Swansea University: Campus and Community in a Post-War World, 1945–2020

by Sam Blaxland

Founded in 1920, Swansea University is now the third-largest university in Wales, serving nearly twenty thousand students This volume celebrates the centennial of the university, offering a portrait of postwar academic and social change in Britain and its universities, as well as an exploration of shifts in youth culture, and the ways higher education institutions have interacted with their areas and communities. The book covers a range of important themes and topics, including architectural developments, international scholars, the changing behaviors of students, protest and politics, and the multilayered relationships that are formed among academics, young people and their wider communities. Unlike most institutional histories, it takes a bottom-up approach, paying particular attention to the thoughts, feelings and behaviors of students and non-academic staff, members of the university community who are normally sidelined in such accounts. As it does so, it draws on a large collection of oral history testimonies collected specifically for this book, and, throughout, it explores how formative, paradoxical, and unexpected university life can be.
 

352 pages, Hardcover

Published August 22, 2020

Reviews

[Peter Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly informative and enjoyable overview of the history and development of Swansea University that certainly revived memories of my time there from 1978-1981.

[Sara Aye Moung · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting history and analysis of my former university. For an academic tome it was unusually easy to read and bought back memories of my time there in the late 70s and early 80s.