Poppleton University


Poppleton University is a fictional British university in the column that Laurie Taylor writes for Times Higher Education. Poppleton has also been used as the name of an example university by the Higher Education Statistics Agency in official documentation.

Location

Poppleton University is supposedly named after the real villages Nether Poppleton and Upper Poppleton near York, in Yorkshire, England. Laurie Taylor taught for many years at the University of York.

Standing

Poppleton as described by Taylor, was formerly a polytechnic. When the government abolished polytechnics in the 1990s, Taylor modified his fictional creation by telling of how Poppleton applied for and was eventually awarded university status with power to award its own degrees. Elsewhere we learn that the university was once called the "Poppleton Institute for Joined-Up Writing" though at other times Poppleton seems to be a collegiate university in the model of Oxbridge.
In Taylor's work there is also sometimes reference to a nearby institution of lower status, City University, Poppleton. The University of Uttoxeter is another fictional institution to which reference is made.

Characters

Regular characters feature in the satirical column. They include:
...and although this is a fictional account there are real examples of use by government and academics.