The University of Buckingham is an independent university which has been given royal charter. It is located near the centre of the town of Buckingham, which is lovely small town. The University buildings are also unique as many of them are historic type buildings, which makes the campus look and feel more unique and also welcoming. The small size of the campus also adds to its welcoming and friendly feel as the university has a much smaller number of students than can be found at many other UK university’s.

The University is also slightly more unusual as it offers degree programmes that can be completed in just two years instead of the more commonly found three years. To fit the entire programme of study in just two years there are no major holiday periods, so academic year is a condensed programme. This condensed programme also means that the University has to complete any changes to the facilities during the actual academic year as there is no free holiday times in which to complete changes to the interiors and other types of maintenance tasks. Inevitably this must make it more difficult for the university and its staff to manage any major changes that need to be completed without disturbing them.

The University offers courses on a range of subjects that includes the following:

• Accounting, Business and Economics
• Computer Science
• Education
• History and Art History
• Law

The library offers access to a range of electronic resources which are individually managed and maintained by subject librarians and the staff offer students a friendly and welcoming service. Although the University offers a full range of services there were no outstanding uses of technology in the library and there were also no innovations in the use of library spaces at the time of my visit.