, mottoeng = So that they may have life , established = , type =

public research university A public university or public college is a university or college that is in owned by the state or receives significant public funds through a national or subnational government, as opposed to a private university. Whether a national university ...

, endowment = £20.0 million , budget = £326 million , chancellor =

David Willetts David Linsay Willetts, Baron Willetts, (born 9 March 1956) is a British politician and life peer. From 1992 to 2015, he was the Member of Parliament (MP) representing the constituency of Havant in Hampshire. He served as Minister of State for ...

, vice_chancellor =

Nishan Canagarajah Cedric Nishan Canagarajah (born 1966) is a British Tamil academic and the current president and vice-chancellor of the University of Leicester. He was previously one of the pro-vice-chancellors of the University of Bristol. Early life and fami ...

, head_label =

Visitor A visitor, in English and Welsh law and history, is an overseer of an autonomous ecclesiastical or eleemosynary institution, often a charitable institution set up for the perpetual distribution of the founder's alms and bounty, who can inter ...

, head = The King , academic_staff = 1,705 (2018/19) , administrative_staff = 2,205 (2018/19) , students = () , undergrad = () , postgrad = () , city =

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

, country = England, UK , coordinates = , campus = Urban parkland , colours = , website = , logo = UniOfLeicesterLogo.svg , logo_size = 250px , affiliations = ACU

AMBA Amba or AMBA may refer to: Title * Amba Hor, alternative name for Abhor and Mehraela, Christian martyrs * Amba Sada, also known as Psote, Christian bishop and martyr in Upper Egypt Given name * Amba, the traditional first name given to the fir ...

EMUA
EUA
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M5 Universities

Universities UK Universities UK (UUK) is an advocacy organisation for universities in the United Kingdom. It began life in the early 20th century through informal meetings of vice-chancellors of a number of universities and principals of university colleges and ...

The University of Leicester ( ) is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

research university based in

, England. The main campus is south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park. The university's predecessor, University College, Leicester, gained university status in 1957. The university had an income of £323.1 million in 2019/20, of which £57 million was from research grants. The university is known for the invention of genetic fingerprinting, and for the discovery and identification of the remains of King Richard III.

History

Desire for a university

The first serious suggestions for a university in Leicester began with the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society (founded at a time when "philosophical" broadly meant what "scientific" means today). With the success of Owen's College in Manchester, and the establishment of the

University of Birmingham , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

in 1900, and then of Nottingham University College, it was thought that Leicester ought to have a university college too. From the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century university colleges could not award degrees and had to be associated with universities that had degree-giving powers. Most students at university colleges took examinations set by the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degr ...

. In the late 19th century the co-presidents of the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society, the Revered James Went, headmaster of the Wyggeston Boys' School, and J. D. Paul, regularly called for the establishment of a university college However, no private donations were forthcoming, and the

Corporation of Leicester Leicester City Council is a unitary authority responsible for local government in the city of Leicester, England. It consists of 54 councillors, representing 22 wards in the city, overseen by a directly elected mayor. It is currently control ...

was busy funding the School of Art and the Technical School. The matter was brought up again by Dr Astley V. Clarke (1870–1945) in 1912. Born in Leicester in 1870, he had been educated at Wyggeston Grammar School and the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

before receiving medical training at

Guy's Hospital Guy's Hospital is an NHS hospital in the borough of Southwark in central London. It is part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and one of the institutions that comprise the King's Health Partners, an academic health science centre. ...

. He was the new president of the Literary and Philosophy society. Reaction was mixed, with some saying that Leicester's relatively small population would mean a lack of demand. With the outbreak of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

in 1914, talk of a university college subsided. In 1917 the ''Leicester Daily Post'' urged in an editorial that something of more practical utility than memorials ought to be created to commemorate the war dead. With the ending of the war both the ''Post'' and its rival the ''Leicester Mail'' encouraged donations to form the university college. Some suggested that Leicester should join forces with Nottingham, Sutton Bonington and Loughborough to create a federal university college of the East Midlands, but nothing came of this proposal.

Establishment

The old asylum building had often been suggested as a site for the new university, and after it was due to be finished being used as a hospital for the wounded, Astley Clarke was keen to urge the citizens and local authorities to buy it. Fortunately, Clarke quickly learned the building had already been bought by

Thomas Fielding Johnson Thomas Fielding Johnson (24 December 1828 – 18 March 1921) was a prominent Victorian businessman and philanthropist in Leicester, England. Among his many acts of public spiritedness and generosity was the donation in 1919 of a site and buildi ...

