Host University for Reading, England

The University of Reading was originally an extension college of Oxford University and, in 1926, it was the only institution to gain university status between the two world wars. It is a cosmopolitan and global university with students from 141 different nationalities; of the 18,000 Reading students, one-third are from outside the UK. The university is ranked in the top 1% of universities in the world, according to the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2012, and the Henley Business School is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), as well as the European EQUIS and the British AMBA accreditations—the elite “Triple Crown.” The departments of Agriculture and Food rank number one in all the UK, with Education, Earth and Marine Sciences, Art and Design, Town and Country Planning, and Archaeology all ranked in the top ten. In recent years, Reading has won the prestigious Queen's Anniversary Prize on four separate occasions for academic excellence.

All classes and facilities are located on the beautiful 300-acre Whiteknights campus, allowing you to directly experience the British way of life and interact with local students. One of the most attractive campuses in the UK, the main Whiteknights campus is home to a lake, rare trees and wildlife, and beautiful green open spaces. It received the Green Flag Award in 2011, voted fourth of 1,000 public spaces in the UK to be included in the People’s Choice Award. The university recently completed an extensive campus redevelopment program, including new halls of residence, a refurbished sports centre, new catering hubs, training facilities, and a purpose-built facility for film, theatre, and television. The campus has a friendly, diverse, and inclusive environment. It is situated about a mile and a half south of the center of Reading, with good transportation links between the town and campus.

The Student Union (RUSU) building is the heart of the university with a night club and entertainment venue (3sixty), cafes, bars, games, a bookstore, and shops. The university has excellent computer provisions, with over 600 available workstations for student use, broadband network connection in each hall study bedroom, and wireless connection throughout campus.