West London Institute of Higher Education - The 1980s

The 1980s

By the 1980s the degree and diploma programmes at WLIHE were operating in a variety of disciplines. The Osterley campus was home to English Literature, History, Religious Studies, Geography, Geology, Business Studies, Social Work, and Sports Studies, while the arts and music were clustered a mile away at the old Maria Grey College site at East Twickenham. For a number of years the College was affiliated to The University of London's Institute of Education and therefore offered University of London degree courses. By the 1990s the courses offered were mostly joint honours awards in various combinations including: American Studies, Drama, Art, French, Business Studies, English Literature, Geography, Geology, History, Physiotherapy, Religious Studies, Social Work, Music and Sports Studies. By the 1990s a few Masters programmes were also offered, for example in Social Work, and Environmental Change. A small number of PhDs were also awarded across the disciplines. The British and Foreign Schools Society kept an archive and ran a National Religious Education Centre on the Osterley site. The Twickenham site also contained a ballet and dance school, the Rambert. For its size and status (Higher Education colleges in the UK were not really expected to be high research performers), the Institute performed relatively well in research, with several Departments achieving national recognition in the Research Assessment Exercises of the 1980s and 1990s (1992 result here), and a few staff held national research awards from the ESRC and other bodies.