Universities in the United Kingdom

The French Revolution and the ensuing Napoleonic wars led to over 40% of universities in Europe closing. From 153 universities in 1789, numbers fell to only 83 in 1815. The next quarter century saw a rebound, with 15 new universities founded, bringing numbers back to 98 by 1840.[10]

In England, the late 18th and early 19th centuries saw the arrival of Catholic seminaries driven from the continent by the French Revolution and the establishment of the St Bees Theological College to train Anglican priests in 1816. The first Anglican college to move beyond specialist training to provide a more general university education in Arts was in Wales: St David's College, Lampeter (now part of the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David) was founded in 1822, opened in 1827, and gained a royal charter in 1828.

By then, the higher education revolution was well under way. Between 1824 and 1834 ten medical schools were established in provincial cities; many of these went on to form the nuclei of the redbrick universities,[11] and in 1825 there was serious talk of founding a third English university in York.[12] This would, however, have required government support. The opinion of Robert Peel – cabinet minister and MP for Oxford University – was sought, and (after consulting with his constituents) he advised against proceeding.[13]

This period also saw the establishment of Mechanics Institutes in a number of cities. The first of these, established in Edinburgh in 1821, would eventually become Heriot-Watt University,[14] while the London Mechanics Institute, established in 1823, developed into Birkbeck, University of London.[15] Many others would eventually become polytechnics and then, in 1992, universities. The Polytechnic Institution (now the University of Westminster) opened at 309 Regent Street, London, in August 1838, to provide "practical knowledge of the various arts and branches of science connected with manufacturers, mining operations and rural economy".[16][17]

Very soon after news of the York scheme broke, Thomas Campbell wrote to The Times proposing a university be founded in London. This would become UCL, founded in 1826 as a joint stock company under the name of London University. Due to its lack of theology teaching, its willingness to grant degrees (if it were given this power) to non-Anglicans, and its unauthorised assumption of the title of "university", this inspired calls in 1827 for the foundation of a 'true and genuine "London University"' by royal charter,[18] to be known (in the same manner as Edinburgh was officially known as the College of King James VI) as "The College of King George IV in London".[19] This became King's College London, granted a royal charter in 1829 – but as a college rather than a university.

UCL was revolutionary not just in admitting non-Anglicans (indeed non-Anglicans were allowed to study at Cambridge, but not to take degrees, and UCL could not grant them degrees); it also pioneered the study of modern languages and of geography,[20] as well as appointing the first Professor of English Language and Literature, although the study of English Literature as a distinct subject was pioneered by King's College London.[21] Neither of the colleges was residential – a break from the two ancient English universities, although non-residential universities were the norm in Scotland.

1830 saw the election of a Whig government under Earl Grey, and in early 1831 news broke that a charter was to be granted to the London University, officially recognising it as a university and thus enabling it to award degrees.[22] Cambridge voted to petition the King not to allow the awarding of degrees with the same name as theirs or Oxford's.[23] The charter was blocked.

Then, later in 1831, a plan was announced to found a university in Durham. Grey's government supported the bill to establish the university, despite it limiting its degrees to Anglicans. Thus the University of Durham was established by Act of Parliament in 1832, and opened in 1833. In 1836 it pioneered the system of external examiners for its final degree examinations, bringing in Oxford academics to ensure the same standards. It was incorporated by royal charter in 1837 and awarded its first degrees the same year. In 1838 it opened Britain's first course in engineering, and in 1846 pioneered "halls" accommodation, where students let rooms ready-furnished and serviced by shared staff, and took all their meals together. This was in contrast to the system at Oxford and Cambridge (and in Durham's original college) where students had to furnish their own rooms, supply their own servants, and provide their own food.

In 1834, the House of Commons backed the granting of a charter to the London University. In 1835, the government responded by announcing its intention to establish the University of London as an examining board that would grant degrees to affiliated colleges and medical schools. This was done in 1836, with the old London University accepting a charter as a college under the name of University College, London.

The new University of London achieved one of the principal goals of the founders of UCL: it would award degrees without any religious test, the first university in England to do so. The first degrees were conferred in 1839 to students from UCL and King's College London. But from 1840 it affiliated other colleges and schools, opening up the possibility of degrees for many students who would not previously have attended a university. Another big step came in 1858 when the system of affiliated colleges was abandoned and London degrees were opened to any man who passed the examination. From 1878, University of London degrees were opened to women – the first in the United Kingdom.

In 1845, Queen's Colleges were established across Ireland: in Belfast, Cork and Galway, followed by the establishment of the Queen's University of Ireland in 1850 as a federal university encompassing the three colleges. In response, the Catholic University of Ireland (never recognised as a university by the British state, although granted degree awarding power by the Pope) was established in Dublin by the Catholic Church. This eventually led to the dissolution of the Queen's University in 1879 and its replacement by the Royal University of Ireland, an examining board after the pattern of the University of London.[24]

The first women's college was Bedford College in London, which opened in 1849. It was followed by Royal Holloway (with which it merged in the 1980s) and the London School of Medicine for Women in London and colleges in Oxford and Cambridge. After London opened its degrees to women in 1878, UCL opened its courses in Arts, Law and Science to women, although it took the First World War to open up the London medical schools. By the end of the 19th century, the only British universities not granting degrees to women were Oxford, Cambridge and Dublin.