, a wealthy philanthropist who owned a

worsted Worsted ( or ) is a high-quality type of wool yarn, the fabric made from this yarn, and a yarn weight category. The name derives from Worstead, a village in the English county of Norfolk. That village, together with North Walsham and Aylsham ...

manufacturing business. He had bought 37 acres of land for £40,000 and intended not only to house the college, but also the boys' and girls' grammar schools. Further donations soon topped £100,000: many were given in memory of loved ones lost during the war, while others were for those who had taken part and survived. King

George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother ...

gave his blessing to the scheme after a visit to the town in 1919. Talk turned to the curriculum with many arguing that it should focus on Leicester's chief industries hosiery, boots and shoes. Others had higher hopes than just technical training. The education acts of 1902 and

1918 This year is noted for the end of the First World War, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, as well as for the Spanish flu pandemic that killed 50–100 million people worldwide. Events Below, the events ...

, which brought education to the masses was also thought to have increased the need for a college, not least to train the new teachers that were needed. Talk of a federal university soured and the decision was for Leicester to become a stand-alone college. In 1920, the college appointed its first official. W. G. Gibbs, a long-standing supporter of the college while editor of the ''Leicester Daily Post'', was nominated as secretary. On 9 May 1921, Dr R. F. Rattray (1886–1967) was appointed principal, aged 35. Rattray was an impressive academic. Having gained a first class English degree at Glasgow, he studied at

Manchester College, Oxford Harris Manchester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It was founded in Warrington in 1757 as a college for Unitarian students and moved to Oxford in 1893. It became a full college of th ...

. He then studied in Germany, and secured his PhD at Harvard. After that, he worked as a Unitarian minister. Rattray was to teach Latin and English. He recruited others including Miss Measham to teach botany, Miss Sarson to teach geography, and Miss Chapuzet to teach French. In all, 14 people started at the university when it opened its doors in October 1921: the principal, the secretary, three lecturers and nine students (eight women and one man). Two types of students were expected, around 100–150 teachers in training, and undergraduates hoping to sit the external degrees of London University. A students union was formed in 1923–24 with a Miss Bonsor as its first president. In 1927, after it became University College, Leicester, students sat for the examinations for external degrees of the

. Two years later, it merged with the Vaughan Working Men's College, which had been providing adult education in Leicester since 1862. In 1931, Dr Rattray resigned as principal. He was replaced in 1932 by

Frederick Attenborough Frederick Levi Attenborough (4 April 1887 – 20 March 1973) was a British academic and principal of University College, Leicester. Biography He was the son of Mary (née Saxton) and Frederick August Attenborough of Stapleford, Nottinghamshir ...

, who was the father of

David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

and

Richard Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stro ...

Attenborough. He was succeeded by Charles Wilson in 1952.

University status to modern day

In 1957, the University College was granted its

royal charter A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, b ...

, and has since then had the status of a university with the right to award its own degrees. The Percy Gee Student Union building was opened by

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

on 9 May 1958. Leicester University won the first ever series of '' University Challenge'', in 1963. The university's motto ''Ut Vitam Habeant'' –"so that they may have life", is a reflection of the war memorial origins of its formation. It is believed to have been Rattray's suggestion. The university medical school, Leicester Medical School, opened in 1971. In 1994, the University of Leicester celebrated winning the Queen's Anniversary Prize for its work in Physics & Astronomy. The prize citation reads: "World-class teaching, research and consultancy programme in astronomy and space and planetary science fields. Practical results from advanced thinking". In 2011, the university was selected as one of four sites for national high performance computing (HPC) facilities for theoretical astrophysics and particle physics. An investment of £12.32 million, from the Government's Large Facilities Capital Fund, together with investment from the Science and Technology Facilities Council and from universities contribute to a national supercomputer.
Multi-million pound new national supercomputer to perform astronomical feats. Retrieved 22 March 2015. In September 2012, a ULAS team Exhumation of Richard III of England, exhumed the body of King

Richard III Richard III (2 October 145222 August 1485) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat and death at the Bat ...

, discovering it in the former Greyfriars Friary Church in the city of

. As a result of that success Prof King was asked to investigate whether a skeleton found in Jamestown was that of George Yeardley, the 1st colonial governor of Virginia and founder of the

Virginia General Assembly The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World, and was established on July 30, 16 ...

