University celebrates official name change
LEEDS Metropolitan University has officially changed its name to Leeds Beckett University today.
Leeds Beckett University will light up the city skyline tonight as the university’s new signage will be illuminated for the first time, a day when around 10,000 new students will head to the university to enrol.
Professor Susan Price, vice chancellor, said: “We have reached a milestone for our university as we become Leeds Beckett University. We’ve made significant progress over the last few years and that is down to the hard work and dedication of staff and students. We don’t just help to create great graduates here at Leeds Beckett, but exceptional employees, dynamic citizens, and enterprising leaders.”
The university’s City campus will also be transformed over the coming months as its buildings are to be bathed in purple light – the colour of Leeds Beckett University’s iconic rose logo.
In addition to the colourwash features around the City campus, plans are being drawn up for a new architectural feature which will sit on the Portland Building roof and which will be visible from right across the city.
Professor Price added: “We are a modern, dynamic and vibrant university contributing around £475m to the regional economy. 190 years after our predecessor, Leeds Mechanics Institute, was established we are looking forward to our future as Leeds Beckett University.”
The institution, which had its Leeds Met name since it gained university status and changed its name from Leeds Polytechnic in 1992, is based on the Beckett Park campus in Headingley and also at the Rose Bowl building in the city centre. The Beckett family originally owned the land and some of the buildings on what is now the Headingley campus.
It is estimated that the name change – carried out because the institution felt it has “outgrown” the Metropolitan name – will cost around £250,000. The two other names considered were Leeds Headingley University or Leeds Ridings University.
