Another view of the Frenchay campus.
The University of the West of England or UWE is a university based in the English city of Bristol. Its main campus is at Frenchay on the northern edge of the city, but it also has sites at Glenside and St Matthias in north-east Bristol and at Bower Ashton in south-west Bristol, regional centres in Bath and Swindon, and an associate faculty in Gloucestershire. With around 24,000 students in total, it is the largest university in the region.
UWE was founded in 1970 as Bristol Polytechnic, but can trace its roots back to the foundation of the Merchant Venturers' Navigation School in 1595. Like the other former polytechnics, it gained university status and its present name in 1992.