. In January 2017, Physics students from the University of Leicester made national news when they revealed their predictions on how long it would take a zombie apocalypse to wipe out humanity. They calculated that it would take just 100 days for zombies to completely take over earth. At the end of the 100 days, the students predicted that just 300 humans would remain alive and without infection. In January 2021, around 200 UCU members at the university passed a no-confidence motion in Vice Chancellor

because of proposed cuts putting 145 staff members at risk of redundancy. There was anger at his claim that redundancies are needed to "continue to deliver excellence". In April, the UCU urged academics to boycott the university due to the planned redundancies, including encouraging people to not apply for jobs at Leicester or collaborate on new research projects.

Campus

The main campus is a mile south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park and Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College. The skyline of the university is punctuated by three distinctive, towering, buildings from the 1960s: the Department of Engineering, the Attenborough Tower and the Charles Wilson Building.

Fielding Johnson Building

The

Fielding Johnson Building The Fielding Johnson Building is the main administrative building for the University of Leicester, Leicester, England. It is a Grade II listed building. History The building, which was designed by William Parsons with assistance from George Wa ...

was designed by William Parsons in a late Georgian provincial style as the Leicestershire and Rutland County Asylum. From 1921 the building was home to most of the university departments until purpose-built accommodation was created, and it was renamed the Fielding Johnson Building in 1964. It now houses the university's administration offices, the Faculty of Law, faculty of criminology and a lecture theatre.

Attenborough Tower

The 18-storey Attenborough Tower is home to the College of Social Sciences and has undergone extensive renovation.

Engineering Building

The Engineering Building was the first major building by British architects James Stirling and James Gowan. This Grade II* listed building comprises workshops and laboratories at ground level, and a tower containing offices and lecture theatres.

Other buildings

Charles Wilson Building from Victoria Park

Opposite the Fielding Johnson Building are the Astley Clarke Building, home to the School of Media, Communication and Sociology, and the Danielle Brown Sports Centre. The Ken Edwards Building, built in 1995, lies adjacent to the Fielding Johnson Building and is home to the School of Management. Built in 1957, the Percy Gee Building is home to Leicester University's Students' Union. Percy Gee was one of the first treasurers of the University College. The David Wilson Library was opened by

on 4 December 2008, following an extensive refurbishment with a budget of £32 million. The Bennett Building, Physics and Astronomy Building, the Chemistry Building and the Adrian Building lie beyond the Charles Wilson Building. Across University Road, linked by pedestrian bridges, lie the Maurice Shock and Hodgkin Buildings. Further along University Road is the George Davies Centre building (built 2016), home to Leicester's Medical School. The Adrian Building was built in 1967 and designed by Courtald Technical Services which became W.F Johnson & Partners. It was named after Edgar Adrian the first chancellor of the university (1957–1971). The Charles Wilson Building was designed by Denys Lasdun and completed in 1967. Along London road is the Brookfield campus home to the school of business and the post-graduate centre. It was sympathetically renovated, with the original building being built in 1870 and was home to Thomas Fielding Johnson, the founder of the University of Leicester. Further along University Road and on Salisbury Road and Regents Road are the Department of Education and the Fraser Noble Building. On Lancaster Road there is the

Attenborough Arts Centre The Attenborough Arts Centre is an arts centre on Lancaster Road, Leicester, United Kingdom. It is the University of Leicester arts centre but also serves Leicester as a whole. The centre's access and inclusive work has been recognised, through ...

, the university's arts centre. Leicester's halls of residence are noteworthy: many of the halls (nearly all located in Oadby) date from the early 1900s and were the homes of Leicester's wealthy industrialists. Image:Leicester University Engineering Building.jpg, The Engineering Building, designed by James Stirling, James Gowan and

Frank Newby Frank Newby (26 March 1926 – 10 May 2001) was one of the leading structural engineers of the 20th century, working with such architects as Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya, Eero Saarinen, Cedric Price,James Gowan (architect) James Stirling, an ...

Image:Physics and astronomy building, University of Leicester.jpg, The Physics and Astronomy Building, part of a larger complex by Leslie Martin Image:Leicester University analemma sundial.jpg, ''Eye of Time''

sundial A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a f ...

