University

The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is the oldest red brick university in the United Kingdom. Located in the leafy suburb of Edgbaston just outside Birmingham City Centre, it received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen’s College, Birmingham (founded in 1828 as the Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery) and Mason Science College (established in 1875 by Sir Josiah Mason). Birmingham is widely known to be the original red brick university. It is a founding member of both the Russell Group of British research universities and the international network of research universities, Universitas 21. The University of Birmingham was ranked 11th in the UK and 64th in the world by QS World University Rankings. In 2013, Birmingham was named ‘University of the Year 2014’ in the Times Higher Education awards. Birmingham is also ranked 4th in the UK for Graduate Prospects in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2015, higher than University of Oxford and the London School of Economics. The student population includes around 19,000 undergraduate and 9,000 postgraduate students, which is the 11th largest in the UK. The annual income of the institution for 2010–11 was £470.7 million, with an expenditure of £443.7 million. The university is home to the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, housing works by Van Gogh, Picasso and Monet, the Lapworth Museum of Geology, the Cadbury Research Library home to the Mingana Collections of Middle Eastern manuscripts and the Chamberlain Collection, and the Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower, which is a prominent landmark visible from many parts of the city. Academics and alumni of the university include former British Prime Ministers Neville Chamberlain, and Stanley Baldwin, and eight Nobel laureates.