Leeds University

The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Yorkshire College. It became part of the federal Victoria University in 1887, joining Owens College (which became the University of Manchester) and University College Liverpool (which became the University of Liverpool).Charlton, H. B. (1951) ''Portrait of a University''. Manchester: U. P.; chap. IV In 1904, a royal charter was granted to the University of Leeds by King Edward VII.

Leeds is the tenth-largest university in the United Kingdom by total enrolment and receives over 68,000 undergraduate applications per year, making it the fourth-most popular university (behind Manchester, University College London and King's College London) in the UK by volume of applications. Leeds had an income of £1.05 billion in 2023–24, of which £190.9 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £748.1 million. The university has financial endowments of £94.8 million (2024), placing it within the top twenty British universities by financial endowment.

Notable alumni include current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Keir Starmer, former Home and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, NASA astronaut Piers Sellers and six Nobel laureates.

History

Prior to formation

The university's history is linked to the development of Leeds as an international centre for the textile industry and clothing manufacture in the United Kingdom during the Victorian era. The university's roots can be traced back to the formation of schools of medicine in English cities to serve the general public.

The Victoria University was established in Manchester in 1880 as a federal university in the North of England, instead of the government elevating Owens College to a university and grant it a royal charter. Owens College was the sole college of Victoria University from 1880 to 1884; in 1887 Yorkshire College was the third to join the university.

Origins of the Leeds School of Medicine and the Yorkshire College

In 1831, the Leeds School of Medicine was established with the aim of serving the needs of the five medical institutions which had been established in the city. In 1874, the Yorkshire College of Science was created to provide education for the children of middle-class industrialists and merchants. Financial support from local industry was crucial in setting up the college and aiding the students. The university continues to recognise these elements of its history; for example, there is still a Clothworkers' Court on campus.

The College of Science, modelled on Owens College, Manchester, was established in 1851 as non-sectarian, and was open to Protestant Dissenters, Catholics and Jews (though not then to women) since Oxford and Cambridge restricted attendance to members only of the Church of England. University College London was non-sectarian.

The religious qualification ceased in the 1850s but the classics-based education continued at Oxford and Cambridge. The Northern colleges continued to promote themselves as offering a general education that was progressive and pragmatic in nature as were the technical colleges of Germany and the ancient universities upon which they were modelled.

The Yorkshire College of Science began by teaching experimental physics, mathematics, geology, mining, chemistry and biology, and soon became well known as an international centre for the study of engineering and textile technology (due to the manufacturing and textile trades being strong in the West Riding). When classics, modern literature and history went on offer a few years later, the Yorkshire College of Science became simply the Yorkshire College. In 1884, the Yorkshire College absorbed the Leeds School of Medicine and subsequently joined the federal Victoria University (established at Manchester in 1880) on 3 November 1887. Students in this period were awarded external degrees by the University of London.

Victoria University and royal charter

Leeds was given its first university in 1887 when the Yorkshire College joined the federal Victoria University on 3 November. The Victoria University had been established by royal charter in 1880; Owens College being at first the only member college. Leeds now found itself in an educational union with close social cousins from Manchester and Liverpool.

Unlike Owens College, the Leeds campus of the Victoria University had never barred women from its courses. However, it was not until special facilities were provided at the Day Training College in 1896 that women began enrolling in significant numbers. The first female student to begin a course at the university was Lilias Annie Clark, who studied Modern Literature and Education. In 1904 Leeds University wanted to encourage more women students. It decided to pay the unprecedented salary of £400 per annum to Hannah Robertson who took on a double role of "Mistress of Method" in the Education department and as the Tutor of Women.

The Victoria University was a short-lived concept, as the constituent colleges in Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds were keen to establish themselves as separate, independent universities. This was partially due to the potential benefits independent universities had for the cities, whilst the institutions were also unhappy with the practical difficulties posed by maintaining a federal arrangement across broad distances. This was further spurred by the granting of a charter to the University of Birmingham in 1900 after lobbying from Joseph Chamberlain.

Following a royal charter and act of Parliament in 1903, the then newly formed University of Liverpool began the fragmentation of the Victoria University by being the first member to gain independence. The Yorkshire College soon followed suit and was granted a royal charter as the University of Leeds by King Edward VII in 1904.

