University of Birmingham

The university traces its roots to 1767 and the early medical education seminars of John Tomlinson, “First Surgeon” to the Birmingham Workhouse Infirmary.⁠[1]

Josiah Mason, an industrialist and philanthropist born in Kidderminster, founded Mason Science College in 1875.⁠[1]

In the 1870s the college’s trustees acquired land on Edmund Street in central Birmingham and commissioned Jethro Cossins to design the building. The foundation stone was laid on February 23, 1875, and the college opened to students in October 1880; after it opened, the trustees altered the foundation deed to allow a broader curriculum.⁠[2]

The college appointed a Principal in 1890, when its Academic Board became the Senate; in 1892 the medical faculty of Queen’s College transferred to Mason College.⁠[2]

Percy Frankland became Professor of Chemistry at Mason Science College in 1894 and remained at the university until he retired in 1919; the Frankland building, where chemistry was taught, is named after him.⁠[3]

In 1898 Mason College was incorporated by Act of Parliament, its trustees were replaced by a Court of Governors and it became Mason University College; Joseph Chamberlain’s proposal for an independent university was accepted the same year. The university notes that England’s only other independent universities at the time were in Oxford, Cambridge, Durham and London.⁠[2][1]

Queen Victoria granted the Royal Charter on March 24, 1900, and generous gifts of land and money made the university possible. Joseph Chamberlain became its first Chancellor; he wanted “a great school of universal instruction” where original research could be carried on under the best conditions.⁠[1]

The university describes itself as England’s first civic university, admitting students from all backgrounds on an equal basis. Mason College was absorbed into the University of Birmingham the same year.⁠[1][2]

The physicist Oliver Lodge was appointed Principal of the University of Birmingham in 1900 and served until 1919; he had been Professor of Physics at University College, LiverpoolUniversity of LiverpoolThe University of Liverpool is a research university in Liverpool, England. It grew out of University College, Liverpool, founded in 1881, became an independent university by royal charter in 1903 and is a founding member of the Russell Group.Open the full entry, from 1881, and his research included the development of wireless telegraphy.⁠[4]

In 1908 Lord Calthorpe gave twenty acres beside Bristol Road for playing fields; until then the Edgbaston campus had none, and teams used grounds elsewhere, including the Warwickshire County Cricket Club ground, which hosted the annual sports day until 1909.⁠[3]

On July 7, 1909, Chamberlain’s birthday, King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra officially opened the new university buildings at Edgbaston in a ceremony in the Great Hall; Chamberlain could not attend because of a severe stroke in 1906.⁠[3]

The red-brick buildings of Chancellor’s Court at Edgbaston, designed by Sir Aston Webb, surround the Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock, known as “Old Joe”. The tower is 325 ft (99.06 m) high and modelled on the Mangia Tower in Siena, Italy, and the university calls it the largest freestanding clock tower in the world.⁠[1][3]

The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, an Art Deco building designed by Robert Atkinson, was opened by Queen Mary in 1939 and is now Grade II listed.⁠[1]

In 1946 the university became the first to offer an undergraduate course in physical education.⁠[3]

The university appointed a computing lecturer in 1959, acquired its first mainframe computer in 1963 and made Computing Services a separate unit in 1965. An MSc in Computer Science began in the early 1970s and joint honours computing degrees followed from the mid-1970s; a combined Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science degree was introduced in 1994 and a single honours Computer Science degree in 2004.⁠[3]

The university was one of the 17 original members of the Russell Group, which was established in 1994.⁠[5][6]

In May 2014 the university named Lord Bilimoria as its new Chancellor, succeeding Sir Dominic Cadbury, who had held the post for 11 years and stepped down in December 2013; Bilimoria took up the role at an installation ceremony in July 2014.⁠[7]

Bilimoria was the university’s seventh Chancellor and the first Indian-born chancellor of a Russell Group university in Great Britain. During his tenure the university launched its India Institute in 2017/18, its Birmingham in Action fundraising programme, launched in 2019, raised nearly £400 million, and it received Queen’s Anniversary Prizes in 2018 and 2023.⁠[8]

