Queen Mary University of London

People's Palace

The predecessor to Queen Mary College was founded in the mid Victorian era as a People's Palace when growing awareness of conditions in London's East End led to drives to provide facilities for local inhabitants, popularised in the 1882 novel All Sorts of Conditions of Men – An Impossible Story by Walter Besant, which told of how a rich and clever couple from Mayfair went to the East End to build a "Palace of Delight, with concert halls, reading rooms, picture galleries, art and designing schools."^:15-17 Although not directly responsible for the conception of the People's Palace, the novel did much to popularise it.

The trustees of the Beaumont Trust, administering funds left by Barber Beaumont, purchased the site of the former Bancroft's School from the Drapers' Company. On 20 May 1885 the Drapers' Court of Assistants resolved to grant £20,000 "for the provision of the technical schools of the People's Palace."^:21 The foundation stone was laid on 28 June 1886 and on 14 May 1887 Queen Victoria opened the palace's Queen's Hall as well as laying the foundation stone for the technical schools in the palace's east wing.

The technical schools were opened on 5 October 1888, with the entire palace completed by 1892. However others saw the technical schools as one day becoming a technical university for the East End.^:37 In 1892 the Drapers' Company provided £7,000 a year for ten years to guarantee the educational side income.

East London College

In 1895 John Leigh Smeathman Hatton, Director of Evening Classes (1892–1896; later Director of Studies 1896–1908 and Principal 1908–1933), proposed introducing a course of study leading to the Bachelor of Science degree of the University of London. By the start of the 20th century the first degrees were awarded and Hatton, along with several other Professors, were recognised as Teachers of the University of London. In 1906 an application for Parliamentary funds "for the aid of Educational Institutions engaged in work of a University nature", led to the College being admitted on an initial three-year trial basis as a School of the University of London on 15 May 1907 as East London College.

Teaching of aeronautical engineering began in 1907 which led to the first UK aeronautical engineering department being established in 1909 which boasted a ground-breaking wind tunnel. Thus creating the oldest Aeronautical Programme in the World.

In 1910 the College's status in the University of London was extended for a further five years, with unlimited membership achieved in May 1915. During this period the organisation of the governors of the People's Palace was rearranged, creating the separate People's Palace Committee and East London College Committee, both under the Palace Governors, as a sign of the growing separation of the two concepts within a single complex.^:39–48

During the First World War the College admitted students from the London Hospital Medical College who were preparing for the preliminary medical examination, the first step in a long process that would eventually bring the two institutions together. After the war, the College grew, albeit constrained by the rest of the People's Palace to the west and a burial ground immediately to the east. In 1920 it obtained both the Palace's Rotunda (now the Octagon) and rooms under the winter gardens at the west of the palace, which became chemical laboratories. The College's status was also unique, being the only School of the University of London that was subject to both the Charity Commissioners and the Board of Education.

In April 1929 the College Council decided it would take the steps towards applying to the Privy Council for a Royal Charter, but on the advice of the Drapers' Company first devised a scheme for development and expansion, which recommended amongst other things to reamalgamate the People's Palace and the College, with guaranteed provision of the Queen's Hall for recreational purposes, offering at least freedom of governance if not in space.^:49–57

Queen Mary College

In the early hours of 25 February 1931 a fire destroyed the Queen's Hall, though both the College and the winter gardens escaped. In the coming days discussions on reconstruction led to the proposal that the entire site be transferred to the College which would then apply for a Charter alone. The Drapers' Company obtained St Helen's Terrace, a row of six houses neighbouring the site, and in July 1931 it was agreed to give these over to the People's Palace for a new site adjacent to the old, which would now become entirely the domain of the College. Separation was now achieved. The Charter was now pursued, but the Academic Board asked for a name change, feeling that "east London" carried unfortunate associations that would hinder the College and its graduates. With the initial proposed name, "Queen's College", having already been taken by The Queen's College, Oxford and "Victoria College" felt to be unoriginal, "Queen Mary College" was settled on. The Charter of Incorporation was presented on 12 December 1934 by Queen Mary herself.^:57–62

