University of London

The University of London, founded on February 28, 1836, is one of the world's largest universities, having between 10 to 20 percent of all UK students attending one of its colleges.

Having started out as just UCL and King's it has grown to having over 15 colleges, many of which are major institutions in their own right.

The University is made up of colleges and institutes. Under English law, some of these are Recognised Bodies that can grant University of London degrees (the same status as institutes that have their own degree-awarding powers), while others are Listed Bodies that provide courses leading to degrees of the University of London (the same status as the constitutent institutions of the University of Wales and the colleges of Oxford, Cambridge, and Durham.

The colleges and institutes of the University are, as of October 2003:

• Recognised Bodies:
  • Birkbeck, University of London
  • Goldsmiths College
  • Heythrop College
  • Imperial College London, incorporating Imperial College at Wye
  • Institute of Education
  • King's College London (KCL), incorporating the Institute of Psychiatry and The Guy's, King's and St Thomas' School of Medicine
  • London Business School
  • London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
  • London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
  • Queen Mary, incorporating St Bartholomew's and the Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry
  • Royal Academy of Music
  • Royal Holloway
  • Royal Veterinary College
  • School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), incorporating the London School of Jewish Studies
  • School of Pharmacy
  • University College London (UCL), incorporating the Eastman Dental Institute, the Institute of Child Health, the Institute of Neurology, the Institute of Ophthalmology, the Royal Free and University College Medical School, the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, and the Slade School of Fine Art
  • St George's Hospital Medical School

• Listed Bodies:
  • British Institute in Paris
  • Courtauld Institute of Art
  • School of Advanced Study comprising the following institutes:
    • Institute of Advanced Legal Studies
    • Institute of Classical Studies
    • Institute of Commonwealth Studies
    • Institute of English Studies (including the Centre for Manuscript and Print Studies),
    • Institute of Germanic Studies
    • Institute of Historical Research
    • Institute of Latin American Studies
    • Institute of Romance Studies
    • Institute of United States Studies
    • The Warburg Institute
  • University Marine Biological Station, Millport
  • Institute of Cancer Research (an Associated Institute, not an Institute of the University)

Notable persons who attended the University include:

• Akbar S. Ahmed
• Alexander Graham Bell
• Raymond Briggs
• Robert Browning
• G.K. Chesterton
• Arthur C. Clarke
• Coldplay members Chris Martin, William Champion, and Johnny Buckland
• Alex Comfort
• Francis Crick
• Ambrose Fleming
• Mohandas Gandhi
• Chaim Herzog
• Charles Kao
• Jomo Kenyatta
• Junichiro Koizumi
• Joseph Lister
• Brian May
• Marie Stopes
• Desmond Tutu