Coventry University is one of a host of “post-1992″ Universities - also called “New Universities” - that were former polytechnic institutes that were granted University status by the government in 1992.
Coventry University has innovative programs from technical/engineering-based disciplines like automotive design to contemporary social disciplines like disaster relief. The University’s appeal to international students is notable, and Coventry increasingly finds its student population to be more diverse each year.
It doesn’t hurt that Coventry, UK is a wonderful small city in the West Midlands and is a stone’s throw from the larger Birmingham. And, of course, if you need more than Birmingham can provide, London is a scant 95 miles by train.
Take a gander at Coventry’s summary video - it’s worth a look. [RSS readers, click here]
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“It doesn’t hurt that Coventry, UK is a wonderful small city in the West Midlands”
You’ve never been there have you?
oldandrew,
I have - it’s not unlike some of the small cities in Upstate New York.
This is Coventry, England, you’re talking about right?
http://www.chavtowns.co.uk/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=778
http://www.idler.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1868
oldandrew,
Yes, that’s the one.
The first of your links says:
“The City Centre is a total nightmare. Hitler’s Lufftwaffe had the right idea when they bombed the shit out of it in World War Two. Maybe their Ayren supremacy ideals were not that misguided as I would have happily herded the Townie scum into concentration camps.”
Not a terribly charming or convincing case, yet you’re surprised - gobsmacked, even?! - that I have some kind words for Coventry.
Well, let’s recall Coventry’s cultural heritage:
The poet Phillip Larkin who left and wrote a poem about how nothing ever happens there:
http://www.rswheeldon.com/wierd/nothing.html
The band The Specials whose most famous song was about living in a miserable, depressing city:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28TeUbYvXS0
And now the latest band from Coventry is The Enemy, whose album is called “We Live and Die In These Towns” and contains songs about living in a miserable, depressing city:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6tCaEYnDfs
Do Americans use the phrase “Sent to Coventry”, as we do in this country, to refer to being ostracised from polite society?
oldandrew,
I understand your points here. Coventry isn’t ideal.
But if I gasped at every problematic element of some of the smaller, Coventry-like cities in New York, I’d never have time to take a breath and likely wouldn’t have an acceptable place to live.
I love this area despite:
- changing demographics
- its shrinking economy [except in Cooperstown, my neighboring town, and its growth is, in parts, regrettable]
- the fact that I have to drive 30 miles to go to a Burger King or movie theater,
- the subdivision of land and proliferation of houses where greenery used to be,
- the rotting social fabric in the area and lack of historical memory,
- the sub-standard schools
- the rising property/school taxes
- the growing disconnect between the NYC-area and rural Upstate NY,
- 1,001 other reasons.
Upstate New York, like Coventry, can have charm and appeal despite scars.