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Manchester University

The University of Manchester Information & History...

The University of Manchester began its illustrious academic history way back in 1824, at a time when the city itself was emerging as one of the world’s foremost capitals of industry. At this time chemist John Dalton along with likeminded industrialists and businessmen founded the Mechanics Institute (later known as UMIST), in order to provide basic scientific study in science, chemistry and qualifications for their workers.

By 1851 the Owens College was formed, with a donation left by textile merchant John Owens, who had requested the funds be used to provide a college of non-sectarian education. In 1880, the college became a constituent college for the federal Victoria University. In the same year, the Royal Charter was granted and England’s first civic university was born. 1903 saw the renaming of the institution as Victoria University of Manchester.

Over the next two years, both institutions were firmly established in the community as local centres for excellence, in teaching and learning. The Mechanics Institute and the Victoria University of Manchester worked alongside each other, up until 1905 when the Mechanics Institute officially became the Faculty of Technology of the Victoria University of Manchester

It was not until 1955 that the Technical College, now known as the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, (UMIST) was awarded the status of an Independent University. However, in keeping with the visionary ideals of their founding benefactors, both institutions worked alongside each other for over one hundred years. It was only as recently as 22 October 2004 that the two universities finally merged to form a single institution, which is today known as the University of Manchester. It was at this time that Queen Elizabeth awarded the Royal Charter to the University of Manchester in its modern form.

Throughout its prestigious history the university can lay claim to over 23 Nobel Prize winners have emerged from its staff and student body. A wealth of prominent and significant discoveries, innovations, and research can be credited to the university. Ernest Rutherford initiated early research resulted in the splitting of the atom and the birth of the nuclear age. In June 1948, Tom Kilburn and Sir Freddie Williams created a machine (affectionately named as “The Baby”) which ran the first stored computer programme, thus preparing the ground for today’s computers. Modern Economics can also be traced back to economist W S Jevons and his work at the University.

Today the university provides over five hundred courses of study to over forty thousand students, with a staff of more than ten thousand. It is internationally recognised and acclaimed as a centre for academic excellence and one of the original ‘red brick’ universities in England and also a member of the ‘Russell Group’ of universities, which receive two-thirds of all universities' research grants and contract funding in the United Kingdom. True to its pioneering ethos of leading the way in academic brilliance and learning opportunities, the University of Manchester is both an historical and modern distinguished seat of learning in the United Kingdom.

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