Image:Jewry Wall ruins panorama 3.jpg,

Vaughan College Leicester Vaughan College (LVC) is an independent higher education college in Leicester, England. It is the successor to Vaughan College, originally founded by Revd David Vaughan in 1862 to provide education for under-educated men. It rapidly beca ...

, the university's former adult education college, is

Grade II In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

listed and faces the

Jewry Wall The Jewry Wall is a substantial ruined wall of 2nd-century Roman masonry, with two large archways, in Leicester, England. It stands alongside St Nicholas' Circle and St Nicholas' Church. It formed the west wall of a public building in (Rom ...

Roman ruins File:Astronomical Clock at Leicester University.jpg, Leicester University Astronomical Clock

Development

In recent years, the university has disposed of some of its poorer quality property in order to invest in new facilities, and is currently undergoing a £300+ million redevelopment. The new John Foster Hall of Residence opened in October 2006. The David Wilson Library, twice the size of the previous University Library, opened on 1 April 2008 and a new biomedical research building (the Henry Wellcome Building) has already been constructed. A complete revamp of the Percy Gee Student Union building was completed in September 2010, and another is underway, due for completion in spring 2020. Nixon Court was extended and refurbished in 2011.

Organisation

The university's academic schools and departments are organised into colleges. In August 2015, the colleges were further restructured with the merging of ''Social Sciences'' and ''Arts, Humanities and Law'' to give the following structure:

College of Life Sciences

The college has the following academic schools: * Leicester Medical School * School of Biological Sciences * School of Psychology * School of Allied Health Professions The research departments and institutes: * Cardiovascular Sciences * Genetics and Genome Biology (including the Leicester Cancer Research Centre) * Health Sciences (including the Leicester Diabetes Centre) * Infection, Immunity and Inflammation * Molecular and Cell Biology * Neuroscience, Psychology and Behaviour (including the Centre for Systems Neuroscience) * Leicester Precision Medicine Institute (including Leicester Drug Discovery and Diagnostics) * Leicester Institute of Structural and Chemical Biology

Leicester Medical School

The university is home to a large medical school, Leicester Medical School, which opened in 1971. The school was formerly in partnership with the

University of Warwick , mottoeng = Mind moves matter , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £7.0 million (2021) , budget = £698.2 million (2020 ...

, and the Leicester-Warwick medical school proved to be a success in helping Leicester expand, and Warwick establish. The partnership ran the end of its course towards the end of 2006 and the medical schools became autonomous institutions within their respective universities.

College of Science and Engineering

The college comprises the following departments:
Chemistry
* Informatics * School of Geography Geology & the Environment * Engineering * Mathematics * Physics and Astronomy There are also interdisciplinary research centres for Space Research, Climate Change Research, Mathematical/Computational Modelling and Advanced Microscopy.

Engineering

The department offers MEng and BEng degrees in Aerospace Engineering, Embedded Systems Engineering, Communications and Electronic Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and General Engineering. Each course is accredited by the relevant professional institutions. The department also offers MSc courses.

Physics and Astronomy

The department has around 350 undergraduate students, following either BSc (three-year) or MPhys (four-year) degree courses, and over 70 postgraduate students registered for a higher degree.
Frequently asked questions. Retrieved 22 March 2015 The main Physics building accommodates several research groups—Radio and Space Plasma Physics (RSPP), X-ray and Observational Astronomy (XROA), and Theoretical Astrophysics (TA)—as well as centres for Supercomputer, supercomputing,

microscopy Microscopy is the technical field of using microscopes to view objects and areas of objects that cannot be seen with the naked eye (objects that are not within the resolution range of the normal eye). There are three well-known branches of micr ...

Gamma Gamma (uppercase , lowercase ; ''gámma'') is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 3. In Ancient Greek, the letter gamma represented a voiced velar stop . In Modern Greek, this letter r ...

and X-ray astronomy, and radar sounding, and the Swift UK Data Centre. A purpose built Space Research Centre houses the Space Science and Instrumentation (SSI) group and provides laboratories, clean rooms and other facilities for instrumentation research, Earth Observation Science (EOS) and the Bio-imaging Unit. The department also runs the University of Leicester Observatory in Manor Road, Oadby, with a 20-inch telescope it is one of the UK's largest and most advanced astronomical teaching facilities. The department has close involvement with the National Space Centre also located in Leicester. The department is home to the university's ALICE 3400+ core supercomputer and is a member of the UK's DiRAC (DiStributed Research utilising Advanced Computing) consortium. DiRAC is the integrated supercomputing facility for theoretical modelling and HPC-based research in particle physics, astronomy and cosmology.

