New College of the Humanities at Northeastern

A. C. Grayling, professor of philosophy at Birkbeck College until June 2011, secured NCH's funding

The liberal arts college bases its pedagogy on the Oxbridge tutorial model.[6] Initial reports said it aimed to offer an education to rival that of Oxford and Cambridge,[7] but Grayling said this had been blown out of proportion by press hyperbole.[8][9] He said he had the idea for the college years ago when he was admissions tutor for an Oxbridge college, and the university was turning down 12 good interviewees for every successful one.[10]

Grayling himself completed his first degree in philosophy in the 1970s as a University of London external student.[11] He argues that there is not enough elite university provision in the UK, leading thousands of British students to study in the United States instead.[10] He told The Independent that the headmaster of Winchester College, an independent secondary school, had said many of his best students failed to get into Oxbridge because of government pressure to increase the number of students from state schools.[12] Grayling has criticised English state examinations, arguing that A-levels do not measure ability adequately.[13]

Grayling said David Willetts, the universities minister, was told of the project in 2010, and appeared enthusiastic.[14] NCH Limited was first named Grayling Hall Limited (after A. C. Grayling and Peter Hall), incorporated in July 2010 and registered at an address in Peckham, south London. The name was changed to New College of the Humanities in February 2011.[15][16] The warden of New College, Oxford, asked Grayling to change the name again to prevent confusion with the Oxford college.[3]

From September 2012 to September 2015, it offered tuition in economics, English, history, law and philosophy and politics and international relations for undergraduate degrees with the University of London International Programme.[17] From 2015 it ran its own degree programmes, validated by Southampton Solent University.[18] Its "Diploma of New College of the Humanities" is earned alongside the various combined BA and BSc degrees by completion of courses in applied ethics, critical reasoning, science literacy[19] and LAUNCH, its professional development programme.[20] It continues to offer a law degree through the University of London.[21]

In 2016 NCH announced that it would be offering its first postgraduate qualification, the Historical Research and Public History MA starting in September 2016. This Master’s programme has been designed by Dr Suzannah Lipscomb, Head of Faculty and Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History. It is validated by Swansea University.[22] In 2017 the College launched three additional master's degrees, the MA Economic Policy & Communication, MSc Global Politics, and MA Philosophy.[23]

The college uses its own building, The Registry, and some of the University of London's teaching and student facilities, including Senate House Library and the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, all in the Bloomsbury district of London.[24][25][26]

The College's foundation attracted a substantial response in the UK, where most higher education institutions are publicly funded, and a significant amount of adverse publicity. London's mayor, Boris Johnson, welcomed it as a bold experiment, while The Times argued that higher education has been a closed shop in the UK for too long.[27][28] There was an angry reaction from sections of the academic community. Complaints included that NCH had copied the course descriptions of the University of London's international programmes on its website; was offering the same syllabus with a significantly higher price tag; and that the senior academics involved with the project would in fact do very little of the teaching.[29]

Academics and Administrators within the British academic world have in recent years alluded to the College's for-profit agenda, highlight the College's high tuition fees, the corporate structure as a Limited company, and the membership of the College's board.[30][31]

Initial "seed capital" of £200,000 for the project was provided, according to British newspaper The Guardian, by the financier Peter Hall.[32]

£10 million in private equity funding was subsequently raised to cover costs for two years, with the expectation that NCH would break even by the third.[24] Cavendish Corporate Finance LLP were the corporate financiers hired by NCH Ltd and raised this £10 million from a range of private investors including a number of prominent individuals from the world of business and finance.[33][34][35][36]

The 14 academic partners, also referred to as The Professoriate, were announced as:[37]

• philosophers A. C. Grayling, Simon Blackburn and Peter Singer
• historians Sir David Cannadine and Niall Ferguson
• economist Partha Dasgupta
• scientists Richard Dawkins (will be Professor of Evolutionary Biology), Steve Jones (was to have been Professor of Biological Sciences),[38] Steven Pinker
• legal scholars Ronald Dworkin and Adrian Zuckerman
• literary critic Christopher Ricks.

Since the launch of the college, professors Vernon Bogdanor, Daniel C Dennett, Rebecca Goldstein, Roger Halson, Howard Jacobson, Simon May, Barbara McDonald, Stephen Neal, Sir Trevor Nunn and Christopher Peacocke have also lectured at the college.[39]

The college was registered on the UK register of charities in summer 2020.[40]

The first cohort consisted of around 60 students, primarily from independent schools; one in five of the college's offers have gone to state-school students. College staff made 130 visits to schools (21 to state schools) to attract applications.[41][42] They graduated in 2015.[43]

The Registry, Bedford Square

The college initially was based in a building called The Registry in Bedford Square. The college announced that it will move to Devon House in St Katharine Docks, London before the start of the 2021-22 academic year.[44] In addition, the college's students have access to the University of London's facilities, including Senate House Library [45] and Student Central.[46][47] It block-books rooms for its first-year students with student accommodation providers.[48] NCH has offered classes since October 2012,[17] its annual fees are £9,250.[49]

The college offers tuition for 56 undergraduate programmes featuring major and minor options in Art History, Creative Writing, Data Science, Economics, English, History, Law, Philosophy, Politics and International Relations, and Psychology as well as a single honours Law LLB, as well as the Philosophy, Politics and Economics BA and Philosophy, Politics & History BA. In addition, its undergraduate students complete courses in applied ethics, critical reasoning, science literacy, and a professional development programme.[50] The science literacy course includes as its teachers, Richard Dawkins teaching evolution, Steven Pinker lecturing about the brain, and Daniel C Dennett lecturing on consciousness.[51] It also offers master's degrees; MA Philosophy & Artificial Intelligence,[52] MA Philosophy,[53] MSc Computer Science.[54]

Students experience more than 11 contact hours per week, including regular one-to-one and small group tutorials.[55] In the 2017 National Student Survey, NCH achieved student satisfaction scores above Russell Group universities and London universities, beating London members of the elite Russell Group in 26 out of 27 categories.[56]

In May 2014 it was reported that independent research that replicated the annual HEPI academic experience survey showed that the College's academic experience had exceeded the expectations of 63% of its students. This was more than twice the comparative statistic (28%) for Russell Group university students of humanities and social sciences in the HEPI 2014 annual student experience survey.[57] The same research also showed that NCH students experienced 40% more contact time than their peers at Russell Group universities, that they completed twice as many assignments, and that they received feedback on their assignments in person more than twice as often.[58]