Aston University

Aston University is a British campus university situated at Gosta Green, in the city centre of Birmingham, England. Aston was granted its Royal Charter as Aston University from Queen Elizabeth II on 22 April 1966.

In keeping with its background in technology, business, sciences, engineering and applied subjects, Aston continues to have a focus on industry and commerce. The university also has a School of Languages and Social Sciences. A majority of undergraduate students are registered on courses leading to a BSc and 70% of eligible undergraduate students at Aston are enrolled on four-year sandwich courses, spending a year abroad or on industry placements. The university emphasises its focus on industry placements and graduate employment record. Aston has also performed well in the National Student Survey, with the 10th highest average satisfaction score of all UK mainstream universities at 80.6% in 2008 and the 13th highest percentage of all UK universities. In the same survey, 89% of Aston students were satisfied with the quality of their course (UK average 82%).

Aston is a relatively small university, serving around 7,500 full-time undergraduates, compared with the 18,840 of its near neighbour institution, the University of Birmingham. Aston also has 2,530 postgraduate students (1,315 full-time) on MSc, PhD, PGDip and MBA programmes. Aston Business School (part of the university) celebrated its 60 year anniversary in 2007, one of the most established in the UK.

Aston University hosted the British Science Festival in September 2010, said to be Europe's largest public science event.

Aston Business School (ABS) gained its own AACSB accreditation in 2003 and is one of a small number of UK schools to win this international recognition. AACSB International assures quality and promotes excellence and continuous improvement in undergraduate and postgraduate education in business administration and accounting. This accreditation has enabled ABS to establish a BGS Collegiate Chapter and Aston University is the first institution in the UK to be allied with Beta Gamma Sigma.