College of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities

The college has 10 schools including: * American Studies * Archaeology and Ancient History * School of Arts * School of Business * Criminology * Education * History, Politics and International Relations * Leicester Law School * School of Media, Communication and Sociology * Museum Studies

Archaeology and Ancient History

The ''School of Archaeology and Ancient History'' was formed in 1990 from the then Departments of Archaeology and Classics, under the headship of

Graeme Barker Graeme William Walter Barker, (born 23 October 1946) is a British archaeologist, notable for his work on the Italian Bronze Age, the Roman occupation of Libya, and landscape archaeology. Early life and education Barker was born on 23 October 1 ...

. The academic staff currently (as of January 2017) include 21 archaeologists and 8 ancient historians, though several staff teach and research in both disciplines. The School has particular strengths in Mediterranean archaeology, ancient Greek and Roman history, and the archaeology of recent periods; and is also home to the ''University of Leicester Archaeological Services'' (ULAS).

Business

The ''School of Business'' was founded in 2016, bringing together the expertise of the School of Management and the Department of Economics. The new school now has approximately 150 academic staff, 50 from Economics and 100 from Management. In 2010 the former School of Management was ranked 2nd after

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

by the ''Guardian''. The School of Business provides postgraduate and undergraduate programmes in Management, Accounting and Economics. The School of Business, is one of the approximately 270 Schools/Universities in the world accredited by

English

The ''School of English'' teaches English at degree level. The school offers English studies from contemporary writing to Old English and language studies. It contains the ''Victorian Studies Centre'', the first of its kind in the UK. . Malcolm Bradbury is one of the department's most famous alumni: he graduated with a First in English in 1953.

Historical Studies

The ''School of Historical Studies'' is one of the largest of any university in the country. It has made considerable scholarly achievements in many areas of history, notably urban history, English local history, American studies and Holocaust studies. The school houses both the East Midlands Oral History Archive (EMOHA) and the Media Archive for Central England.

Law

The ''School of Law'' is one of the biggest departments in the university. According to the Times Online Good University Guide 2009, the Faculty of Law was ranked 8th, out of 87 institutions, making it one of the top law schools in the country.

Academic profile

Admissions

New students entering the university in 2015 had the 42nd highest UCAS Points in the UK at 374 points (the equivalent of BBC at A Level and BC at AS Level). According to the 2017 ''Times'' and ''Sunday Times'' Good University Guide, approximately 2% of Leicester's undergraduates come from independent schools.

Teaching

The university is held in high regard for the quality of its teaching. 19 subject areas have been graded as "Excellent" by the Quality Assurance Agency – including 14 successive scores of 22 points or above stretching back to 1998, six of which were maximum scores. Leicester was ranked joint first in the 2005, 2006, and 2007

National Student Survey The National Student Survey is an annual survey, launched in 2005, of all final year undergraduate degree students at institutions in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom. The survey is designed to assess und ...

for overall student satisfaction among mainstream universities in England. It was second only to Cambridge in 2008 and again joint first in 2009.

Research

The university has research groups in the areas of astrophysics, biochemistry and genetics. The techniques used in genetic fingerprinting were invented and developed at Leicester in 1984 by Sir

Alec Jeffreys Sir Alec John Jeffreys, (born 9 January 1950) is a British geneticist known for developing techniques for genetic fingerprinting and DNA profiling which are now used worldwide in forensic science to assist police detective work and to resolve ...

. It also houses Europe's biggest academic centre for space research, in which space probes have been built, most notably the

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...

Lander

Beagle 2 The ''Beagle 2'' is an inoperative British Mars lander that was transported by the European Space Agency's 2003 ''Mars Express'' mission. It was intended to conduct an astrobiology mission that would have looked for evidence of past life on Mar ...

, which was built in collaboration with the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's underg ...

. Leicester Physicists (led by Ken Pounds) were critical in demonstrating a fundamental prediction of

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theor ...

's General

Theory of Relativity The theory of relativity usually encompasses two interrelated theories by Albert Einstein: special relativity and general relativity, proposed and published in 1905 and 1915, respectively. Special relativity applies to all physical phenomena in ...