2000 to present

The Victoria University continued after the break-up of the group, with an amended constitution and renamed as the Victoria University of Manchester (though "Victoria" was usually omitted from its name except in formal usage) until September 2004. On 1 October 2004 a merger with the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology was enacted to form The University of Manchester.

In December 2004, financial pressures forced the university's governing body (the Council) to decide to close the Bretton campus. Activities at Bretton were moved to the main university campus in the summer of 2007 (allowing all Bretton-based students to complete their studies there). There was substantial opposition to the closure by the Bretton students. The university's other satellite site, Manygates in Wakefield, also closed, but Lifelong Learning and Healthcare programmes are continuing on a new site next to Wakefield College.

In May 2006, the university began re-branding itself to consolidate its visual identity to promote one consistent image. A new logo was produced, based on that used during the centenary celebrations in 2004, to replace the combined use of the modified university arms and the Parkinson Building, which has been in use since 2004. The university arms will still be used in its original form for ceremonial purposes only. Four university colours were also specified as being green, red, black and beige.

Leeds provides the local community with over 2,000 university student volunteers. With 8,700 staff employed in 2019–20, the university is the third largest employer in Leeds and contributes around £1.23bn a year to the local economy – students add a further £211m through rents and living costs.

The university's educational partnerships have included providing formal accreditation of degree awards to Leeds College of Art and Leeds Trinity University College, although the latter now has the power to award its own degrees. The College of the Resurrection, an Anglican theological college in Mirfield with monastic roots, has, since its inception in 1904, been affiliated to the university, and ties remain close. The university is also a founding member of the Northern Consortium.

In August 2010, the university was one of the most targeted institutions by students entering the UCAS clearing process for 2010 admission, which matches undersubscribed courses to students who did not meet their firm or insurance choices. The university was one of nine Russell Group universities offering extremely limited places to "exceptional" students after the universities in Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Oxford declared they would not enter the process due to courses being full to capacity.

On 12 October 2010, The Refectory of the Leeds University Union hosted a live edition of the Channel 4 News, with students, academics and economists expressing their reaction to the Browne Review, an independent review of Higher Education funding and student finance conducted by John Browne, Baron Browne of Madingley. University of Leeds Vice-Chancellor and Russell Group chairman Michael Arthur participated, giving an academic perspective alongside current vice-chancellor of Kingston University and former Pro Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Education at the University of Leeds, Sir Peter Scott. Midway through the broadcast a small group of protesters against the potential rise of student debt entered the building before being restrained and evacuated.

In 2016, The University of Leeds became University of the Year 2017 in ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times''' Good University Guide. The university has risen to 13th place overall, which reflects impressive results in student experience, high entry standards, services and facilities, and graduate prospects.

In 2022, the global world ranking of the University of Leeds is 86. There are currently 36,840 students studying at the university. The average tuition fee is £9,250 (~$12,000–12,500) per year, although there are cases where there are partial subsidies towards this cost.

Campus

The university has of land in total, with the main campus taking up ."University guide: University of Leeds"
''The Guardian''. Retrieved 29 September 2010. The main campus is located north of Leeds city centre and consists of a mixture of Gothic revival, art deco, brutalist and postmodern buildings, making it one of the most diverse university campuses in the country in terms of building styles and history. It is within walking distance of both the city centre and popular student neighbourhoods Hyde Park, Woodhouse, and Headingley. The main entrance to the campus for visitors by car is on Woodhouse Lane ( A660), near the Parkinson Building. The former Woodhouse Cemetery is within the campus, now a landscaped area known as St George's Fields.

Parkinson Building

The Parkinson Building is a grade II listed art deco building and campanile named after the late Frank Parkinson, a major benefactor of the university who oversaw many new build projects from 1936 onwards. These commitments culminating in the official opening of The Parkinson Building (to which Parkinson donated £200,000) on 9 November 1951.Foundations: Parkinson Building, University of Leeds, What's on in Leeds, Eating Out in Leeds, Listings, Leeds Guide Magazine
. Leedsguide.co.uk (25 November 2009). Retrieved 29 September 2010. The tower of the building is a well-known landmark in the city of Leeds and is used in the university logo and as a university symbol. The campanile is the highest point of the building and stands at 57 metres (187 ft) tall, making it the 17th tallest building in the city of Leeds.

