University College Cardiff

  Cardiff University (Welsh: Prifysgol Caerdydd) is a public research university located in Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom. The University is composed of three colleges: Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; and Physical Sciences and Engineering.

Founded in 1883 as the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire, it became one of the founding colleges of the University of Wales in 1893, and in 1999 became an independent University awarding its own degrees. It is the second oldest university in Wales. It is a member of the Russell Group of leading British research universities.The university is consistently recognised as providing high quality research-based university education and is ranked 123rd of the world's top universities by the QS World University Rankings, as well as achieving the highest student satisfaction rating in the 2013 National Student Survey for universities in Wales.

The research of Cardiff University was ranked 5th over all in the UK in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework, with some areas ranked top in the country.

The University has an undergraduate enrolment of 21,495 and a total enrolment of 30,180 (according to HESA data for 2013/14) making it one of the largest universities in Wales. The Cardiff University Students' Union works to promote the interests of the student body within the University and further afield. The University's sports teams compete in the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) leagues.

In October 1881, William Gladstone's government appointed a departmental committee to conduct 'an enquiry into the nature and extent of intermediate and higher education in Wales'. The committee was chaired by Lord Aberdare and consisted of Viscount Emlyn, Reverend Prebendary H. G. Robinson, Henry Richard, John Rhys and Lewis Morris.The Aberdare report, as it came to be known, took evidence from a wide range of sources and over 250 witnesses and recommended a college for North and South Wales each, the southern to be located in Glamorgan and the Northern to be the already established University College of Wales in Aberystwyth (now Aberystwyth University). The committee cited the unique Welsh national identity and that many students in Wales could not afford to travel to University in England or Scotland. Furthermore, it advocated for a national degree-awarding university for Wales, composed of the regional colleges. It also recommended that the colleges should be unsectarian in nature and that they should exclude the teaching of theology.

After this recommendation was published the Cardiff Corporation attempted to secure the location of the college as Cardiff, and on 12 December 1881 formed a University College Committee to aid the matter.A competition arose between Swansea and Cardiff about where the college should be located and on 12 March 1883, after a period of arbitration, the location was set as Cardiff.The case for Cardiff was strengthened by stressing the need to take account of the interests of Monmouthshire, at that time not legally considered part of Wales, as well as the greater sum of money received by Cardiff in support of the college, through a public appeal that raised £37,000, and a number of private donations, notably from the Lord Bute and Lord Windsor.In April Lord Aberdare was appointed as the College's first president.The possible locations considered for the college included Cardiff Arms Park, Cathedral Road or Moria Terrace, Roath, before the site of the Old Royal Infirmary buildings on Newport Road were chosen.

The University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire opened on 24 October 1883, offering studies in Biology, Chemistry, English, French, German, Greek, History, Latin, Mathematics & Astronomy, Music, Welsh, Logic & Philosophy and Physics. The University College was incorporated by Royal Charter the following year, this charter was the first in Wales to allow the enrollment of women, and specifically forbid religious tests for entry.John Viriamu Jones was appointed as the University's first Principal, at age 27. As Cardiff was not an independent university and could not award its own degrees, it prepared its students for the examinations of the University of London or further study at Oxford or Cambridge.

In 1888 the university college at Cardiff and University College of North Wales (now Bangor University) proposed to University College Wales (at Aberystwyth) a joint action to obtain a university charter for Wales, modelled on that of Victoria University, a confederation of new universities in Northern England. This charter was granted to the new University of Wales in 1893, allowing the colleges to award degrees as members of this institution. The chancellor was set ex officio as the Prince of Wales, and the position of operational head would rotate among heads of the colleges.

In 1885, Aberdare Hall opened as the first hall of residence, allowing women access to the university. This moved to its current site in 1895, but remains a single-sex hall. 1904 saw the appointment of the first female associate professor in the UK, Millicent Mackenzie. In 1910 she was appointed the first female professor at a fully chartered university in the UK.

In 1901 principal Jones persuaded the Cardiff Corporation to give the college a five-acre site in Cathays Park (instead of selling it as they would have done otherwise);and soon after in 1905, work commenced under architect W. D. Caroe on the new building. Money ran short for this project, however, and although the side-wings were completed in the 1960s the planned Great Hall has never been built. Caroe sought to combine the charm and elegance of his former college (Trinity College, Cambridge) with the picturesque balance of many of the University of Oxford colleges. On October 14, 1909 the 'New College' building in Cathays Park (now Main Building) was opened in a grand ceremony involving a procession from the 'Old College' buildings on Newport Road.

In 1931, the School of Medicine, which had been founded as part of the college in 1893 when the Departments of Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Pharmacology were founded, was split off to form the University of Wales College of Medicine. In 1972, the college lost the name it had retained for ninety years and was renamed University College, Cardiff.

In 1988, the college underwent extreme financial difficulties, and the threat of bankruptcy was seriously considered,which led to the merger of University College, Cardiff with the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology (UWIST), founded 1866, forming the University of Wales College, Cardiff. The Principal of the new institution was Sir Aubrey Trotman-Dickenson, who had been principal of UWIST. Following changes to the constitution of the University of Wales in 1996, this became the University of Wales, Cardiff.

