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

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

, 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 £384.6 million in 2023/24, of which £74.5 million was from research grants. The university is known for the invention of

genetic fingerprinting DNA profiling (also called DNA fingerprinting and genetic fingerprinting) is the process of determining an individual's deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) characteristics. DNA analysis intended to identify a species, rather than an individual, is cal ...

, and for partially funding the discovery and the DNA identification of the remains of

King Richard III Richard III (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485) was King of England from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the Plantagenet dynasty and its cadet branch the House of York. His defeat and death at the Battle of Boswor ...

in Leicester.

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

Owens College Owens may refer to: Places in the United States * Owens Station, Delaware * Owens Township, St. Louis County, Minnesota * Owens, Missouri * Owens, Ohio * Owens, Texas * Owens, Virginia People * Owens (surname), including a list of people with ...

in Manchester, and the establishment of the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

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-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

. 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 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 The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

before receiving medical training at

Guy's Hospital Guy's Hospital is an NHS hospital founded by philanthropist Thomas Guy in 1721, located 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 Kin ...

. 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 or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

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, 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 (from Old English ''Wurðestede'', "enclosure place"), a village in the English county of Norfolk. T ...

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 Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936. George w ...

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 Events January * January 1 ** The Nurses Registration Act 1901 comes into effect in New Zealand, making it the first country in the world to require state registration of nurses. On January 10, Ellen Dougherty becomes the world's ...

and

1918 The ceasefire that effectively ended the World War I, First World War took place on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of this year. Also in this year, the Spanish flu pandemic killed 50–100 million people wor ...

, 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 (HMC) is a constituent college 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 the un ...

. 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, who was the father of

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

and

Richard Attenborough Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough (; 29 August 192324 August 2014) was an English actor, film director, and Film producer, producer. Attenborough was the president of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and the British Acade ...

. 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, but ...

, 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 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

on 9 May 1958. Leicester University won the first ever series of ''

University Challenge ''University Challenge'' is a British television quiz programme which first aired in 1962. ''University Challenge'' aired for 913 episodes on ITV from 21 September 1962 to 31 December 1987, presented by quizmaster Bamber Gascoigne. The BBC ...

'', 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 The Queen Elizabeth Prizes for Education (formerly Queen's Anniversary Prizes) are a biennially awarded series of prizes awarded to universities and colleges in the further and higher education sectors within the United Kingdom. Uniquely it forms ...

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 The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) is a United Kingdom government agency that carries out research in science and engineering, and funds UK research in areas including particle physics, nuclear physics, space science and astr ...

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 1452 – 22 August 1485) was King of England from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the Plantagenet dynasty and its cadet branch the House of York. His defeat and death at the Battle of Boswor ...

, 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 Sir George Yeardley () was a Planter class, planter and colonial governor of the colony of Virginia. He was also among the first slaveowners in Colonial history of the United States, Colonial America. A survivor of the Virginia Company of London's ...

, 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, and the first elected legislative assembly in the New World. It was established on July 30, ...

. 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

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 ...

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 Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College () is a sixth form college, located in Leicester, England. The college is led by Paul Wilson who was appointed the eighth principal in March 2018. The college merged with the nearby Regent College in 2018 ...

. 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 Walle ...

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, Leicester Law School (including the original university library Harry Peach Law Library, the Legal Advice Clinic, moot court), and the university's council chambers. The south wing of this building includes the university's Accessibility service for disabled students and access to the Peter Williams lecture theatre and Ogden Lewis Seminar Suite in the lower storeys of the David Wilson main library building.

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 James Gowan (18 October 1923 – 12 June 2015) was a Scottish-born architect known for his post-modernist designs of the "engineering style" which influenced a generation of British architects. Life Gowan was born in Pollokshields, Glasgow in ...

. 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 Criminology 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 part of the School of Computing and Mathematical Science, the School of Modern Languages and learning spaces shared by a variety of the university's schools. 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 Edgar Douglas Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian (30 November 1889 – 4 August 1977) was an English electrophysiologist and recipient of the 1932 Nobel Prize for Physiology, won jointly with Sir Charles Sherrington for work on the function of neuron ...

the first chancellor of the university (1957–1971). The Charles Wilson Building was designed by Denys Lasdun and completed in 1967. It's distinctive brutalist silhouette created by the additional upper storeys and related structures have led to it being likened to the Transformer

Optimus Prime Optimus Prime, also known in Japan as is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the ''Transformers'' franchise. Generally depicted as a brave and noble leader, Optimus Prime is the supreme commander of the Autobots in their fight ag ...

by local residents and alumni. Along London road is the Brookfield campus home to the College of Business (previously known as the University of Leicester School of Business or ULSB) 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 is the School of Education. On Lancaster Road there is the Attenborough Arts Centre, the university's arts center. Leicester's halls of residence are noteworthy: many of the halls (nearly all located in

Oadby Oadby is a town in the borough of Oadby and Wigston in Leicestershire, England. Oadby is a district centre south-east of Leicester on the A6 road (England), A6 road. Leicester Racecourse is situated on the border between Oadby and Stoneygate. ...

