Queen Mary University of London (QMUL, or informally QM, and formerly Queen Mary and Westfield College) 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 A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are "the key sites of Knowledge production modes, knowledge production", along with "intergenerational ...

Mile End Mile End is an area in London, England and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in East London and part of the East End of London, East End. It is east of Charing Cross. Situated on the part of the London-to-Colchester road ...

East London East London is the part of London, England, east of the ancient City of London and north of the River Thames as it begins to widen. East London developed as London Docklands, London's docklands and the primary industrial centre. The expansion of ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It is a member institution of the federal

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

. Today, Queen Mary has six campuses across East and Central London in

Whitechapel Whitechapel () is an area in London, England, and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in east London and part of the East End of London, East End. It is the location of Tower Hamlets Town Hall and therefore the borough tow ...

, Charterhouse Square,

Ilford Ilford is a large List of areas of London, town in East London, England, northeast of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Redbridge, Ilford is within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London. It had a po ...

Lincoln's Inn Fields Lincoln's Inn Fields is located in Holborn and is the List of city squares by size, largest public square in London. It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a ...

and West Smithfield, as well as an international presence in China, France, Greece and Malta. The Mile End campus is the largest self-contained campus of any London-based university. Queen Mary is organised into three faculties – the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Faculty of Science and Engineering, and

Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, commonly known as Barts or BL, is a medical school, medical and dental school in London, England. The school is part of Queen Mary University of London, a constituent college of the federal ...

. In 2023/24 the university had around 32,000 students. The annual income of the institution for 2023–24 was £712.2 million of which £146.8 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £522.5 million. Queen Mary is a member of the

Russell Group The Russell Group is a self-selected association of twenty-four public research universities in the United Kingdom. The group is headquartered in Cambridge and was established in 1994 to represent its members' interests, principally to governme ...

of British research universities, the

Association of Commonwealth Universities The Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) is a charitable organization that was established in 1913, and has over 400 member institutions in over 40 countries across the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth.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 ...

. Queen Mary is a major centre for medical teaching and research and is part of

UCLPartners UCLPartners is an academic health science centre located in London, England. It is the largest academic health science centre in the world, treats more than 1.5 million patients each year, has a combined annual turnover of around £2 billion and ...

, the world's largest academic health science centre. Queen Mary runs programmes at the University of London Institute in Paris, taking over the functions provided by Royal Holloway. There are nine

Nobel laureates The Nobel Prizes (, ) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make outstanding contributions in th ...

among Queen Mary's alumni, and current and former staff. Notable alumni include Ronald Ross, who discovered the origin and cure for

malaria Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects vertebrates and ''Anopheles'' mosquitoes. Human malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, Fatigue (medical), fatigue, vomitin ...

; Davidson Nicol, who discovered the breakdown of insulin in the human body; British politician

Peter Hain Peter Gerald Hain, Baron Hain, (born 16 February 1950), is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 2005 to 2007, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2007 to 2008 and twice as Secretary of State ...

; and Andrew Pollard, the chief investigator of the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

History

St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College and The London Hospital Medical College

The Medical College of The Royal London Hospital (now part of the School of Medicine and Dentistry) was England's first medical school when it opened in 1785. In 1850,

Elizabeth Blackwell Elizabeth Blackwell (3 February 182131 May 1910) was an English-American physician, notable as the first woman to earn a medical degree in the United States, and the first woman on the Medical Register of the General Medical Council for the Un ...

became the first fully qualified female doctor in the UK, after training at St Bartholomew's Hospital.

People's Palace

The predecessor to Queen Mary College was founded in the mid-

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the ...

as a People's Palace when growing awareness of conditions in London's East End led to drives to provide facilities for local inhabitants, popularised in the 1882 novel ''All Sorts of Conditions of Men – An Impossible Story'' by Walter Besant, which told of how a rich and clever couple from

Mayfair Mayfair is an area of Westminster, London, England, in the City of Westminster. It is in Central London and part of the West End. It is between Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly and Park Lane and one of the most expensive districts ...

went to the East End to build a ”Palace of Delight, with concert halls, reading rooms, picture galleries, art and designing schools." Although not directly responsible for the conception of the People's Palace, the novel did much to popularise it. The trustees of the Beaumont Trust, administering funds left by Barber Beaumont, purchased the site of the former Bancroft's School from the Drapers' Company. On 20 May 1885, the Drapers' Court of Assistants resolved to grant £20,000 "for the provision of the technical schools of the People's Palace." The foundation stone was laid on 28 June 1886, and on 14 May 1887

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

opened the palace's Queen's Hall, as well as laying the foundation stone for the technical schools in the palace's east wing. The technical schools were opened on 5 October 1888, with the entire palace completed by 1892. However, others saw the technical schools as one day becoming a technical university for the East End. In 1892 the Drapers' Company provided £7,000 a year for ten years to guarantee the educational side income.

