Leeds Metropolitan University is a world-class regional university with a lively student community and a diverse programme of festivals and partnerships. In 2008, Leeds Met was named the greenest university in the UK by The Sunday Times, less than one year after being given the same title in a league table compiled by People & Planet. It also won 'Outstanding Contribution to the Local Community' and was highly commended in the ‘University of the Year’ category at the prestigious Times Higher Awards in November 2006. It has pioneered a ‘low-charging, high impact’ approach to education by continuing to charge only £2,000 a year tuition fees, the lowest in England.
Leeds Met has established a number of unique partnerships within the fields of sport, music and the arts, to create opportunities for its students to ‘rub shoulders with champions’ and gain valuable work experience. In 2006, the university established a ‘first of its kind’ partnership with Leeds Rugby resulting in the launch of the Carnegie Stand at Headingley Carnegie Stadium. Other sporting partners include The Yorkshire County Cricket Club, Leeds United Ladies, the Irish Football Association and the Rugby Football League to name but a few. Leeds Met students also benefit from cultural partnerships with the BBC, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Northern Ballet Theatre, International Indian Film Academy (IIFA), Festival Republic, Apple and Google.
The university is currently transforming its learning environments in Leeds, having acquired landmark buildings such as the Electric Press, Old Broadcasting House, Old School Board and Cloth Hall Court. The university continues to place students where the regional capital’s civic, educational, business and cultural quarters meet, with Leeds Business School students set to move into the stunning new Rose Bowl complex in September 2009. Work will also shortly commence on the adjacent Senator George Mitchell Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution.
The ongoing transformation in the Civic Quarter will match the university’s spectacular campus in Headingley which is twinned with the world-famous cricket and rugby grounds at Headingley Carnegie Stadium.
The university’s Regional University Network (RUN) is an ever-expanding partnership involving a number of colleges, from Newcastle to Nottinghamshire and from Hull to Belfast, comprising over 300,000 students. Leeds Met is committed to widening participation and flexible learning and this network allows students to study locally, whilst gaining a qualification from a recognised university.