University of Birmingham

The University of Birmingham is the oldest of three universities in the English city of Birmingham. It was founded in 1900 as a successor to Mason Science College, and is thus the earliest of the "Redbrick" universities. A major research-led institution, it currently has nearly 17,000 undergraduate and 7,000 postgraduate students.

Other items of interest

The University:

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• is one of the top five most popular universities in the UK.
• ranks in the top 100 in the world, according to the Times Higher Education Supplement of October 2004.
• was the first civic university in England.
• was the first 'campus' university in England.
• is a member of the Russell Group of Universities and a founder member of Universitas 21.
• is home to the Barber Institute of Fine Arts.
• produces more medical doctors than any other university in Britain.
• has the oldest business school in England.
• had the first commoner in 240 years, Joseph Chamberlain, to hold the post of Chancellor of a British University, and the first such chancellor ever not to have been a member of the Established Church.
• has a Botanic Garden; a 24,000 square metre Edwardian Arts and Crafts style garden on the University's Edgbaston campus.
• was where the Frisch-Peierls memorandum, a 1940 document which demonstrated that the atomic bomb was more than simply theoretically possible, was written.
• is the only university in Britain with its own train station. University (Birmingham) railway station, situated on the main campus, is on the Cross-City Line.