The university announced plans for a Dubai campus in May 2017. In September 2018 its Phase One campus in Dubai International Academic City welcomed the first students; construction of Phase Two began in November 2019, the university moved into its purpose-built campus in January 2022, and the campus was officially opened in April 2022 in the presence of Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai. The first undergraduates received their degrees in July 2021 in an online ceremony.⁠[9]

As of July 2024 the Dubai campus had nearly 2,000 students from about 100 countries.⁠[8]

When Birmingham hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2022, the university turned its Vale student accommodation into an Athletes’ Village; twenty students and alumni competed, winning 12 medals. The university was also a main sponsor of the Games.⁠[3][8]

On June 25, 2021, the university named Adam Tickell as its next Vice-Chancellor and Principal. He took up the post in January 2022, succeeding Sir David Eastwood, who retired in December 2021. Tickell had been Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sussex for about five years and earlier held senior posts at Birmingham, including Provost and Vice-Principal.⁠[10][11]

The Molecular Sciences Building opened in 2024; the university’s longer-term plans are set out in its 2045 Campus Vision.⁠[3]

On July 1, 2024, the university announced alumna Sandie Okoro as its eighth Chancellor, succeeding Lord Bilimoria, who stepped down in July 2024; she is its first female Chancellor. Okoro studied Law and Politics at Birmingham, served as Senior Vice-President and General Counsel and Vice-President for Compliance at the World Bank Group, is Group General Counsel at Standard CharteredStandard CharteredStandard Chartered is an international banking group formed in 1969 through the merger of the Chartered Bank, founded in 1853, and the Standard Bank, founded in 1862; it is listed in London and Hong Kong and focuses mainly on markets in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.Open the full entry and was appointed OBE in the 2024 New Year Honours.⁠[12]

In the 2023/24 financial year the university’s income reached a record £945 million, including £456 million from tuition fees and £205 million in research income, the first time research income exceeded £200 million. The university indicated that income for 2024/25 would exceed £1 billion.⁠[13]

London Economics estimated, on 2021/22 data, that the university contributes £4.4 billion to the UK economy and supports nearly 20,000 full-time equivalent jobs.⁠[13][11]

2025 marked 125 years since the university received its Royal Charter. The Cadbury Research Library marked the anniversary with a digital exhibition of archival images covering research, teaching, campus, people and community, and a physical exhibition at the University of Birmingham Library scheduled to run from January 15 until the end of 2025.⁠[3]

As of November 2026 the university’s website states that its Edgbaston campus covers 672 acres and that more than 40,000 students study there each year.⁠[1]

The university is organised into five colleges: Arts and Law; Engineering and Physical Sciences; Life and Environmental Sciences; Medicine and Health; and Social Sciences.⁠[14]

The university developed pacemakers and plastic heart valves, synthesised the first artificial vitamin (vitamin C) and developed the cavity magnetron, which led to radar and the microwave oven. Its academics also pioneered allergy vaccines and ran the first clinical trials of the contraceptive pill outside the United States.⁠[1]

The university contributed to discoveries including the Higgs boson and gravitational waves, and it works in fields such as nanotechnology, gene therapy, robotics and the use of virtual reality in archaeology.⁠[1]

The university describes itself as the first to be built on a campus model with its own railway link to the city, the first to establish a Faculty of Commerce, the first to incorporate a medical school, the first to allow women to take medical degrees and the first to establish a fully comprehensive secondary school.⁠[1]

The university counts 10 Nobel laureates among its alumni and staff: Francis Aston, Sir Norman Haworth, Lord Robert Cecil, Sir Peter Medawar, Maurice Wilkins, Sir John Vane, Sir Paul Nurse, David Thouless, Mike Kosterlitz and Sir J. Fraser Stoddart. Its staff and alumni won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1922, 1937 and 2016.⁠[15][3]

University of Birmingham: Official website: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/ (opens in a new window).⁠[16]

X: Public account: https://x.com/unibirmingham (opens in a new window).⁠[16]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/school/university-of-birmingham/ (opens in a new window).⁠[16]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/unibirmingham (opens in a new window).⁠[16]