University College London

  
     University College London (UCL) is a public research university in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It is considered to be one of the most prestigious universities in the world and is the largest higher education institution in London and largest postgraduate institution in the UK by enrolment.

Founded in 1826 as London University, UCL was the first university institution established in London and the first in England to be entirely secular, to admit students regardless of their religion, and to admit women on equal terms with men.The philosopher Jeremy Bentham is commonly regarded as the spiritual father of UCL, as his radical ideas on education and society were the inspiration to its founders, although his direct involvement in its foundation was limited. UCL became one of the two founding colleges of the University of London in 1836. It has grown through mergers, including with the Institute of Neurology (in 1997), the Eastman Dental Institute (in 1999), the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (in 1999), the School of Pharmacy (in 2012) and the Institute of Education (in 2014).

UCL's main campus is located in the Bloomsbury area of central London, with a number of institutes and teaching hospitals elsewhere in central London, and satellite campuses in Adelaide, Australia and Doha, Qatar. UCL is organised into 11 constituent faculties, within which there are over 100 departments, institutes and research centres. UCL has around 36,000 students and 11,000 staff (including around 6,000 academic staff and 980 professors) and had a total income of £1.02 billion in 2013/14, of which £374.5 million was from research grants and contracts.UCL is responsible for several museums and collections in a wide range of fields, including the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology and the Grant Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy.

UCL is one of the most selective British universities and ranks highly in national and international league tables.UCL's graduates are ranked among the most employable by international employers and UCL alumni include the "Father of the Nation" of each of India, Kenya and Mauritius, the inventor of the telephone, and one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA. Additionally, founders of Ghana,Japan and Nigeria attended UCL and founder of erstwhile Czechoslovakia was a member of staff. UCL faculties have contributed to major advances in several disciplines. All five of the naturally-occurring noble gases were discovered at UCL by William Ramsay,the vacuum tube was invented by UCL graduate John Ambrose Fleming while a faculty of UCL and several foundational advances in statistics were made at UCL at the statistical science department founded by Karl Pearson.There are 32 Nobel Prize winners and three Fields Medalists amongst UCL's alumni and current and former staff.

UCL is part of three of the 11 biomedical research centres established by the NHS in England and is a founding member of the Francis Crick Institute and UCL Partners, the world's largest academic health science centre.UCL has hundreds of research and teaching partnerships, including a major collaboration with Yale University, the Yale UCL Collaborative. It is a member of numerous academic organisations including the G5,the League of European Research Universities and the Russell Group and forms part of the 'golden triangle' of British universities.

In 1836, London University was incorporated by Royal Charter under the name University College, London. On the same day, the University of London was created by royal charter as a degree-awarding examining board for students from affiliated schools and colleges, with University College and King's College, London being named in the charter as the first two affiliates.

The Slade School of Fine Art was founded in 1871 following a bequest from Felix Slade.in 1878 the University of London gained a supplemental charter making it the first British university to be allowed to award degrees to women. The same year, UCL became the first college to admit women on equal terms to men in the faculties of Arts and Law and of Science, although women remained barred from the faculties of Engineering and of Medicine (with the exception of courses on public health and hygiene).Women were finally admitted to medical studies under the pressure of the first world war in 1917, although after the war ended limitations were placed on their numbers.

In 1898, Sir William Ramsay discovered the elements krypton, neon and xenon whilst professor of chemistry at UCL.in 1900 the University of London was reconstituted as a federal university with new statutes drawn up under the University of London Act 1898. UCL, along with a number of other colleges in London, became schools of the University of London.While most of the constituent institutions retained their autonomy, UCL was merged into the University in 1907 under the University College London (Transfer) Act 1905 and lost its legal independence.

1900 also saw the decision to appoint a salaried head of the college. The first incumbent was Carey Foster, who served as Principal (as the post was originally titled) from 1900 to 1904. He was succeeded by Gregory Foster (no relation), and in 1906 the title was changed to Provost to avoid confusion with the Principal of the University of London. Gregory Foster remained in post until 1929.

In 1906 the Cruciform Building was opened as the new home for University College Hospital.UCL sustained considerable bomb damage during the Second World War, including to the Great Hall and the Carey Foster Physics Laboratory. The first UCL student magazine, Pi Magazine, was published for the first time on 21 February 1946. The Institute of Jewish Studies relocated to UCL in 1959. The Mullard Space Science Laboratory was established in 1967.In 1973, UCL became the first international link to the precursor of the internet, the ARPANET, sending the world's first e-mail in the same year.

Although UCL was the first university to admit women on the same terms as men, in 1878, the College's senior common room, the Housman Room, remained men-only until 1969. After two unsuccessful attempts a motion was passed that ended segregation by sex at UCL. This was achieved by Brian Woledge (Fielden Professor of French at UCL from 1939 to 1971) and David Colquhoun, at that time a young lecturer in Pharmacology.