Based in Coventry city centre, the University of Coventry with its 20,000 students occupies a 33-acre campus and has grown enormously since it was established in 1843 as the Coventry School of Design. In the 1970s it became known as Lancaster Polytechnic and in the eighties it was Coventry Polytechnic, gaining University status in 1992. Coventry University started the UK's first Disaster Management program and is particularly noted for its world-renowned Automotive Design and Engineering degree courses.