Under the Charter

During the Second World War the College was evacuated to Cambridge, where it shared with King's College. After the war the College returned to London, facing many of the same problems but with prospects for westward expansion.^:75–85 The East End had suffered considerable bomb damage (although the College itself had incurred little) and consequently several areas of land near to the College site now became vacant. New buildings for physics, engineering, biology and chemistry were built on the new sites, whilst the arts took over the space vacated in the original building, now renamed the Queens' Building.

Limited accommodation resulted in the acquisition of further land in South Woodford (now directly connected to Mile End tube station by means of the Central line's eastward extension), upon which tower blocks were established. The College also obtained the Co-operative Wholesale Society's clothing factory on the Mile End Road which was converted into a building for the Faculty of Laws (and some other teaching), as well as the former headquarters of Spratt's Patent Ltd (operators of the "largest dog biscuit factory in the world" – see Spratt's Complex) at 41–47 Bow Road, which was converted into a building for the Faculty of Economics founded by Maurice Peston, Baron Peston. Both faculties were physically separated from what was now a campus to the west.^:86–102

From the mid-1960s until the mid-1980s the College proposed to link with the London Hospital Medical College and St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College with a joint facility in Mile End. A further link with both The London and St. Bartholomew's was made in 1974 when an anonymous donor provided for the establishment of a further hall of residence in Woodford, to be divided equally between Queen Mary College students and the two medical colleges.^:103–117

At the start of the 1980s changing demographics and finances led to a reorganisation of the University of London. At Queen Mary some subjects, such as Russian and Classics were discontinued, whilst the College became one of five in the University with a concentration of laboratory sciences, including the transfer of science departments from Westfield College, Chelsea College, Queen Elizabeth College and Bedford College.^:117–130

1989 to 2010

In 1989 Queen Mary College (informally known as QMC) merged with Westfield College to form Queen Mary & Westfield College (often abbreviated to QMW). Over subsequent years, activities were concentrated on the Queen Mary site, with the Westfield site eventually sold.

In 1990, the London Hospital was renamed the Royal London Hospital, after marking its 250th year, and a reorganisation of medical education within the University of London resulted in most of the freestanding medical schools being merged with existing large colleges to form multi-faculty institutions. In 1995 the London Hospital Medical College and St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College merged into Queen Mary & Westfield College to form the entity now named Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry.

In 2000 the college changed its name for general public use to Queen Mary, University of London; in 2013, the college legally changed its name to Queen Mary University of London. The VISTA telescope is a 4-metre class wide-field telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile that was conceived and developed by Queen Mary University, costing approximately £36m.

The Westfield Student Village opened in 2004 on the Mile End Campus, bringing over 2,000 rooms to students and a huge array of facilities, restaurants, and cafes.

The Blizard Building, home to the Medical School's Institute of Cell and Molecular Science opened at the Whitechapel campus in 2005. The award-winning building was designed by Will Alsop, and is named after William Blizard, an English surgeon and founder of the London Hospital Medical College in 1785.

The year 2006 saw the refurbishment of The Octagon, the original library of the People's Palace dating back to 1888.

In 2007 parts of the School of Law – postgraduate facilities and the Centre for Commercial Law Studies – moved to premises in Lincoln's Inn Fields in central London. The Women at Queen Mary Exhibition was staged in the Octagon, marking 125 years of Westfield College and 120 years of Queen Mary College.

In September 2009, the world's first science education centre located within a working research laboratory opened at the Blizard Institute of Cell and Molecular Science, hoping to inspire children with school tours and interactive games and puzzles.

2010 to present

Queen Mary became one of the few university-level institutions to implement a requirement of the A* grade at A-Level after its introduction in 2010 on some of their most popular courses, such as Engineering, Law, and Medicine.