East London College

In 1895 John Leigh Smeathman Hatton, director of evening classes (1892–1896; later director of studies 1896–1908 and principal 1908–1933), proposed introducing a course of study leading to the Bachelor of Science degree of the

. By the start of the 20th century, the first degrees were awarded and Hatton, along with several other professors, were recognised as teachers of the University of London. In 1906 an application for Parliamentary funds "for the aid of Educational Institutions engaged in work of a University nature", led to the college being admitted on an initial three-year trial basis as a school of the University of London on 15 May 1907 as East London College. Teaching of aeronautical engineering began in 1907, which led to the first UK aeronautical engineering department being established in 1909, boasting a ground-breaking

wind tunnel A wind tunnel is "an apparatus for producing a controlled stream of air for conducting aerodynamic experiments". The experiment is conducted in the test section of the wind tunnel and a complete tunnel configuration includes air ducting to and f ...

and creating what became (following the demise of the

University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

) the oldest aeronautical programme in the world. In 1910 the college's status in the University of London was extended for a further five years, with unlimited membership achieved in May 1915. During this period the organisation of the governors of the People's Palace was rearranged, creating the separate People's Palace Committee and East London College Committee, both under the Palace Governors, as a sign of the growing separation of the two concepts within a single complex. During the First World War, the college admitted students from The London Hospital Medical College who were preparing for the preliminary medical examination, the first step in a long process that would eventually bring the two institutions together. After the war, the college grew, albeit constrained by the rest of the People's Palace to the west and a burial ground immediately to the east. In 1920 it obtained both the Palace's Rotunda (now the Octagon) and rooms under the winter gardens at the west of the palace, which became chemical laboratories. The college's status was also unique, being the only School of the University of London that was subject to both the Charity Commissioners and the

Board of Education A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution. The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional area, ...

. In April 1929 the College Council decided it would take the steps towards applying to the Privy Council for a

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, but ...

, but on the advice of the Drapers' Company first devised a scheme for development and expansion, which recommended among other things to re-amalgamate the People's Palace and the college, with guaranteed provision of the Queen's Hall for recreational purposes, offering at least freedom of governance if not in space.

Queen Mary College

In the early hours of 25 February 1931 a fire destroyed the Queen's Hall, though both the college and the winter gardens escaped. In the coming days discussions on reconstruction led to the proposal that the entire site be transferred to the college which would then apply for a charter alone. The Drapers' Company obtained St Helen's Terrace, a row of six houses neighbouring the site, and in July 1931 it was agreed to give these over to the People's Palace for a new site adjacent to the old, which would now become entirely the domain of the college. Separation was now achieved. The Charter was now pursued, but the Academic Board asked for a name change, feeling that "East London" carried unfortunate associations that would hinder the college and its graduates. With the initial proposed name, "Queen's College", having already been taken by

The Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault, queen of England. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassi ...

and "Victoria College" felt to be unoriginal, "Queen Mary College" was settled on. The Charter of Incorporation was presented on 12 December 1934 by Queen Mary herself.

Under the charter

During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the college was evacuated to

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, where it shared with King's College. After the war the college returned to London, facing many of the same problems but with prospects for westward expansion. The East End had suffered considerable bomb damage (although the college itself had incurred little) and consequently several areas of land near to the college site now became vacant. New buildings for physics, engineering, biology and chemistry were built on the new sites, whilst the arts took over the space vacated in the original building, now renamed the Queens' Building. Limited accommodation resulted in the acquisition of further land in

South Woodford South Woodford is an area of East London, England, within the London Borough of Redbridge. It adjoins Woodford Green to the north, Walthamstow Walthamstow ( or ) is a town within the London Borough of Waltham Forest in east London. T ...

(now directly connected to Mile End tube station by means of the Central line's eastward extension), upon which tower blocks were established. The college also obtained the Co-operative Wholesale Society's clothing factory on the Mile End Road which was converted into a building for the Faculty of Laws (and some other teaching), as well as the former headquarters of Spratt's Patent Ltd (operators of the "largest dog biscuit factory in the world" – see Spratt's Complex) at 41–47 Bow Road, which was converted into a building for the Faculty of Economics founded by Maurice Peston, Baron Peston. Both faculties were physically separated from what was now a campus to the west. From the mid-1960s until the mid-1980s the college proposed to link with the London Hospital Medical College and St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College with a joint facility in Mile End. A further link with both The London and St. Bartholomew's was made in 1974 when an anonymous donor provided for the establishment of a further hall of residence in Woodford, to be divided equally between Queen Mary College students and the two medical colleges. At the start of the 1980s changing demographics and finances led to a reorganisation of the University of London. At Queen Mary some subjects, such as Russian and

Classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

were discontinued, whilst the college became one of five in the university with a concentration of laboratory sciences, including the transfer of science departments from

Westfield College Westfield College was a small college situated in Hampstead, London, from 1882 to 1989. It was the first college to aim to educate women for University of London degrees from its opening. The college originally admitted only women as students and ...