– that

black holes A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing, including light or other electromagnetic waves, has enough energy to escape it. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can def ...

exist and are common in the

universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the univers ...

. It is a founding partner of the £52 million National Space Centre. Leicester is one of a small number of universities to have won the prestigious Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher Education on more than one occasion: in 1994 for physics & astronomy and again in 2002 for genetics. The 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) exercise for the School of Archaeology and Ancient History, 74% of research activity, including 100% of its Research Environment, was classed as 'world-leading' or 'internationally excellent', ranking it 6th among UK university departments teaching archaeology and 1st for the public impact of its research. The Institute of Learning Innovation within the University of Leicester is a research and postgraduate teaching group, directed by Grainne Conole. The institute has and continues to research on UK- and European-funded projects (over 30 as of August 2013), focusing on topics such as educational use of podcasting, e-readers in distance education, virtual worlds,

open educational resources Open educational resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials intentionally created and licensed to be free for the end user to own, share, and in most cases, modify. The term "OER" describes publicly accessible materials and ...

and open education, and learning design. In 2019, the university of Leicester ranked 76th in Reuters top 100 of Europe's most innovative universities. University of Leicester excelled in molecular and cell biology. Leicester has been ranked as one of the top performing universities in the UK for COVID-19 research, after being awarded more than £10.8 million of government funding since the pandemic began. The university now sits alongside the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

and

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

and has been recognised globally for its work, including being the first in the world to discover the link between people from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds being more susceptible to severe cases of coronavirus.

Rankings and reputation

The university was named University of the Year of 2008 by the ''

Times Higher Education ''Times Higher Education'' (''THE''), formerly ''The Times Higher Education Supplement'' (''The Thes''), is a British magazine reporting specifically on news and issues related to higher education. Ownership TPG Capital acquired TSL Education ...

''. It is also the only university ever to have won a ''Times Higher Education'' award in seven consecutive years. The university was previously consistently ranked among the top 20 universities in the United Kingdom by the '' Times Good University Guide'' and ''The Guardian''. In 2017, the university ranked 25th in ''The Sunday Times Good University Guide.''

Library special collections

Local history collections

The Library has one of the largest local history collections in the country. The main collection contains circa 37,000 items covering all the major counties of England. Much of this material has been collected for the Centre for English Local History since its founding in 1948. In addition, there are several rare book collections and archives: * Hatton Collection. This collection is focused on the early English county histories and works by the antiquarians. Thomas Hatton (1876–1943), a local businessman whose collection of nearly 2,000 books on English local history was donated to the Library of Leicester College in 1920. This was one of the first major donations to the Library. * Chaproniere Collection. Photographic archive of English parish churches organised by geological region. Donated by Donna Chaproniere. * Fairclough Collection. Portrait prints and topographical illustrations of 17th century Britain. Donated by A. B. R. Fairclough in 1970. * Thirsk Collection. Notes and data collected by Joan Thirsk for volumes 4 (1500–1640) and 5 (1640–1750) of The Agrarian History of England and Wales. Thirsk was the editor of these volumes and a research fellow at Leicester in the 1950s. In recent years, the Library has digitised, and mad
available online
collections relating to local and urban history, including The Historical Directories of England and Wales and the East Midlands Oral History Archive.

Modern Literary Archives

The library also holds a number of collections of 20th century writers and illustrators: * The Joe Orton Collection.

Joe Orton John Kingsley Orton (1 January 1933 – 9 August 1967), known by the pen name of Joe Orton, was an English playwright, author, and diarist. His public career, from 1964 until his death in 1967, was short but highly influential. During this brie ...

(1933–1967) was a Leicester-born playwright, the collection contains his manuscripts and correspondence. * The Laura Riding Letters. The collected correspondence of the American poet and critic Laura Riding (1901–1991). * The Sue Townsend Collection. The personal papers of

Sue Townsend Susan Lillian Townsend, FRSL (née Johnstone, 2 April 194610 April 2014), was an English writer and humorist whose work encompasses novels, plays and works of journalism. She was best known for creating the character Adrian Mole. After writing ...

(1946–2014). The collection contains Townsend's literary correspondence and notebooks detailing her works.

Student life

The university has a number of different societies within its students' union. The Union has over 220 different societies.

