarded £20,000 compensation for false imprisonment by Nottinghamshire Police.

Suspension of terrorism research
Criticism of the University of Nottingham increased after the only terrorism expert at the institution, Dr Rod Thornton, decided that because of the university's lack of willingness from to provide assistance and guidance to him regarding reading lists and terrorist publications and whether they were okay to disseminate and legitimate to hold, he was no longer willing to risk his own security and liberty by teaching terrorism at Nottingham University. As a result, terrorism is no longer being taught at the University of Nottingham.

For an April 2011 conference of the British International Studies Association (BISA), Thornton prepared a long paper about the behaviour of Nottingham University's management team following the arrests of Yezza and Sabir. In the document, Thornton gave details of systematic persecution and lies allegedly perpetrated by the management against Yezza, Sabir and junior academics at the university.

One of Thornton's colleagues at Nottingham complained to BISA about alleged defamatory content of Thornton's paper, and a spokesman for the university called it "highly defamatory of a number of his colleagues". The paper was removed from BISA's website.

In early May 2011, Thornton was suspended from his duties for the "breakdown in working relationships" caused by the paper. In an open letter published in The Guardian, 67 international researchers including Noam Chomsky asked for Thornton's reinstatement and an independent examination of the university's actions, saying that Thornton's paper "carefully details what appear to be examples of serious misconduct from senior university management over the arrest of two university members". At present, a campaign calling for the reinstatement of Dr Rod Thornton and for a public inquiry into the University of Nottingham's actions is ongoing.