, Chelsea College,

Queen Elizabeth College Queen Elizabeth College (QEC) was a college in London. It had its origins in the Ladies' (later Women's) Department of King's College, London, opened in 1885 but which later accepted men as well. The first King's 'extension' lectures for ladi ...

and Bedford College.

1989 to 2010

In 1989 Queen Mary College (informally known as QMC) merged with

to form Queen Mary & Westfield College (often abbreviated to QMW). Over subsequent years, activities were concentrated on the Queen Mary site, with the Westfield site eventually sold. In 1990, The London Hospital was renamed The Royal London Hospital, after marking its 250th year, and a re-organisation of medical education within the University of London resulted in most of the free-standing medical schools being merged with existing large colleges to form multi-faculty institutions. In 1995 The London Hospital Medical College and St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College merged into Queen Mary & Westfield College to form an entity named Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry. In 2000 the college changed its name for general public use to Queen Mary, University of London; in 2013, the college legally changed its name to Queen Mary University of London. The VISTA telescope is a 4-metre class wide-field

telescope A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, Absorption (electromagnetic radiation), absorption, or Reflection (physics), reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally, it was an optical instrument using len ...

at the

Paranal Observatory Paranal Observatory is an astronomical observatory operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). It is located in the Atacama Desert of Northern Chile on Cerro Paranal at altitude, south of Antofagasta. By total light-collecting area, ...

in Chile that was conceived and developed by a consortium of UK universities led by Queen Mary University, costing approximately £36m. The Westfield Student Village opened in 2004 on the Mile End Campus, bringing over 2,000 rooms to students and a huge array of facilities, restaurants, and cafes. The Blizard Building, home to the Medical School's Institute of Cell and Molecular Science opened at the

campus in 2005. The award-winning building was designed by Will Alsop, and is named after William Blizard, an English surgeon and founder of The London Hospital Medical College in 1785. The year 2006 saw the refurbishment of The Octagon, the original library of the People's Palace dating back to 1888. In 2007 parts of the School of Law – postgraduate facilities and the Centre for Commercial Law Studies – moved to premises in

in central London. The Women at Queen Mary Exhibition was staged in the Octagon, marking 125 years of Westfield College and 120 years of Queen Mary College. In September 2009, the world's first science education centre located within a working research laboratory opened at the Blizard Institute of Cell and Molecular Science, hoping to inspire children with school tours and interactive games and puzzles.

2010 to present

Queen Mary became one of the few university-level institutions to implement a requirement of the A* grade at A-Level after its introduction in 2010 on some of their most popular courses, such as Engineering, Law, and Medicine. Following on from the 2010 UK student protests, Queen Mary set fees of £9,000 per year for September 2012 entry, while also offering bursaries and scholarships. On 12 March 2012 it was announced that Queen Mary would be joining the

in August 2012. Later in March, Queen Mary and the

University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded in 1965 as part of ...

announced the creation of a strategic partnership, including research collaboration, joint teaching of English, history and computer science undergraduates, and the creation of eight joint post-doctoral research fellowships. In January 2013, Queen Mary established the world's first professorial chair in animal replacement science. From 2014, Queen Mary began awarding its own degrees, rather than those of the University of London. Queen Mary became the first Russell Group university to offer Degree Apprenticeships and three years later was the first UK university to launch a social change degree, the BSc in Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship. In 2021, Queen Mary became the first UK university to receive the Platinum-level Engage Watermark from the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement.

Campuses

The main Mile End campus contains the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Faculty of Science and Engineering, the Queens' Building, the main college library, the student union, Draper's bar and club, several restaurants, a number of halls of residences and a gym. The educational and research sites of the Arts Research Centre, Computer Science, the large Engineering building, G.E. Fogg Building, Francis Bancroft Building, G. O. Jones Building, Joseph Priestley Building, Lock-keeper's Graduate Centre, and the Mathematical Science Building, are all located within the Mile End campus. The

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

Queens' Building is home to the Octagon. Built in 1887, the Octagon was originally the Queen Mary University of London library. It was designed by architect ER Robson and inspired by the British Museum Reading Room. In 2006, "brightly coloured leather bound books" were restored and reinstated to the bookshelves, along with " busts of famous literati looking down from the beautiful high domed ceiling." Attlee QMUL 1

The People's Palace is home to the Grade II listed

art deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

style Great Hall; this has a seating capacity of over 700 and standing of 1,000. It is complemented by 3 lecture theatres and a foyer. The night the votes were counted for the 1945 general election, the then local MP for

Limehouse Limehouse is a district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London. It is east of Charing Cross, on the northern bank of the River Thames. Its proximity to the river has given it a strong maritime character, which it retains throu ...

and Leader of the Labour Party,

Clement Attlee Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British statesman who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. At ...