Student media

The students' union has three student groups producing media: Leicester Student Magazine, Galaxy Radio, and LUST (Leicester University Student Television). Leicester Student Magazine was founded in 1957, and has previously been known as ''The Ripple, The Wave & Galaxy Press''. LUST (Leicester University Student Television) was re-founded in 2002 after a period of dormancy. The station is affiliated to the National Student Television Association (NaSTA) and hosted the association's annual awards ceremony in 2008.

Galaxy Radio

Founded in 1996, Galaxy Radio (previously LUSH Radio, LUSH FM) is run and presented exclusively by students and broadcasts a mixture of music, chat and news. Some notable personalities from the early days of the station (LUSH FM at the time) who have gone on to work in the media are Lucy O'Doherty (BBC 6 Music) and Adam Mitchenall (ETV). Niraj Dave hosted a show on LUSH FM from 2007 to 2008 and has worked for Asian Sound Radio and Sunrise Radio, London, two of the largest British Asian radio stations in the country. Galaxy Radio holds an annual 24-hour charity broadcast. In 2011, £300 was raised for

Comic Relief Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character, scene, or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension. Definition Comic relief usually means a releasing of emotional or other tension resulting from a comic epis ...

. In 2013 the station held its first '69 Hour Broadcast', which raised over £450 for Comic Relief. For the 2018 fundraiser GR worked with fellow student group Leicester Marrow to raise £1,000 for

Anthony Nolan Anthony Nolan is a UK charity that works in the areas of leukaemia and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. It manages and recruits donors to the Anthony Nolan Register, which is part of an aligned registry that also includes the ''Welsh B ...

. Galaxy Radio has broadcast live the annual

varsity match A varsity match is a fixture (especially of a sporting event or team) between two university teams, particularly Oxford and Cambridge. The Scottish Varsity rugby match between the University of St Andrews and the University of Edinburgh at Murrayf ...

against De Montfort University for both football from the

King Power Stadium King Power Stadium (also known as the Leicester City Stadium due to UEFA sponsorship regulations and formerly known as the Walkers Stadium) is a football stadium in Leicester, England. It has been the home of Premier League club Leicester City ...

and rugby union from

Welford Road Stadium Welford Road (currently known as Mattioli Woods Welford Road for sponsorship reasons) is a rugby union stadium in Leicester, England, and is the home ground of Leicester Tigers. The ground was opened on 10 September 1892, and is located betwee ...

Notable people

File:Anthony Giddens at the Progressive Governance Converence, Budapest, Hungary, 2004 October.jpg,

Anthony Giddens Anthony Giddens, Baron Giddens (born 18 January 1938) is an English sociologist who is known for his theory of structuration and his holistic view of modern societies. He is considered to be one of the most prominent modern sociologists and is ...

, sociologist File:Peter Atkins - EdSciFest 2014.jpg,

Peter Atkins Peter William Atkins (born 10 August 1940) is an English chemist and a Fellow of Lincoln College at the University of Oxford. He retired in 2007. He is a prolific writer of popular chemistry textbooks, including ''Physical Chemistry'', ''I ...

, chemist File:Sir Liam Donaldson.jpg, Sir

Liam Donaldson Sir Liam Joseph Donaldson (born 3 May 1949) is a British doctor. He was formerly the Chief Medical Officer for England, being the 15th occupant of the post since it was established in 1855. As such, he was principal advisor to the United Kingd ...

, medical doctor and university chancellor File:Natalie_Bennett-IMG_4086.jpg, Natalie Bennett, British politician File:Norman_Lamb_%282013%29.jpg,

Norman Lamb Sir Norman Peter Lamb (born 16 September 1957) is a British politician and solicitor. He was the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament (MP) for North Norfolk from 2001 to 2019, and was the chair of the Science and Technology Select Committ ...

, MP File:Bob_mortimer_Middlesbrough.jpg,

Bob Mortimer Robert Renwick Mortimer (born 23 May 1959) is an English comedian, podcast presenter and actor. He is known for his work with Vic Reeves as part of their Vic and Bob comedy double act, and more recently the '' Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing ...

, comedian Notable academics from the university include;

, prominent sociologist who taught

social psychology Social psychology is the scientific study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people or by social norms. Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of the ...

, Sarah Hainsworth, Professor of Materials and Forensic Engineering, involved in analysing the wounds on the skeleton of

Jeffrey A. Hoffman Jeffrey Alan Hoffman (born November 2, 1944) is an American former NASA astronaut and currently a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. Hoffman made five flights as a Space Shuttle astronaut, including the first mission to repair t ...

