Confessions of a campus completist

Completist n. A collector or fan who tries to collect every example within a particular field. Often displays obsessive behaviour.

The term ‘completist’ was introduced to me by the track Tonight Matthew, I’m Going to be With Jesus from Half Man Half Biscuit’s album, Voyage to the Bottom of the Road. The protagonist of this song is leaving behind his former existence as a ‘Factory completist’ – i.e. someone whose aim it is to collect the entire output of the Factory record label (and not some technical shop floor function, like machinist, as I’d assumed). The word accurately captures my approach to UK university campuses. Yes, I am coming clean as a campus completist. My aim is, by the time I retire, to have visited every UK university at least once. Think of it as higher education’s version of the urge to visit all of the grounds in the football league, to ‘bag’ the Monroes (why would anyone want to do that?) or visit all the stations on the London Underground. Here are the rules:

• each institution in the list must be visited
• any site of the institution counts as a visit
• any predecessor of a merged institution counts as the new institution (e.g. my visit to the University of Wales, Newport, counts as a visit to the University of South Wales)
• only universities, plus constituent colleges of the federal university of London, count. Other higher education institutions are excluded, unless they subsequently become universities

So far, all of the visits have happened as part of my job or while I happened to be passing – I haven’t gone anywhere with the sole aim of visiting the university. It looks like I’ll have to do that eventually to get around Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in particular. So, here’s the list. How does it compare to yours? The institutions in italics are those where I have a forthcoming visit already arranged. But there’s still a long way to go… Tellingly, there are only two members of the Russell Group which I have not visited – one in Northern Ireland and the other to be visited shortly. That suggests something interesting about where higher education events are held. (List updated 1 February 2015)

Not visited	Visited
Aberystwyth University	Aston University
Anglia Ruskin University	University of Birmingham
Bangor University	Birmingham City University
Bath Spa University	University of Bradford
Bishop Grosseteste University	University of Bristol
Bournemouth University	Brunel University
Buckinghamshire New University	University of Cambridge
Cardiff Metropolitan University	Canterbury Christ Church University
Central School of Speech and Drama	Cardiff University
Courtauld Institute of Art	City University
Coventry University	Cranfield University
Edge Hill University	De Montfort University
Edinburgh Napier University	University of Derby
Falmouth University	Durham University
Glasgow Caledonian University	University of East London
Glyndŵr University	University of Edinburgh
Goldsmiths, University of London	University of Essex
Harper Adams University	University of Exeter
Heriot-Watt University	University of Glasgow
Heythrop College	University of Gloucestershire
Institute of Cancer Research	University of Greenwich
Keele University	University of Hull
Leeds Trinity University	Imperial College London
London Business School	King’s College London
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine	Lancaster University
Middlesex University	University of Leeds
Newman University	Leeds Metropolitan University
Norwich University of the Arts	University of Leicester
Queen Margaret University	University of Lincoln
Queen’s University Belfast	University of Liverpool
Regent’s University	Liverpool Hope University
Roehampton University	Liverpool John Moores University
Royal Agricultural University	Birkbeck, University of London
Royal College of Art	Institute of Education
Royal Holloway, University of London	London School of Economics
Southampton Solent University	Queen Mary, University of London
St George’s, University of London	Royal Academy of Music
Swansea Metropolitan University	School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)
Swansea University	University College London
The Arts University Bournemouth	London Metropolitan University
The Open University	London South Bank University
The Robert Gordon University	Loughborough University
University of Aberdeen	University of Manchester
University of Abertay Dundee	Manchester Metropolitan University
University of Bedfordshire	Newcastle University
University of Bolton	University of Northampton
University of Brighton	Northumbria University
University of Buckingham	University of Nottingham
University of Central Lancashire	Nottingham Trent University
University of Chester	University of Oxford
University of Chichester	Oxford Brookes University
University of Cumbria	University of Plymouth
University of Dundee	Royal Veterinary College
University of East Anglia	University of Salford
University of Hertfordshire	University of Sheffield
University of Huddersfield	Sheffield Hallam University
University of Kent	University of Southampton
University of Reading	University for the Creative Arts
University of St Andrews	University of Bath
University of St Mark & St John	University of South Wales
University of Stirling	Staffordshire University
University of Sunderland	University of Strathclyde
University of Surrey	Teesside University
University of Sussex	University of the Arts London
University of the Highlands & Islands	University of Warwick
University of the West of Scotland	University of the West of England, Bristol
University of Ulster	University of Westminster
University of Wales, Trinity Saint David	University of Worcester
University of West London	University of York
University of Winchester	York St John University
University of Wolverhampton	University of Portsmouth

Note: you may notice that one or two ‘universities’ are missing – to understand why, see here.