Imperial College London

Imperial College London is a college of the University of London which focuses on science and technology, and is located in the South Kensington district of West London. Although properly titled Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, since 2002 the college has adopted the style Imperial College London and prefers simply Imperial for short.

History

The Imperial College was founded in 1907, upon the merger of the City and Guilds of London Institute, the Royal School of Mines and the Royal College of Science, although these entities continued as Constituent Colleges. It was granted a Royal Charter in July 1907. The expansion of the South Kensington campus in the 1960s absorbed the site of the former Imperial Institute, designed by Thomas Colcutt, of which only the 287-foot (85-metre) high Queen's Tower remains amongst the more modern buildings.

Related Topics:
1907 - City and Guilds of London Institute - Royal School of Mines - Royal College of Science - Royal Charter - 1960s - Imperial Institute - Thomas Colcutt - Queen's Tower

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In later years, St. Mary's Hospital Medical school (1988), the National Heart and Lung institute (1995), Charing Cross and Westminster schools (1997) merged into the Imperial College School of Medicine, the fourth Constituent College. In 1997, the size of the Medical School was increased with the merger of Royal Postgraduate Medical School, and the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. In 2000, a merger with the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology expanded it even further.

Related Topics:
St. Mary's Hospital - 1988 - National Heart and Lung institute - 1995 - 1997 - Imperial College School of Medicine

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Also in 2000, Imperial merged with Wye College, which at that time had a much lesser reputation than Imperial. A number of voices have opined that the merger may have been due to Imperial's wish to obtain the significant amount of land owned by Wye College rather than for academic reasons; similarly there have been suggestions that Wye College accepted the merger because it was in financial difficulties. Neither of these rumours can be confirmed.

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In 2002, the constituent colleges were finally abolished in favour of a new faculty structure.

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Imperial has often conducted joint ventures with the London School of Economics. Despite rumours, however, there has been no significant progress towards any merger.

Related Topics:
Joint venture - London School of Economics

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The college is a member of the Russell Group of Universities, AMBA, and is one of the four members of the IDEA League.

Related Topics:
Russell Group of Universities - AMBA - IDEA League

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