Maurice Keyworth Building

The Leeds University Business School is housed in the renovated 19th-century buildings (known as the Maurice Keyworth Building), which used to belong to Leeds Grammar School on the Western side of the University of Leeds campus. The university have also constructed further modern buildings on the business school area of campus known as the Innovation Hub; costing £9.3 million. The building is a three-storey building of 4350 m² (gross capacity), with the third floor accommodating the Innovation Hub.

Roger Stevens Building

The Roger Stevens building, built in 1970, is one of the most iconic structures on campus, and is primarily utilised for lectures.

Great Hall

The university's Great Hall building is one of the most prominent buildings on campus alongside the Parkinson Building and the numerous brutalist buildings which are Grade II listed. The Great Hall was built on a site of Beech Grove Hall Estate which was purchased in 1879 by the then Yorkshire College when joining the Victoria University. This was later demolished in 1884, to become the site of the Clothworkers buildings of the Baines Memorial Wing and the Great Hall. The buildings were designed by the renowned Victorian architect Alfred Waterhouse R.A in red pressed brick and had dressings of Bolton Wood stone in a Gothic Collegiate style. The cost of the build was £22,000 and was raised partially by public appeal and served as the university library until the opening of the Brotherton Library. The Great Hall is now primarily used for examinations, meetings and graduation ceremonies.

Post-war buildings

In June 2010, post-war buildings at the University of Leeds were recommended by English Heritage to become Grade II listed buildings. The modernist and brutalist buildings being recognised include the newly Grade II* listed Roger Stevens Building, whilst the EC Stoner Building, Computer Science Building, Mathematics/Earth Sciences Building, Senior Common Room, Garstang Building, Irene Manton Building, Communications and Edward Boyle Library (formerly the South Library) and Henry Price Building have been recognised as Grade II listed buildings. These additions join the already listed 1877 Great Hall and Baines Wing, the School of Mineral Engineering, the Brotherton Library and the Parkinson Building which are Grade II listed.

In addition to the main campus, there was also a satellite location at Wakefield. Until the 2006–07 academic year, some courses were taught at the Bretton Hall campus in West Bretton. The site closed in summer 2007 after which the courses taught there were relocated to the main campus in Leeds.

Leeds railway station is approximately 1 mile south of the main campus. There are numerous bus routes which serve it. The proposed Leeds Supertram would have run past the campus. The currently proposed Leeds Trolleybus (northern line) will run past the campus, linking it with the city centre, Headingley and Lawnswood. The Leeds Inner Ring Road also lies close to the campus.

The University of Leeds Conference Auditorium, located next to the Sports Hall, was once the original West Yorkshire Playhouse. It was refurbished in 2003 to become two lecture theatres; one for 320 and one for 550, making it the largest capacity facility on the university campus.

The university's Muslim Prayer Room is located in the Conference Auditorium building and able to accommodate up to 300 people at any one time. The prayer room has undergone refurbishment after half a million pounds was allocated towards its development.

Modern expansion

The university has engaged in expansion since 2008, and has spent more than £300 million on new educational, research, residential and leisure facilities with a further £80 million being spent to improve current assets. The programme of this expansion constitutes one of the largest capital investment projects in British higher education.Breaking ground
University of Leeds. (13 May 2009). Retrieved 29 September 2010.
University of Leeds. (13 August 2010). Retrieved 29 September 2010.

