Welcome to The University of West Scotland

Check out the Community team’s interview with Lucie Pollard, Director of the London Campus!

What is your name and your role at UWS? 

My name is Lucie Pollard, and I am Director of the London Campus of the University of the West of Scotland (UWS). UWS is one of Scotland’s largest modern Universities with almost 17,000 students from more than 70 countries worldwide. There has been a London Campus at UWS since 2015, but we decided to move to the Import Building as we wanted to develop a more vibrant campus that would provide our students with creative and innovative learning spaces. The London campus is very much UWS’ fifth campus, attracting both UK and International students.   

Where will you be based in the Import Building? 

We have recently moved into the 7^th floor of the Building and we love the vista this location provides, with Canary Wharf, the River Thames and the O2 on view from our windows. For us the location is important, and we chose the Import Building for our new campus so that our students could study in one of London’s central business districts. But also we loved the building and felt it was ideal for students to learn in and be inspired.

What courses, and to whom, will the University of West Scotland be offering, based at the Republic campus? 

Currently we are offering undergraduate courses in Business Administration, but in the coming year we will be adding postgraduate programmes designed to attract international students. These programmes include MSc Project Management, Masters Education Studies, MBA and MSc Computing. We will also be launching a new Doctorate in Business Administration programme in 2021. 

How many staff will be permanently based at Republic, and when will you be moving in? 

There are around 20 staff based at the UWS London campus, but with Covid restrictions not all of them will be coming in at the same time.  The new academic year starts on the 28^th Sept and staff will start to come in more often from then onwards. We are keeping our fingers crossed that there will not be a second lock down.  

How many students are coming to Republic, and when will this be?  

At the moment nearly 700 students have enrolled to study at UWS London, but with Covid restrictions in place only 60 students will be on campus at any one time. We have developed a new flexible, hybrid model of learning that means that our students will be able to access a mix of blended online and on campus learning and teaching. We are keen to make sure that students have a positive experience of our new campus.  

What are you and your teams most looking forward to about working at Republic? 

We are really looking forward to opening our doors to students, and making them feel part of the UWS community.  We also can’t wait to be part of the Republic Community, we have met some great people already.  

Have you been involved in any of the community or wellness events (virtually or in real life) so far? 

Some of our team have really enjoyed taking part in the virtual events and are looking forward to being able to join in person.  

Visit the University’s website here to find out more.