, was present at The People's Palace, where he learned the final result and received confirmation that he had become

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

. A statue of Attlee that was originally displayed outside Limehouse Library was, after its restoration, unveiled outside the Queen Mary library by Peter Mandelson in April 2011. The

campus encompasses

, the Whitechapel Medical Library, the award-winning Blizard Institute of Cell and Molecular Science, and The Royal London Hospital. The West Smithfield campus of the School of Medicine and Dentistry, the West Smithfield Medical Library, the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, the John Vane Science Centre, the Heart Centre and St Bartholomew's Hospital are based in Smithfield. The Centre for Commercial Law Studies and LLM teaching and postgraduate law research activities are based in

in Holborn. The Malta campus, situated on the island of

Gozo Gozo ( ), known in classical antiquity, antiquity as Gaulos, is an island in the Malta#The Maltese archipelago, Maltese archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. The island is part of the Republic of Malta. After the Malta Island, island of Malta ...

, is part of Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry. Students taught at the Malta campus are offered the same curriculum as taught in London, for the MBBS Medicine and Medicine Foundation programmes.

Harold Pinter Drama Studio

The Harold Pinter Drama Studio is the main teaching and performance space of the students and staff of the Department of Drama. On 26 April 2005,

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A List of Nobel laureates in Literature, Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramat ...

, who was to win the

Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...

later that year, gave a public reading and was interviewed by his official authorised biographer, Michael Billington, in the studio named for Pinter and located as part of the Faculty of Arts (Department of Drama, School of English and Drama) in the Mile End campus, to celebrate its refurbishment.

Organisation and administration

Queen Mary and Westfield College was established by Act of Parliament and the granting of a

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, but ...

in 1989, following the merger of Queen Mary College (incorporated by charter in 1934) and Westfield College (incorporated in 1933). The Charter has subsequently been revised three times: in 1995 (as a result of the merger of the college with the Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry); in 2008 (as a result of the Privy Council awarding the College Degree Awarding Powers; and in July 2010 (following a governance review).

Schools, faculties and departments

There are three faculties and an interdisciplinary life sciences institute. These are split further into independent schools, institutes, and departments: ;Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences * School of Business and Management * School of Economics and Finance * School of English and Drama * School of Languages, Linguistics and Film * School of Geography * Global Shakespeare (in partnership with the University of Warwick) * School of History * School of Law ** Centre for Commercial Law Studies ** Department of Law * School of Politics and International Relations ;Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry *

* Barts Cancer Institute * The Blizard Institute * Institute of Dentistry * Institute of Health Sciences Education * William Harvey Research Institute * Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine * The Centre of the Cell ;Faculty of Science and Engineering * Institute of Bioengineering * School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences * School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science * School of Engineering and Materials Science ** Centre for Bioengineering ** Centre for Sustainable Engineering ** Centre for Intelligent Transport ** Centre for Research in Engineering and Materials Education * School of Mathematical Sciences * School of Physics and Astronomy * Materials Research Institute (MRI) ;Life Sciences Institute * Centre for Computational Biology * Centre for Genomic Health * Centre for Mind in Society * Institute of Bioengineering

Central administration

Queen Mary is an '

exempt charity An exempt charity is an institution established in England and Wales for charitable purposes which is exempt from registration with, and oversight by, the Charity Commission for England and Wales. Exempt charities are largely institutions of furt ...

' under the Charities Act 1993. The

Higher Education Funding Council for England The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) was a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom, which was responsible for the distribution of funding for higher education to universities and further education colleges in Engl ...

has been Queen Mary's principal regulator since June 2010.

Finances

In the financial year ended 31 July 2024, Queen Mary had a consolidated income (including share of joint ventures) of £722.5 million (2022/23 – £678.8 million) and total expenditure of £531.3 million (2022/23 – £603.3 million). Key sources of income included £396.8 million from tuition fees and education contracts (2022/23 – £382.9 million), £147.2 million from research grants and contracts (2022/23 – £138.2 million), £86.9 million from funding body grants (2022/23 – £87.2 million) and £23.7 million from endowment and investment income (2022/23 – £16.7 million). At year end Queen Mary had endowments of £48.0 million (2022/23 – £43.7 million) and total net assets of £856.5 million (2022/23 – £662.7 million). Queen Mary offers several packages of bursaries and scholarships, many of which are aimed at supporting undergraduate students from low income households. In 2017/18, 5,215 students were awarded a Queen Mary Bursary worth £7,724,401, 53 students received Science and Engineering Excellence Scholarships worth £157,500 and 21 students received Economics and Finance Excellence Scholarships worth £63,000.

Academic profile

Around 32,000 students study at the 21 academic schools and institutes, with more than 40 per cent coming from overseas, representing more than 170 different nationalities. Queen Mary awarded more than £2 million in studentships to prospective postgraduate students for the 2011/12 academic year.