Following on from the 2010 UK student protests, Queen Mary set fees of £9,000 per year for September 2012 entry, while also offering bursaries and scholarships.

On 12 March 2012 it was announced that Queen Mary would be joining the Russell Group in August 2012. Later in March, Queen Mary and the University of Warwick announced the creation of a strategic partnership, including research collaboration, joint teaching of English, history and computer science undergraduates, and the creation of eight joint post-doctoral research fellowships.

In January 2013, Queen Mary established the world's first professorial chair in animal replacement science.

From 2014, Queen Mary began awarding its own degrees, rather than those of the University of London.

Campus

The main Mile End campus contains the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Faculty of Science and Engineering, the Queens' Building/People's Palace/Octagon, the main college library, the student union, Draper's bar and club, several restaurants, a number of halls of residences and a gym. The educational and research sites of the Arts Research Centre, Computer Science, the large Engineering building, G.E. Fogg Building, Francis Bancroft Building, G. O. Jones Building, Joseph Priestley Building, Lock-keeper's Graduate Centre, and the Mathematical Science Building, are all located within the Mile End campus.

The Whitechapel campus encompasses Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, the Whitechapel Medical Library, the award winning Blizard Institute of Cell and Molecular Science, and the Royal London Hospital.

The West Smithfield campus of Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, the West Smithfield Medical Library, the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, the John Vane Science Centre, the Heart Centre and St Bartholomew's Hospital are based in Smithfield.

The Centre for Commercial Law Studies and LLM teaching and postgraduate law research activities are based in Lincoln's Inn Fields in Holborn.

Harold Pinter Drama Studio

The Harold Pinter Drama Studio is the main teaching and performance space of the students and staff of the Department of Drama. On 26 April 2005, Harold Pinter, who was to win the Nobel Prize in Literature later that year, gave a public reading and was interviewed by his official authorised biographer, Michael Billington, in the studio named for Pinter and located as part of the Faculty of Arts (Department of Drama, School of English and Drama) in the Mile End campus, to celebrate its refurbishment.

Organisation and administration

Queen Mary and Westfield College was established by Act of Parliament and the granting of a Royal charter in 1989, following the merger of Queen Mary College (incorporated by charter in 1934) and Westfield College (incorporated in 1933). The Charter has subsequently been revised three times: in 1995 (as a result of the merger of the College with the Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry); in 2008 (as a result of the Privy Council awarding the College Degree Awarding Powers; and in July 2010 (following a governance review).

Queen Mary is an 'exempt charity' under the Charities Act 1993. The Higher Education Funding Council for England has been Queen Mary's principal regulator since June 2010.

Faculties and schools

The three faculties are split further into independent schools, institutes, and research centres:

Finances

In the financial year ended 31 July 2011, Queen Mary had a total income (including share of joint ventures) of £297.1 million (2009/10 – £289.82 million) and total expenditure of £295.35 million (2009/10 – £291.56 million). Key sources of income included £100.02 million from funding body grants (2009/10 – £103.97 million), £82.8 million from tuition fees and education contracts (2009/10 – £76.22 million), £73.66 million from research grants and contracts (2009/10 – £68.47 million) and £1.17 million from endowment and investment income (2008/09 – £1.48 million). During the 2010/11 financial year Queen Mary had a capital expenditure of £42.53 million (2009/10 – £45.61 million).

At year end Queen Mary had endowments of £33.59 million (2009/10 – £29.95 million) and total net assets of £300.79 million (2009/10 – £291.38 million).

Academic profile

Queen Mary has around 3,000 staff, who teach and research across a wide range of subjects in the Humanities, Social Sciences and Laws, Medicine and Dentistry and Science and Engineering. Almost 17,000 students study at the 21 academic schools and institutes, with just over 30 percent coming from overseas and represent 130 different countries. Queen Mary awarded over £2 million in studentships to prospective postgraduate students for the 2011/12 academic year.