) date from the early 1900s and were the homes of Leicester's wealthy industrialists. Accommodation on campus is at Freemen's Common and Nixon Court. Image:Leicester University Engineering Building.jpg, The Engineering Building, designed by James Stirling,

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, a ...

Image:Physics and astronomy building, University of Leicester.jpg, The Physics and Astronomy Building, part of a larger complex by

Leslie Martin Sir John Leslie Martin (17 August 1908, in Manchester – 28 July 2000) was an English architect, and a leading advocate of the International Style. Martin's most famous building is the Royal Festival Hall. His work was especially influenced ...

Image:Leicester University analemma sundial.jpg, ''Eye of Time''

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

Image:Jewry Wall ruins panorama 3.jpg, Vaughan College, the university's former adult education college, is

Grade II 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, Hi ...

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 (Ro ...

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. Nixon Court was extended and refurbished in 2011. In the early 2020s the Freemen's Common accommodation was demolished, replaced with new accommodation named known collectively as both Freemen's Common and Freemen's, a multi-storey carpark and the Sir Bob Burgess Building, a building with learning facilities and offices that is shared across multiple departments of the university.

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 Leicester Medical School is a medical school in Leicester, England. It is a part of the University of Leicester. The school was founded in 1975, although between 2000 and 2007 it was part of the joint Leicester-Warwick Medical School. As of 2021 ...

* 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 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 ...

, 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 * Computing and Mathematical Sciences * 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 A Master of Physics honours (or MPhys (Hons)) degree is a specific master's degree for courses in the field of physics. United Kingdom In England and Wales, the MPhys is an undergraduate award available after pursuing a four-year course of study a ...

(four-year) degree courses, and over 70 postgraduate students registered for a higher degree.Study Physics
University of Leicester The main Physics building is the primary base for two research groups — Planetary Science and Astrophysics – as well as centres for

supercomputing A supercomputer is a type of computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instruc ...

microscopy Microscopy is the technical field of using microscopes to view subjects too small to 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 microscopy: optical mic ...

Gamma Gamma (; uppercase , lowercase ; ) 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 normally repr ...

and

X-ray astronomy X-ray astronomy is an observational branch of astronomy which deals with the study of X-ray observation and detection from astronomical objects. X-radiation is absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere, so instruments to detect X-rays must be taken to ...

, and the

Swift Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to: * SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks ** SWIFT code * Swift (programming language) * Swift (bird), a family of birds It may also refer to: Organizations * SWIF ...

UK Data Centre.

Space Park Leicester Space Park Leicester is a research, innovation and teaching hub in England for space-related high-tech companies and researchers focussing primarily on research, development and applications of space. It is located in Belgrave, Leicester next t ...

, officially opened in 2022, is the main home of the Earth Observation Science and Space Projects and Instrumentation groups. 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 The National Space Centre is a museum and educational resource covering the fields of space science and astronomy, along with a space research programme in partnership with the University of Leicester. It is located on the north side of the city ...

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. Having taught at the University of Sheffield and the Univ ...

. 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 The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

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

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 first ...

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 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 wit ...

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 Media Archive for Central England (MACE) is the public sector regional film archive that collects, preserves and provides access to film, television and other moving image materials that relate to the governmental regions of the East Midlands and We ...

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 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 in the UK at 374 points. 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 The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (usually referred to simply as the Quality Assurance Agency or QAA) is the United Kingdom higher education sector's independent expert quality body. It has a remit to maintain and enhance the qu ...

– 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 undergra ...

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

Rankings and reputation

The university was named University of the Year in 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 Three national rankings of universities in the United Kingdom are published annually by the ''Complete University Guide'' and ''The Guardian'', as well as a collaborative list by ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times''. Rankings have also been pro ...

'' and ''The Guardian''. In 2017, the university ranked 25th in ''The Sunday Times Good University Guide.''

Research

The university has research groups in the areas of astrophysics, biochemistry and genetics. The techniques used in

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. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

Lander

Beagle 2 The ''Beagle 2'' was 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 M ...

, which was built in collaboration with the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a 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 undergraduate ...

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

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...

's General

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

– that

black holes A black hole is a massive, compact astronomical object so dense that its gravity prevents anything from escaping, even light. Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will form a black hole. Th ...

exist and are common in the

universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents. It comprises all of existence, any fundamental interaction, physical process and physical constant, and therefore all forms of matter and energy, and the structures they form, from s ...

. It is a founding partner of the £52 million

. Leicester is one of a small number of universities to have won the prestigious

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 Instructional materials, teaching, learning, and research materials intentionally created and Free license, licensed to be free for the end user to own, share, and in most cases, modify. The term "OER" descr ...

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 The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

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 ...

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.

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 murder in 1967 committed by his partner, was short but highly i ...

(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 Laura Riding Jackson (born Laura Reichenthal; January 16, 1901 – September 2, 1991), best known as Laura Riding, was an American poet, critic, novelist, essayist and short story writer. Early life and education She was born in New York Ci ...

(1901–1991). * The Sue Townsend Collection. The personal papers of

Sue Townsend Susan Lillian Townsend (; 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 in secret from the a ...