Research

QMUL was ranked joint ninth in the UK among multi-faculty institutions for the quality (GPA) of its research. In the 2014

Research Excellence Framework The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is a research impact evaluation of British Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). It is the successor to the Research Assessment Exercise and it was first used in 2014 to assess the period 2008–2013. REF is ...

it was 20th for its Research Power, fifth in the UK for the quality of research outputs and the Linguistics department was ranked first in the UK. In the UK

Research Assessment Exercise The Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) was an exercise undertaken approximately every five years on behalf of the four UK higher education funding councils ( HEFCE, SHEFC, HEFCW, DELNI) to evaluate the quality of research undertaken by British ...

results published in December 2008, Queen Mary was placed 11th according to an analysis by ''The Guardian'' newspaper and 13th according to '' The Times Higher Education Supplement'', out of the 132 institutions submitted for the exercise. ''The Times Higher'' commented "the biggest star among the research-intensive institutions was Queen Mary, University of London, which went from 48th in 2001 to 13th in the 2008 Times Higher Education table, up 35 places." Since 2007 Queen Mary University of London's '' Centre for Digital Music'' develops the free and

open source software Open-source software (OSS) is Software, computer software that is released under a Open-source license, license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and Software distribution, distribute the software an ...

''Sonic Visualizer'' for audio analysis, in particular for analyzing audio

spectrogram A spectrogram is a visual representation of the spectrum of frequencies of a signal as it varies with time. When applied to an audio signal, spectrograms are sometimes called sonographs, voiceprints, or voicegrams. When the data are represen ...

s. With more than 100,000 downloads, it is the most famous software for its category. The QS World University Rankings 2019 ranked Queen Mary third in the world for research citations for the subject of medicine. The growth and strength of research at the college was rewarded with an invitation to join the

of research-intensive universities in the UK in 2012. The university is also a member of the Screen Studies Group, London. Other research highlights include an international team of scientists, led by astronomers at Queen Mary, discovering a planet orbiting

Proxima Centauri Proxima Centauri is the nearest star to Earth after the Sun, located 4.25 light-years away in the southern constellation of Centaurus. This object was discovered in 1915 by Robert T. A. Innes, Robert Innes. It is a small, low-mass st ...

, the closest star to the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...

. In 2018, a project involving Queen Mary researchers reached its goal of sequencing 100,000 whole genomes from

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

patients.

Discoveries

Queen Mary University of London released the AMIGOS dataset, which contains neuro-physiological data of individuals and can be utilized for scientific reasons, to investigate human emotions. The AMIGOS dataset has been used in hundreds of scientific studies on

signal processing Signal processing is an electrical engineering subfield that focuses on analyzing, modifying and synthesizing ''signals'', such as audio signal processing, sound, image processing, images, Scalar potential, potential fields, Seismic tomograph ...

Libraries

Queen Mary's main library is located on the Mile End campus where most subjects are represented. It also has two medical libraries in Whitechapel and West Smithfield. Usual opening hours are 8am to midnight. Since September 2017, the Mile End Library has been open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week during term time (including bank holidays). As members of a college of the

, students at Queen Mary have access to Senate House Library, shared by other colleges such as

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

and

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

, in addition to library access throughout most of the individual University of London colleges, subject to approval at the given University.

Partnerships

Queen Mary offers a joint degree programme with

Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

. The first of its kind to be approved by the PRC Ministry of Education, it is taught 50% by each institution in English, with staff from Queen Mary teaching part of the programme in Beijing. Students graduate with a dual Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering, meaning they receive two separate degrees, one from each university. The programmes are in Telecommunications and Management and Ecommerce Engineering and Law. More than 9,600 students have graduated from the programme in th
20 years it has been running
In 2020 Queen Mary-BUPT opened a new Joint Teaching and Learning Centre that promotes excellence in teaching and learning as well as best practices for Transnational Education. And in 2022 the QMUL-BUPT School Hainan was launched, bringing innovative teaching methodologies from the two universities to Hainan, China. Queen Mary collaborated with Royal Holloway to help run programmes at the University of London Institute in Paris (ULIP) which is a central academic body of the University of London located in Paris, France, enabling undergraduate and graduate students to study University of London ratified French Studies degrees in France. From September 2016, Queen Mary took over the functions provided by Royal Holloway and all students are now considered registered students of Queen Mary. Queen Mary provides academic guidance for the Global

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular ...

degree offered by the

's distance learning. Queen Mary is a founding partner in

, an academic health science centre located in London. Queen Mary joined UCLPartners in 2011.

Rankings and reputation

National

In the 2021

(REF), which assesses the quality of research in UK higher education institutions, Queen Mary is ranked 19th by GPA and 21st for research power (the grade point average score of a university, multiplied by the full-time equivalent number of researchers submitted). ''The Complete University Guide'' 2019 ranks Queen Mary 38th overall. Queen Mary students feature in the top 10 in the UK for graduate starting salaries, according to ''The Times and Sunday Times University League Table'' 2016.

International

''U.S. News & World Report'' 2022-23 ranked Queen Mary as 100th in the world. Similarly, ''

QS World University Rankings The ''QS World University Rankings'' is a portfolio of comparative college and university rankings compiled by Quacquarelli Symonds, a higher education analytics firm. Its first and earliest edition was published in collaboration with '' Times ...