*Earth and Environment improvements included a phased refurbishment and construction of this £23 million development which is already completed. These renovations included refurbished laboratory space in the west wing which opened for staff and students in April 2009, and the completion of the remaining elements of the scheme, both new build and refurbished, followed in November 2009.
*Charles Morris Hall student accommodation renovations started with the demolition of the previous Mary Ogilvie House, the existing 108 bed student accommodation block, and construction of a new 500-bed, £27.1 million building began in March 2009, the new halls were completed in the summer of 2010, with the first students moving in for the new academic year in September 2010.
*The Childcare Centre building work has also been completed and led to the creation of a new 140 place staff/student childcare centre and a new landscaped green square on adjoining plot. Work on the £3.6 million project lasted approximately 12 months with the official opening in April 2010.
*Swimming pool and fitness centre improvements ''(known as The Edge)'' started in 2009 and consisted of the construction of the new £12.2 million swimming pool/gym complex on the south-western edge of campus. The facility was due for completion by the end of February 2010 however was delayed until being officially opened in May 2010.
*The Law Building is a £12 million project which was completed in early 2011. Work on the project started September 2009 and completion was initially planned for late 2010. The new building is located on the western side of the university campus alongside the Leeds University Business School and is adjacent to the new Michael Marks Building which features the Marks & Spencer archives, including over 60,000 artefacts from London and Leeds (where the company was founded). This new collection of buildings forms the 'Professional' campus of the university, housing business, economics and law functions.
*The Edward Boyle Library £28 million redevelopment of the library was approved by the university and a consultant design team appointed, with a view to work commencing late 2010. However, budget cuts resulted in the project being put on hold until 2015. The refurbishment began in summer 2015 and was completed in late 2016.
*The Energy Building, is a £12.5 million development extending the engineering complex. Build work began in late summer 2010, and was completed in March 2012.
*Clothworkers Building North has undergone a £42.3 million development completely refurbishing the facilities. Building work began during the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Public art

Works of public art on campus range from Eric Gill's controversial 1923 World War I memorial ''Christ driving the Moneychangers from the Temple'' in the foyer of the Rupert Beckett Building to Simon Fujiwara's 2015 ''A Spire'' outside the Laidlaw Library and Liliane Lijn's 2019 ''Converse Column'' at the south east entrance to the campus. ''Includes video tour'' The university has a Public Art Strategy developed with the Contemporary Art Society.

Off campus

Gair Wood is located about north of the main campus, close to Eccup. It is a 36 hectare site with over 60,000 "regionally appropriate" trees, including oak, hazel, and willow, providing a base for research, teaching, social opportunities and carbon capture. The first tree was planted by Roger Gair, a former University Secretary, in 2022.

Academic profile

During the academic year, students were enrolled. There were around 560 different first-degree programmes and approximately 300 postgraduate degree programmes in 2009–10. Whilst maintaining its strengths in the traditional subjects (for example more students studying languages and physical sciences than anywhere else in the UK), Leeds has also developed expertise in more distinctive and rare specialist areas such as Colour Chemistry, Fire Science, Nanotechnology and Aviation Technology with Pilot studies.

Libraries

The university library is spread over five locations, and holds, in total, 2.78 million books, 26,000 print and electronic journals, 850 databases and 6,000 electronic books: making it one of the largest research libraries in the UK. The main arts and humanities library is the Brotherton Library, located in the Parkinson Building. The main science, social sciences and engineering library is the Edward Boyle Library, located in the centre of the campus and named after Edward Boyle, Baron Boyle of Handsworth who was vice-chancellor from 1970 to 1981. Medicine, dentistry and healthcare students are served by the Health Sciences Library, located in the Worsley Building, and there is an extension of this library at St James's University Hospital. The Laidlaw Library on the main campus, serving the needs of undergraduates, opened in May 2015. It is named after Lord Laidlaw who gave £9,000,000 towards its construction.

The university library houses numerous archives, rare books and some objects in its Special Collections ranging from 2,500 BC to the 21st century. Special Collections holds five collections designated as outstanding by the Arts Council England. These are the English Literature Collections, the Leeds Russian Archive, the Liddle Collection, the Cookery Collection and its Gypsy, Traveller and Roma Collections. The repository contains William Shakespeare's First Folio ''Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories. & Tragedies'' published in 1623. Special Collections also holds copies of the second, third and fourth folios. There is a copy of Sir Isaac Newton's '' Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica'', first published 5 July 1687.

Special Collections holds over 300 incunabula most of which are in the Brotherton Collection. It also contains a considerable number of medieval manuscripts. The extensive coin collection consists of 15,000 coins and medals with a wide chronological and geographical spread. The Feminist Archive North Collections are on deposit. These contain a material relating to women from 1969 to the present day.

The Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery, the Treasures Gallery and the International Textile Collection are managed by Special Collections.

Computing

IT Services support the University with a range of services targeted for use by different University communities. University Faculties, Schools and Institutes also provide computing facilities. Collectively these provide computational capability that can be used by staff, students and visitors. Additional computational capability is provided via external Cloud Computing and High Performance Computing facilities.

In 2023, a total of 31 centrally managed IT study spaces were available for use.

Th
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with details of the University High Performance Computing facilities and how to use them.

Research

Many of the academic departments have specialist research facilities, for use by staff and students to support research from internationally significant collections in university libraries to state-of-the-art laboratories. These include those hosted at the Institute for Transport Studies, such as the University of Leeds Driving Simulator which is one of the most advanced worldwide in a research environment, allowing transport researchers to watch driver behaviour in accurately controlled laboratory conditions without the risks associated with a live, physical environment.Research – Facilities – University of Leeds
. University of Leeds. Retrieved 29 September 2010.

With extensive links to the St James's University Hospital through the Leeds School of Medicine, the university operates a range of high-tech research laboratories for biomedical and physical sciences, food and engineering – including clean rooms for bionanotechnology and plant science greenhouses. The university is connected to Leeds General Infirmary and the institute of molecular medicine based at St James's University Hospital which aids integration of research and practice in the medical field.

The university also operate research facilities in the aviation field, with the Airbus A320 flight simulator. The simulator was devised with an aim to promote the safety and efficiency of flight operations; where students use the simulator to develop their reactions to critical situations such as engine failure, display malfunctioning and freak weather.

In addition to these facilities, many university departments conduct research in their respective fields. There are also various research centres, including Leeds University Centre for African Studies.

Medicine

The Leeds School of Medicine is one of the largest medical schools in Europe, with over 250 medical students being trained in each of the clinical years and over 1,000 teaching, research, technical and administrative staff.University of Leeds, School of Medicine
University of Leeds. Retrieved 29 September 2010. The school has centres of excellence split down into Leeds Institute of Genetics, Health and Therapeutics (LIGHT), Leeds Institute of Health Sciences (LIHS), Leeds Institute of Medical Education (LIME) and The Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine (LIMM). In 2010–11 university guides, the Leeds School of Medicine was ranked as the 11th best medical school in the country by ''The Guardian'' and 14th by ''The Complete University Guide'' in association with'' The Independent''.

The medical school has close links with the NHS and works closely with Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, comprising six hospitals and numerous primary care training practices in Yorkshire and the Humber.

The Leeds General Infirmary and St James's University Hospital, Leeds are the main teaching hospitals in the West Yorkshire region with St James's University Hospital being one of the largest teaching hospitals in Europe. The main university campus is adjacent to the Leeds General Infirmary and is directly connected via the Worsley Building of the Leeds Medical School.

Leeds General Infirmary is a centre in the UK for neurosurgery, and one of only 10 centres in the UK for Paediatric cardiology. The hospital features a rooftop landing pad for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance Service.

Rankings and reputation

Leeds was ranked joint 20th (along with the University of Exeter) amongst multi-faculty institutions in the UK for the quality (GPA) of its research and 8th for its Research Power (the grade point average score of a university, multiplied by the full-time equivalent number of researchers submitted) in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework.

Between 2014 and 2015, Leeds was ranked as the 10th most targeted British university by graduate employers, a two place decrease from 8th position in the previous 2014 rankings.

The 2021 the Times Higher Education World University Rankings ranked Leeds as 153rd in the world. The university ranks 84th in the world in the ''CWTS Leiden Ranking''. Leeds is ranked 86th in the world (and 13th in the UK) in the 2023 ''QS World University Rankings''. Leeds has also been named University of the Year 2017 by ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times''' Good University Guide. In 2019, it ranked 150th among the universities around the world by '' SCImago Institutions Rankings''.

In 2009, the university was awarded the Queen's Anniversary Prize for services to engineering and technology.

Affiliations

The university is a founding member of the Russell Group, comprising the leading research-intensive universities in the UK, as well as the N8 Group for research collaboration, the Worldwide Universities Network, the Association of Commonwealth Universities

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