A staff survey in 2011 found that Queen Mary staff were highly motivated, proud to work at Queen Mary, felt that Queen Mary is a good place to work, and could see constant improvements over 12 months.

Research

In 2009/10, Queen Mary received a total of £68.5 million in research grants and contracts, the highest research income of any UK university which was not then a member of the Russell Group.

In the UK Research Assessment Exercise results published in December 2008, Queen Mary was placed 11th according to an analysis by The Guardian newspaper and 13th according to The Times Higher Education Supplement, out of the 132 institutions submitted for the exercise. The Times Higher commented "the biggest star among the research-intensive institutions was Queen Mary, University of London, which went from 48th in 2001 to 13th in the 2008 Times Higher Education table, up 35 places."

The growth and strength of research at the College was rewarded with an invitation to join the Russell Group of research-intensive universities in the UK in 2012.

Libraries

Queen Mary's main library is located on the Mile End campus where most subjects are represented. It also has two medical libraries in Whitechapel and West Smithfield. Usual opening hours are 8am to midnight. This changes to 24/7 during exam season.

As members of a college of the University of London, students at Queen Mary have access to Senate House Library, shared by other colleges such as King's College London and University College London, in addition to library access throughout most of the individual University of London colleges, subject to approval at the given University.

Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications

Queen Mary offers a joint degree programme with Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, one of China's top engineering universities. This was the first of its kind to be approved by the PRC Ministry of Education: it is taught 50% by each institution; in English; in Beijing; by staff who fly out from Queen Mary to teach its part of the programme; and the students receive two degrees, one from each university. The programmes are in Telecommunications and Management and Ecommerce Engineering and Law. Almost 2,000 students are studying on these programmes in 2009 and the first cohort graduated in the Summer of 2008. The joint programmes have been praised by the UK Quality Assurance Agency; the PRC Ministry of Education; and the UK Institution of Engineering and Technology.

University of London Institute in Paris

Queen Mary collaborates with Royal Holloway, University of London, to help run programmes at the University of London Institute in Paris (ULIP) which is a central academic body of the University of London located in Paris, France, enabling undergraduate and graduate students to study University of London ratified French Studies degrees in France.

UCL Partners

Queen Mary is a founding partner in UCL Partners, an academic health science centre located in London. Queen Mary joined UCL Partners in 2011, bringing the benefit of its expertise in areas such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, trauma, stroke and human genomics, as well as experience of reducing health inequalities. The other founding partners of UCL Partners are: Barts Health NHS Trust, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust, Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, University College London (UCL) and University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Admissions

In terms of average UCAS points of entrants, Queen Mary ranked 32nd in Britain in 2014. According to the 2017 Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide, approximately 12% of Queen Mary's undergraduates come from independent schools. The university gives offers of admission to 75.0% of its applicants, the 12th lowest amongst the Russell Group.

Rankings and reputation

World

Queen Mary ranked 98th in the world in the 2014/15 QS World University Rankings. In 2016, it ranks 123rd. Queen Mary ranked 98th in the world in the 2015/16 Times Higher Education World University Rankings. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2017 ranks Queen Mary equal 113th in the world, and equal 71st for Arts & humanities. The university was ranked 52nd in the world in the CWTS Leiden Ranking in 2014. Academic Ranking of World Universities ranks Queen Mary between 151–200 in the world. The university ranks 50th in the world in the CWTS Leiden Ranking 2016. The 2017 U.S. News & World Report ranks Queen Mary 128th in the world.

Europe

Queen Mary ranks 11th in Europe in the CWTS Leiden Ranking 2016. The university ranks 47th in the U.S. News & World Report Best Global Universities in Europe.

Subject

Queen Mary ranks 69th in the U.S. News & World Report Best Global Universities for Molecular Biology and Genetics, and 70th in the Best Global Universities for Clinical Medicine. Academic Ranking of World Universities 2016 ranks the university between 76-100 in the Ranking of World Universities in Life and Agriculture Sciences, and in Clinical Medicine and Pharmacy.