'' 2022 ranked Queen Mary as 117th in the world. ''Times Higher Education World University Rankings'' 2021 ranked Queen Mary 110th in the world. ''Academic Ranking of World Universities'' 2020 ranks Queen Mary between 201 and 300 in the world. The university was ranked 51st in the world in the ''CWTS Leiden Ranking'' 2018. Queen Mary ranks 13th in the ''U.S. News & World Report'' Best Global Universities in the United Kingdom, and fifth in London. In ''Times Higher Education'' Best universities in the UK 2017, it has been ranked 15th. Queen Mary was ranked 11th in Europe in the ''CWTS Leiden Ranking'' 2016. The university was ranked 47th in the 2017 ''U.S. News & World Report'' Best Global Universities in Europe. 2017 ''Times Higher Education'' ranked Queen Mary equal 46th among European universities.

Subject specific

''The Guardian'' ranks Queen Mary in the ''University league tables 2017'' first for Media & Film Studies, second for Medicine in the UK, third in the UK for Dentistry, ninth for History in the UK, fifth for Law in the UK. In 2019, ''QS World Universities'' ranked both the schools of Law and English Literature and Language 32nd in the world, with the schools of Geography, History, Linguistics and Medicine all making top 100. The Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry has been ranked as the 15th best medical school in the UK by ''The Guardian''.

Admissions

In terms of average

UCAS The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS ) is a charity and private limited company based in Cheltenham, England, which provides educational support services. Formed on 27 July 1993 by the merger of the former university admis ...

points of entrants, Queen Mary ranked 32nd in Britain in 2014. The university gives offers of admission to 75.0% of its applicants, the 12th lowest among the

. According to the 2017 ''Times'' and ''Sunday Times'' Good University Guide, approximately 12% of Queen Mary's undergraduates come from independent schools. In the 2016–17 academic year, the university had a domicile breakdown of 68:10:22 of UK:EU:non-EU students respectively with a female to male ratio of 54:46.

Student life

Queen Mary Students' Union

Queen Mary Students' Union (QMSU) unites the various clubs and societies of Queen Mary. The union is based at the recently refurbished Students' Hub. The union mascot is a leopard called Mary. The Students' Union is led by 6 elected executive officers, with the President for 2025-26, being Diya Mary Selastin. The union has a sub-division to represent students studying at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, called Barts and The London Students' Association. ;SU facilities and publications # Qmotion (Gym/Fitness Centre) # Drapers Bar # Ground # The Learning Cafe # Infusion Shop # ''The Print'' (newspaper) # ''CUB'' (magazine) # Quest (radio) # Queen Mary Theatre Company # QMTV (television) # Students' Union Hub The Students' Union Hub replaces the previous office called the Blomley Centre. It is named after a former president and VP Education, Laura Blomeley, who completed her term in office with terminal cancer. In remembrance of her commitment to QMSU, two key rooms in the new Students' Union Hub have been named after her.

Sports

The Merger Cup is a series of annual sporting fixtures played between Queen Mary and Barts and The London (BL) sports clubs. The event has taken place since the merger of the two institutions in 1995. The results of a number of matches normally played on the same day are combined to determine the overall winner. Sporting fixtures include badminton, basketball, football, hockey, netball, rugby, squash, swimming, tennis and rowing. In recent times Queen Mary have won the cup in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. 2009 saw the cup return to the medical school with a 9–7 victory over Queen Mary, but a close 10–9 win brought it back to Queen Mary in 2010. In 2011, Barts and The London were Merger Cup winners. In 2012 QM won with a 15–7 defeat of BL, QM were also victorious in 2013. In 2014 Barts dominated 29–24, winning most major sports in the process. In 2016, Barts won against Queen Mary 67–37. The university has an alumni football club, Queen Mary College Old Boys FC, which was founded in 1989 and maintains close links with university. The club has three teams and competes in the Amateur Football Combination The club's 1st XI won four league titles in five seasons, including two league and London Old Boys Cup doubles

Student housing

Many Queen Mary students are accommodated in the college's own halls of residence or other accommodation; students are also eligible to apply for places in the

intercollegiate halls of residence, such as Connaught Hall. Most students in college or university accommodation are first-year

undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education, usually in a college or university. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, ...

s or international students. The majority of second and third-year students and

postgraduate Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor' ...

s find their own accommodation in the private sector.

