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The famous 'ziggurats' of the student accommodation at Norfolk Terrace, photographed in January 2004.
UEA admitted its first students in 1963 in temporary accommodation in Earlham Hall, on the western edge of the city of Norwich about 3 miles from the city centre, while a prefabricated "University Village" was built nearby and used until the early 1980s. The permanent campus was built on the adjacent Earlham Golf Course, principally to a design by Sir Denys Lasdun. While the design of the campus is rather bleak 1960s concrete (Concrete being the name of the weekly student newspaper founded in the early 1970s, and resurrected in 1992 as a fortnightly tabloid), and can be rather uninviting in winter when cold winds can blow with little interruption from the Urals.
The campus as seen from the air in the 1970s.UEA campus exhibits some interesting architectural features: the main teaching building takes the form of a continuous wall running approximately west-east. The early student residences built in the 1960s take the form of distinctive "ziggurats", but financial cutbacks by the early 1970s meant that the full original plan for building zigguratA zig·gu·rat (zg rt) is a temple tower of the ancient Mesopotamian valley, having the form of a terraced pyramid of successively receding stories. Looking at the dictionary's description above, one can in the most basic ways formulate an image of what a z residences had to be abandoned, and replaced by the less inspiring north-south wall of Waveney Terrace. UEA also took over the former RAFThe Royal Air Force (often abbreviated to RAF is the air force of the United Kingdom. History Formation and Early History The Royal Flying Corps was formed by Royal Warrant on May 13, 1912 superseding the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers. The Royal Na/ US Air Force barracks at Horsham St. Faith airfield, and used them as residences. This outpost of campus life was known as " Fifers Lane " from the road it stood on, and developed its own unique style of student life. Fifers Lane eventually closed in 1993, when further residences, again in an advanced architectural style, were built on campus.
In the mid- 1970s, extraction of gravelGravel Gravel is rock that is of a certain size range. In geology, gravel is any loose rock that is at least two millimeters in its largest dimension (about 1/12 of an inch), and no more than 75 millimeters (about 3 inches). Sometimes gravel is restricted in the valley of the River Yare, which runs to the south of the campus, resulted in the university acquiring its own 'Norfolk Broad' or lake. At more or less the same time, a bequest of tribal art and C.20th painting and sculpture, by artists such as Francis Bacon and Henry Moore, from the Sainsbury supermarket family resulted in the construction of the striking Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts at the western end of the main teaching wall, one of the first major works of architect Norman Foster. Recently the campus has gained an extensive new sports facility called the " Sportspark ", built thanks to a £14.5 million grant from the Sport England Lottery Fund, and a purpose-built theatre.
"The Square", as seen in September 2002.Other notable features of the UEA campus are "The Square", a central outdoor meeting place with many concrete steps on which to sit; "The Blend", a rather dated but very popular glass-fronted coffee shop, "Zest" a newly refurbished student canteen and "The Street" which features a 24-hour launderette, the Union Food Outlet, Union Paper Shop, Union Post Office, a sandwich shop called "Mango", branches of NatWest, HSBC and Barclays Bank and a Waterstone's book shop. Connected to both "The Street" and "The Square" is one of the most popular Union venues: the "Union Pub and Bar" which underwent a massive extension and refurbishment at the cost of £1.2 million in 2002. The pub took over "Breakers", a rather low-rent eatery with a scrapyard theme which was briefly turned into an unpopular pasta place. Other bars include "The Hive" (which, due to efforts from the Student Union, may be refurbished shortly), and the "Graduate Students Club". In the same building is the large common room (LCR), which is home to the notorious weekly campus discos, as well as the many touring gigs. The students' union also run "The Waterfront" venue off campus in Norwich's King Street.
UEA has had notable successes in terms of courses taught. Malcolm Bradbury for many years taught in the School of English and American Studies, the Climate Research Unit in the School of Environmental Sciences was an early centre of work on climate warming.
Aside from the independent student newspaper Concrete, there is a thriving student media across a range of areas. In the 1970s, there was a highly successful student newspaper named Phoenix, which ran for several years. Livewire, the campus radio station, which transmits to air on 1350AM in the vicinity of the University as well as broadcasting on the internet, was established in 1989. Nexus UTV, the campus television station broadcasting news, documentaries, comedy shows and various other types of programming, shows regularly in the bar and is one of the oldest still-running student television stations in the country, having been established in 1968.
The student population in 2003 is claimed to be 9000 undergraduates and 4000 postgraduates. Approximately 1000 students originate from outside the European Union.