, NASA astronaut and physicist, Sir

, inventor of genetic fingerprinting;

Philip Larkin Philip Arthur Larkin (9 August 1922 – 2 December 1985) was an English poet, novelist, and librarian. His first book of poetry, ''The North Ship'', was published in 1945, followed by two novels, ''Jill'' (1946) and ''A Girl in Winter'' (1947 ...

, librarian and poet; Charles Rees, organic chemist; Lord Rees of Ludlow, the

Astronomer Royal Astronomer Royal is a senior post in the Royal Households of the United Kingdom. There are two officers, the senior being the Astronomer Royal dating from 22 June 1675; the junior is the Astronomer Royal for Scotland dating from 1834. The post ...

, visiting professor at Leicester. Jeremy Howick joined the University of Leicester as director of the new Stoneygate Centre for Excellence in Empathic Healthcare. Numerous public figures in many diverse fields have been students at the university. Alumni in science include

, physical chemist; Philip Campbell, editor-in-chief of ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...

''; Sir

, Chief Medical Officer Alumni in politics and government include Natalie Bennett, former leader of the Green Party of England and Wales; Patricia Perkowski, member of the Providence Point Charlie’s Angels; Atifete Jahjaga, President of Kosovo;

Jyrki Katainen Jyrki Tapani Katainen (born 14 October 1971) is a Finnish politician who served as the European Commission's Vice-President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness from 2014 until 2019. Katainen was previously Prime Minister of Finland f ...

, Prime Minister of Finland;"Finnish PM’s politics formed at the University of Leicester"
University of Leicester, 1 May 2013.

, MP; Princess Mako of Akishino, a member of the Japanese Imperial Family;

Aaron Porter Aaron Ross Porter (born 11 January 1985) is a former president of the National Union of Students in the United Kingdom; he was elected with a 65% majority and took office in June 2010 for one year. Background and positions held In 2010, Porter ...

, President,

National Union of Students (United Kingdom) The National Union of Students (NUS) is a confederation of student unions in the United Kingdom. Around 600 student unions are affiliated, accounting for more than 95% of all higher and further education unions in the UK. Although the National ...

2010–11. Alumni in the arts include

Sir Malcolm Bradbury Sir Malcolm Stanley Bradbury, (7 September 1932 – 27 November 2000) was an English author and academic. Life Bradbury was born in Sheffield, the son of a railwayman. His family moved to London in 1935, but returned to Sheffield in 1941 with ...

, author;

Pete McCarthy Peter Charles McCarthy Robinson (9 November 1951 – 6 October 2004) was an English comedian, radio and television presenter and travel writer. He was noted for his best-selling travel books '' McCarthy's Bar'' (2000) and ''The Road to McCarthy' ...

, writer, broadcaster, comedian;

, comedian;

Bob Parr Robert "Bob" Parr, also known as Mr. Incredible, is a fictional superhero who appears in Disney/ Pixar's 6th animated film ''The Incredibles'' (2004) and its sequel and 20th animated film '' Incredibles 2'' (2018). He is a superhuman that has su ...

MBE, multi

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

-winning television producer; C. P. Snow, author; John Sutherland, Guardian Columnist, Emeritus Professor of English Literature,

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

The Attenboroughs

The University of Leicester is commonly associated with the Attenborough family.

and

David Attenborough Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and author. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, the nine natural histo ...

(with their younger brother John) spent their childhood in College House, which is now home to part of the Maths department (and is now near to the Attenborough tower, the tallest building on the campus and home to many of the arts and humanities departments). Their father

was Principal of the University College from 1932 until 1951. The brothers were educated at the adjacent

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

before attending the

Royal Academy of Dramatic Art The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Senat ...

and the

respectively. Both have maintained links with the university—David Attenborough was made an honorary Doctor of Letters in 1970 and opened the Attenborough Arboretum in Knighton in 1997. In the same year, the ''Richard Attenborough Centre for Disability and the Arts'' was opened by

Diana, Princess of Wales Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her ac ...

. Both brothers were made Distinguished Honorary Fellows of the university at the degree ceremony in the afternoon of 13 July 2006.

References

External links

University of Leicester website

Aerial photograph of University College (later Leicester University) in April 1926
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leicester, University Of Educational institutions established in 1921 1921 establishments in England Universities UK