Undergraduate

The college's Westfield Student Village, situated in the north-east corner of the Mile End Campus, has en-suite, self-catering housing for 1,195 students, staff and academic visitors in six contemporary buildings. A shop, laundrette, café bar, 200-seat restaurant and central reception (staffed 24 hours a day), and a communal area situated adjacent to the Regents canal, form part of the Village development. Rooms are arranged in flats and maisonettes housing between four and eleven students. Undergraduate student housing at Queen Mary includes: * Albert Stern House – Located next to Ifor Evans at the western end of the main Queen Mary campus. * Beaumont Court – Housing for 167 first year, associate and foundation students in maisonettes and flats. Located opposite Sir France House and adjacent to Creed Court. * Sir Christopher France House – Situated on the bank of the Regents canal, flats in this building have full en-suite facilities. * Creed Court – Housing for 124 postgraduate students in 10 maisonettes and 12 flats. Located opposite Sir France House and adjacent to Beaumont Court. * Ifor Evans – Located at the western end of the campus. * Lindop House – A residential development situated directly opposite the Queens' Building. Housing for 74 first year undergraduate, mostly medics, and foundation students in single rooms in 11 six-person flats and 2 four-person flats. * Maurice Court – containing 12 maisonettes and 18 flats for up to 173 first year students. Located at the rear of Creed and Beaumont Courts and very close to Mile End Hospital. * Maynard & Varey Houses – Two buildings housing 200 first year undergraduate, associate and foundation students. Situated in Westfield Way at the eastern end of the Mile End campus directly opposite the college's Chemistry and IT Resource Centre. * Pooley House – Located at the far end of the campus, providing housing for 378 first year, associate and foundation students in 48 flats. The largest building in the village development. * Richard Feilden House – Housing for 200 first year, associate and foundation students. The Curve, a 200-seat restaurant is situated on the ground floor. Opened in 2007, it is the newest dwelling in the Village and is situated opposite the Joseph Priestley Building.

Postgraduate

Postgraduate student housing at Queen Mary includes: * Chapman, Chesney and Selincourt – Four residences situated in Westfield Way, at the eastern end of the Mile End campus adjacent to the Regents Canal. 94 single en-suite rooms for final year undergraduate and new postgraduate students * Dawson Hall – Located near

Barbican tube station Barbican is a London Underground station situated near the Barbican Estate, on the edge of the Wards of the City of London, ward of Farringdon Within, City of London. It has been known by various names since its opening in 1865, mostly in refer ...

in the City of London and set around lawns and trees on the college's Charterhouse campus, close to St Bartholomew's Hospital. Provides single rooms for 207 medical and dental students and medical based postgraduates. * Floyer House – Houses 145 medical and dental students and medical based postgraduates, located close to The London Hospital and Dental Institute at the college's Whitechapel campus.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

Students from more than 170 nationalities attend Queen Mary, approximately 41% of them from overseas. According to ''The Times''' Good University Guide, in 2021–2, 77% of Queen Mary students came from a black or ethnic minority background; this is the highest proportion of any university in the

and in the top 5 of any UK institution of higher education. ''The Times'' also cites QM as having one of the narrowest (i.e. best) black achievement gaps among UK institutions. In 2008, in recognition of the institution's commitment to advancing gender equality and diversity, the university achieved an

Athena SWAN Athena SWAN (Scientific Women's Academic Network) is an equality charter mark framework and accreditation scheme established and managed by the UK Equality Challenge Unit (now part of Advance HE) in 2005 that recognises and celebrates good pra ...

bronze award. This was elevated to a silver award in 2017, and the accreditation was renewed in 2022. In 2019, Queen Mary's Diversity and Inclusion Manager resigned, citing a "tick-box mentality" to equality, diversity and inclusion, as well as a "toxic" working environment that prioritised accolades over meaningful improvement; the departing manager further declared that Queen Mary was "institutionally racist." Other academics have raised grievances regarding incidents of racism. In January 2020, a former lecturer who had brought the university to an employment tribunal for direct racial and gender discrimination and harassment as a continuing act had her case dismissed on the basis that the alleged incidents had occurred after statutory time limits had expired. Queen Mary's UCU branch established an anti-racism working group in 2020 to “focus attention on institutional racism at Queen Mary University of London, but also to address questions of equality and diversity within the Union itself.”

QMUL and Leopold II of Belgium

In 2016, the university authorities removed plaques commemorating two visits by

Leopold II of Belgium Leopold II (9 April 1835 – 17 December 1909) was the second king of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909, and the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908. Born in Brussels as the second but eldest-surviving son of King Leo ...

to the university site in 1887. Leopold, a cousin of

, had no links to Queen Mary other than a visit in April 1887 to Mile End and a subsequent visit in June 1887 to lay the foundation stone of the Octagon library, where the plaques were sited. The brutal and exploitative nature of Leopold's rule over the

Congo Free State The Congo Free State, also known as the Independent State of the Congo (), was a large Sovereign state, state and absolute monarchy in Central Africa from 1885 to 1908. It was privately owned by Leopold II of Belgium, King Leopold II, the const ...

between 1885 and 1908, and his commemoration at Queen Mary, came under renewed scrutiny as of institutional links with colonial repression were re-evaluated in the wake of the global attention paid to the Rhodes Must Fall campaign. However, the suitability of any commemoration of Leopold on university property had been raised as early as 2013. In June 2016, the university's Pan-African society launched a petition for the removal of the plaques that celebrated a “genocidal colonialist” and were offensive to students from ethnic minority backgrounds. The society argued that their removal would help those students feel more “welcome, respected and integrated”. By December 2016, the plaques had been removed from public view "as part of ongoing refurbishment work.” This attracted criticism from academics at other institutions who called the decision a "whitewashing" of history that "suggests a fear within the university authorities... of attracting negative attention."