(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 a British charity, founded in 1986 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and comedian Sir Lenny Henry in response to the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. The concept of Comic Relief was to get British comedians to make t ...

. 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 Bon ...

. Galaxy Radio has broadcast live the annual

varsity match A varsity match in Britain and Ireland is a fixture, especially of a sporting event or team, between university teams, usually the highest-level team, or varsity team, in that sport. The University Match in cricket between Oxford University an ...

against

De Montfort University De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) is a public university in the city of Leicester, England. It was established in accordance with the Further and Higher Education Act 1992, Further and Higher Education Act in 1992 as a degree awarding body ...

for both football from the

King Power Stadium King Power Stadium is a football stadium in the city of Leicester, East Midlands, England, and the home of Leicester City. The stadium opened in 2002 as the Walkers Stadium and has a capacity of 32,259. The club attracted worldwide attenti ...

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 between ...

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'', ''Ino ...

, chemist File:Sir Liam Donaldson.jpg, Sir

Liam Donaldson Sir Liam Joseph Donaldson (born 3 May 1949) is a British physician. 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 Ki ...

, medical doctor and university chancellor File:Natalie_Bennett-IMG_4086.jpg,

Natalie Bennett Natalie Louise Bennett, Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (born 10 February 1966), is an Australian-British politician and journalist who was the leader of the Green Party of England and Wales from 2012 to 2016. Bennett was given a peerage in ...

, 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 Commit ...

, MP File:Bob Mortimer in Middlesbrough in 2010.jpg,

Bob Mortimer Robert Renwick Mortimer (born 23 May 1959) is an English comedian, author, television presenter, writer and actor. He is one half of the comedy double act Reeves and Mortimer with Jim Moir, Vic Reeves, and appears in the ''Mortimer & Whitehouse ...

, comedian Notable academics from the university include;

, prominent sociologist who taught

social psychology Social psychology is the methodical study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. Although studying many of the same substantive topics as its counterpart in the field ...

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

, Jeffrey A. Hoffman, NASA astronaut and physicist, Sir

, inventor of

;

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'' (194 ...

, 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 Astro ...

, visiting professor at Leicester.

Jeremy Howick Jeremy Howick is a Canadian-born, British residing clinical epidemiologist and philosopher of science. He researches evidence-based medicine, clinical empathy and the philosophy of medicine, including the use of placebos in clinical practice a ...

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 is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

''; Sir

, Chief Medical Officer Alumni in politics and government include

, former leader of the

Green Party of England and Wales The Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW; ), often known simply as the Green Party or the Greens, is a Green politics, green, Left-wing politics, left-wing political party in England and Wales. Since October 2021, Carla Denyer and Adrian Ram ...

;

Atifete Jahjaga Atifete Jahjaga (; born 20 April 1975) is a Kosovar Albanian politician who served as the third President of Kosovo. She was the first female President of Kosovo, the first non-partisan candidate to hold the office, and the youngest female he ...

President of Kosovo The President of Kosovo (; ), officially the President of the Republic of Kosovo (; ), is the head of state of Kosovo. The president is elected indirectly by the parliament through a secret ballot, requiring a two-thirds majority of deputies in ...

;

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 board director and trustee and 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. Backgroun ...

, President,

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

2010–11;

Peter Bedford (politician) Peter Alexander Bedford (born 3 February 1986) is a British Conservative Party politician who has been Member of Parliament for Mid Leicestershire since 2024. Early life and career Bedford studied law at the University of Leicester. After gr ...

Member of Parliament for Mid Leicestershire;

Jen Craft Jennifer Craft (born ) is a British Labour Party politician and former civil servant who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Thurrock since 2024. Early life and career Craft was born in 1985 or 1986 at Orsett Hospital in Orsett, Thur ...

Member of Parliament for Thurrock. 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 wit ...

, author;

Pete McCarthy Peter Charles McCarthy Robinson (9 November 1951 – 6 October 2004) was an Anglo-Irish 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 McCa ...

, writer, broadcaster, comedian;

, comedian; Bob Parr MBE, multi

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

-winning television producer;

C. P. Snow Charles Percy Snow, Baron Snow (15 October 1905 – 1 July 1980) was an English novelist and physical chemist who also served in several important positions in the British Civil Service and briefly in the UK government.''The Columbia Encyclop ...

, author;

John Sutherland John Sutherland may refer to: Politicians * John Sutherland (New South Wales politician) (1816–1889), member of the NSW Legislative Assembly and Council * John Sutherland (Canadian senator) (1821–1899), Canadian Senator from Manitoba * John Su ...

, Guardian Columnist, Emeritus Professor of English Literature,

; author, television presenter and archaeologist John-Henry Phillips.

The Attenboroughs

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

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

and

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

(with their younger brother John) spent their childhood in College House, which is now home to part of the Engineering 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 Frederick Attenborough 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 Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...

before attending the

Royal Academy of Dramatic Art The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, also known by its abbreviation RADA (), is a drama school in London, England, which provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in Bloomsbury, Central London ...

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 Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William, ...

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

References

External links

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