University of Manchester

The University of Manchester in Manchester, England is a university that was formed from the merger of the Victoria University of Manchester (commonly known as the University of Manchester before the merger) and UMIST (University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology) on 1 October 2004. The university was officially launched on 22 October 2004 when Her Majesty the Queen handed over the Royal Charter.

History of the University

The combined university can trace its origins back to 1824 when the Manchester Mechanics' Institute (which later became UMIST) was founded, with Victoria University being founded as Owens College in 1851. The new university is the largest single-site university in the UK, and has more academic subjects and departments than any other British University. The President and Vice-Chancellor of the new University is Alan Gilbert, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne. One of the stated ambitions of the newly combined university is to 'establish it by 2015 among the 25 strongest research universities in the world on commonly accepted criteria of research excellence and performance' (see 2015 Strategy).

Related Topics:
1824 - 1851 - Vice-Chancellor - Alan Gilbert - University of Melbourne - 2015

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The combined university counts 23 Nobel Prize winners amongst its former students. It has traditionally been particularly strong in the sciences, with the nuclear nature of the atom being discovered at Manchester, and the world's first programmable electronic computer coming into being here. Famous scientists associated with the university include Niels Bohr, Ernest Rutherford and Alan Turing. However, the university has also contributed in many other fields, and the mathematician Paul Erdős, the author Anthony Burgess, the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, the architect Norman Foster and the composer Peter Maxwell Davies all attended Manchester. Well-known figures among the current academic staff include literary critic Terry Eagleton and composer John Casken

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Nobel Prize - Niels Bohr - Ernest Rutherford - Alan Turing - Paul Erdős - Anthony Burgess - Ludwig Wittgenstein - Norman Foster - Peter Maxwell Davies - Terry Eagleton - John Casken

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Origins

The University's history is closely linked to Manchester's emergence as the world's first industrial city. John Dalton together with Manchester businessmen and industrialists established the Mechanics' Institute in 1824 to ensure that workers could learn the basic principles of science. Similarly, John Owens, a Manchester textile merchant, left a bequest of £96,942 in 1851 for the purpose of founding a college for the education of males on non-sectarian lines. Owens College was established and granted a Royal Charter in 1880 to become England's first civic university.

Related Topics:
John Dalton - Mechanics' Institute - 1824 - John Owens - 1851 - 1880

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By 1905 the two institutions were a large and active force in the area, with the Mechanics' Institute, the forerunner of the modern UMIST, forming a Faculty of Technology and working alongside the Victoria University of Manchester. This relationship worked to the advantage of all, not least the many students who received a first class education and the employers who benefitted from the knowledge and skills imparted by the two institutions.

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