UCU Strikes and Snitch Forms

In 2022, as part of ongoing national strikes by the University and College Union, more than 100 staff at Queen Mary University of London taking part in a national marking boycott were withheld 100% of their wages for 21 days. Several other universities had threatened to dock full pay for action short of a strike, however Queen Mary University of London was the only institution to follow through on the threat. This led to the university being branded the worst university employer in the UK. In the 2022/23 academic year, while strike action was continuing, the university continued to crack down and became the first university in the UK to implement a 'student snitch form'. Students were encouraged to report striking staff, with threats of docking 39 days pay for those who did not reschedule missed teaching. Several senior academics resigned from the university in response to this action, citing a lack of trust leading to unbearable working conditions. Throughout this process, students and staff were sent very different messages in email updates by principal Colin Bailey, leading to increased division within the university.

Notable people

Notable alumni

File:Student_photograph_of_Davidson_Nicol.jpg, Davidson Nicol, Former

Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations An under-secretary-general of the United Nations (USG) is a senior official within the United Nations System, normally appointed by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the secretary-general for a renewable term of four years. Under ...

File:Simon Case (cropped).jpg, Simon Case, 13th

Cabinet Secretary A cabinet secretary is usually a senior official (typically a civil servant) who provides services and advice to a cabinet of ministers as part of the Cabinet Office. In many countries, the position can have considerably wider functions and powe ...

File:Guðni Th. Jóhannesson (2017-03-30).jpg, Guðni Th. Jóhannesson, 6th

President of Iceland The president of Iceland () is the head of state of Iceland. The incumbent is Halla Tómasdóttir, who won the 2024 Icelandic presidential election, 2024 presidential election. The president is not involved in the running of the country, bu ...

File:Tigran Avinyan, May 2019.jpg, Tigran Avinyan, Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia File:Peter Caruana portrait.jpg, Peter Caruana, fifth

Chief Minister of Gibraltar The chief minister of Gibraltar is the head of Government of Gibraltar, His Majesty's Government of Gibraltar who is Elections in Gibraltar, elected by the Gibraltar Parliament, and formally appointed by the governor of Gibraltar, representat ...

File:Professor Peter Mathieson 2015.jpg, Peter Mathieson,

Vice-Chancellor A vice-chancellor (commonly called a VC) serves as the chief executive of a university in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Kenya, other Commonwealth of Nati ...

and Principal of the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

File:Official portrait of Lord Woolley of Woodford.jpg, Simon Woolley, Principal of Homerton College, Cambridge File:BaronessRoyallPortrait.jpg, Janet Royall, Principal of Somerville College, Oxford File:Nicholas Burns, U.S. Ambassador.jpg, Nicholas Burns, 13th United States Ambassador to China File:Peter Hain Ministerial portrait.jpg,

, former

Leader of the House of Commons The Leader of the House of Commons is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom whose main role is organising government business in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons. The Leader is always a memb ...

File:Jane Hill Downing Street reception 2011 cropped.jpg, Jane Hill,

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

presenter File:Jay Sean USC.jpg, Jay Sean, singer, songwriter, record producer File:Dr. Ibilola Amao photo.jpg, Ibilola Amao, engineer

Notable academics

File:Richard-owen2.jpg, Sir

Richard Owen Sir Richard Owen (20 July 1804 – 18 December 1892) was an English biologist, comparative anatomy, comparative anatomist and paleontology, palaeontologist. Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkabl ...

, British biologist, comparative anatomist and paleontologist File:Lorna Casselton (cropped).jpg, Lorna Casselton, British professor of genetics, Vice-President of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

. File:Official portrait of Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield crop 2, 2019.jpg, Lord Peter Hennessy, British contemporary and constitutional historian, author and broadcaster. File:Professor Miri Rubin.jpg, Miri Rubin, Israeli historian of early modern and medieval Europe, author. File:Tristram Hunt 2015.jpg, Tristram Hunt, British cultural historian, Labour MP, Director of the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Nobel laureates

To date, nine

have been either students, or academics, at Queen Mary and its historically preceding institutions.

Principals

To date, Queen Mary has had a total of 22 principals (11 of Westfield College, eight of Queen Mary College, and three since the merger of Queen Mary, Westfield, Barts, and The London). The current principal is Colin Bailey, a structural engineer, who became Principal in September 2017.

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links

*
Queen Mary Students' Union website
{{coords, 51.523, -0.04, display=title 1885 establishments in England Russell Group Universities and colleges established in 1885 Universities UK University of London