National

Queen Mary ranks 8th in the UK in the CWTS Leiden Ranking 2016.Queen Mary ranks 13th in the U.S. News & World Report Best Global Universities in the United Kingdom, and 5th in London.The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2017 ranks Queen Mary 15th in the UK.

The Guardian in 2014/2015 ranked Queen Mary the best law school in London, 3rd in the UK after Cambridge and Oxford universities. The Guardian ranked Queen Mary 3rd for Law, 3rd for Media & Film Studies, equal 4th for Medicine, 5th for Dentistry, 6th for Drama & Dance, and 7th for History.The Complete University Guide 2017 ranked Queen Mary 5th best university in London, and 3rd in the UK for Dentistry. Other subjects ranked in the top ten in the Complete University Guide 2016 are: Drama, Dance & Cinematics, Medicine, and Russian & East European Languages.

The 2014 Research Excellence Framework ranked Queen Mary equal 9th with the University of Edinburgh and University of Bristol.

The NUS-supported National Student Survey of 2011 ranked Materials at Queen Mary 1st in the UK, with Aerospace Engineering ranked 2nd and Mechanical Engineering 5th, with the entire School of Engineering and Materials Sciences ranked 1st in London. Overall, Queen Mary achieved student satisfaction of 88% to raaernk equal 2nd in London with UCL, and ahead of King's College London, LSE and Imperial College. Queen Mary students ranked the university as the number one university in London for overall satisfaction in the National Student Survey 2015.

Queen Mary students feature in the top 10 in the UK for graduate starting salaries, according to The Times and Sunday Times University League Table 2016.

Queen Mary Students' Union

The Queen Mary Students' Union (QMSU) unites the various clubs and societies of Queen Mary. The Union is based at the recently refurbished, Students' Hub. The elected representatives within the Union are made up of a President and three vice-Presidents. The union mascot is a leopard called Mary.

SU facilities and publications

The Students Union Hub replaces the previous office called the Blomley Centre. Named after a former President and VP Education, Laura Blomeley completed her term in office with terminal cancer. In remembrance of her commitment to QMSU, two key rooms in the new Students Union Hub have been named after her.

Queen Mary students are also permitted to use the facilities at Student Central, the former University of London Union, located a 15-minute tube ride away in Bloomsbury.

Merger Cup

QM and BL sports clubs compete every year in the Merger Cup where many of the sports teams compete against each other. QM claimed the cup in 2010 but lost it in the following year to BL (2011). In 2012, QM claimed a narrow victory over BL, being helped with all five football teams defeating their medical school counterparts. Sporting fixtures include: Badminton, Basketball, Football, Hockey, Netball, Rugby, Squash, Swimming, Tennis and Rowing.

Student housing

Many QMUL students are accommodated in the college's own halls of residence or other accommodation; QMUL students are also eligible to apply for places in the University of London intercollegiate halls of residence, such as Connaught Hall.

Most students in college or university accommodation are first-year undergraduates or international students. The majority of second and third-year students and postgraduates find their own accommodation in the private sector.

Undergraduate

The College's Westfield Student Village, situated in the north-east corner of the Mile End Campus, has en-suite, self-catering housing for 1,195 students, staff and academic visitors in six contemporary buildings. A shop, laundrette, café bar, 200-seat restaurant and central reception (staffed 24 hours a day), and a communal area situated adjacent to the Regents canal, form part of the Village development. Rooms are arranged in flats and maisonettes housing between four and eleven students.

Undergraduate student housing at Queen Mary includes:

Postgraduate

Postgraduate student housing at Queen Mary includes:

Notable current and former staff of Queen Mary include:

Nobel laureates

To date, there have been seven Nobel laureates who were either students or academics at Queen Mary.

Principals

To date, Queen Mary has had a total of 22 Principals (11 of Westfield College, eight of Queen Mary College, and three since the merger of Queen Mary, Westfield, and Barts).