Non-Anglicans were admitted to degrees at Oxford in 1854, Cambridge in 1856 and Durham in 1865. The remaining tests were (except in theology) removed by the Universities Tests Act 1871, allowing non-Anglicans to become full members of the university (membership of Convocation at Oxford and Durham or the Senate at Cambridge) and to hold teaching positions.[25][26]

An Act of Parliament was passed in 1858 that modernised the constitutions of all of the Scottish universities. Under this Act, the two universities in Aberdeen were united into the University of Aberdeen (explicitly preserving the foundation date of King's College) and the University of Edinburgh was made independent from the town corporation.

The first of the civic university colleges was the Anglican Queen's College, Birmingham, built on the nucleus of the Birmingham Medical School, which gained its royal charter in 1843 but did not ultimately prove a success. This was followed in 1851 by Owens College, Manchester. Further university colleges followed in Newcastle (1871), notable for admitting women to its courses from the start,[27] Aberystwyth (1872),[28] Leeds (1874),[29] Bristol (1876), Sheffield (1879), Mason College, Birmingham (1880), Dundee (1881),[30] Liverpool (1881),[31] Nottingham (1881), Cardiff (1883), and Bangor (1884). With the exceptions of Newcastle (associated with Durham) and Dundee (associated with St Andrews), all of the university colleges prepared their students for London degrees.

In the late 1870s, Owens College applied for university status. After objections by other civic colleges, it was decided instead to erect the Victoria University as a federal body, with Owens College as, initially, its only college. It was joined by Liverpool in 1884 and Leeds in 1887.

In 1889, government funding was provided to the English provincial university colleges (with the exception of Queen's College, Birmingham), along with Dundee in Scotland, and UCL and King's College in London.[32] Government funding was already being provided to the ancient Scottish universities, the University of London, and to the Welsh and Irish colleges. Bedford College in London (1894),[33] Reading (1901)[34] and Southampton (1902)[35] were later added to the grant to university colleges.

In 1893 the University of Wales was established as another federal body, uniting the colleges in Aberystwyth, Cardiff and Bangor, but not St David's College, Lampeter.

The late 19th century saw UCL and King's College London campaigning for a say in how the University of London was run, alongside a campaign for a "teaching university" for London. Royal commissions were held and a charter was drawn up for the "Albert University" that would have seen the two colleges leave the University of London and form a federal body, like the colleges of the Victoria University. In the end it was decided to reform the University of London itself, this was put into effect by an Act of Parliament in 1898, leading to completely new statutes establishing the federal University of London in 1900.

University of Birmingham, the first of the red-brick generation

1900 also saw Mason College, Birmingham (which had absorbed the Medical School from Queen's College in 1892) become the University of Birmingham. This was the first of the redbrick universities to gain university status. Over the next decade the Victoria University dissolved, its colleges becoming the universities of Manchester, Leeds, and Liverpool, and the colleges in Sheffield and Bristol also gained university status as the University of Sheffield and the University of Bristol. The last of the original provincial university colleges, in Newcastle, remained connected to the University of Durham, but moved to a federal structure with equal Newcastle and Durham divisions. In Ireland, Queen's College Belfast became Queen's University Belfast, and the other colleges formed the National University of Ireland, replacing the Royal University.

The First World War caused financial crises in many British universities and university colleges. This led to the formation of the University Grants Committee after the war, with Oxford, Cambridge and the Durham division of Durham University finally accepting government funding. Only one institution, Reading University (1926), became a university between the wars. New university colleges were set up in Swansea (1920), Leicester (1921), Exeter (1922) and Hull (1927).

University of Sussex, the first of the plate-glass generation

After the Second World War, there was an enormous expansion in the demand for higher education.[36] A final public university college was set up in Keele in 1949; this was the first university college to receive full degree awarding powers as a college rather than on becoming a university (St David's College, Lampeter, held limited degree awarding power from the mid 19th century, but could only award BA and BD degrees).

Between 1948 (Nottingham) and 1967 (Dundee) all of the university colleges (except those that had become colleges of the University of London) achieved independent university status. Newcastle University is notable for having been made a university in 1963 by Act of Parliament rather than by royal charter. The 1960s saw a large expansion in the number of universities in the UK with eight universities, known as the plateglass universities, established as new institutions rather than from earlier university colleges, a number of other institutions that had not been university colleges promoted directly to university status following the Robbins Report in 1963, and the Open University founded as a distance-learning University.

In 1973 the University College at Buckingham was established as a private sector, non-profit college, opening in 1976. It awarded "licences" that were externally examined in the same manner as degrees, rather than being associated with the University of London or another parent university like the earlier university colleges. In 1983 it became the UK's first private university after being granted a royal charter as the University of Buckingham.[37]

A major change to UK higher education occurred in 1992 with the abolition of the "binary divide" between universities and polytechnics. By the Further and Higher Education Act 1992, the polytechnics and the Scottish central institutions all became universities. These post-1992 (or "new") institutions nearly doubled the number of universities in the UK.

In 1993 the University of London underwent a major shake-up, with the larger colleges being granted direct access to government funding and the right to confer University of London degrees themselves. This was a major step towards their being recognised generally as de facto universities.

In 1997, Cardiff University (then the University of Wales, Cardiff) was granted degree awarding powers. This was the first time such powers had been granted to a constituent institution of a university (although the University of Wales, Lampeter held degree awarding powers, these were granted prior to it joining the federal university). Over the next decade, all of the constituent institutions of the University of Wales and many of those of the University of London gained their own degree awarding powers.

In 2005, Cardiff University left the University of Wales, which shifted to a confederal structure in 2007 before being essentially dissolved following a series of scandals in 2011. In 2007 Imperial College left the University of London, raising fears about the future of that federal institution. However, it has survived and attracted new members, although many of the larger colleges now award their own degrees. In 2016, City University, London was the first institute to voluntarily surrender university status when it became a college of the University of London.

In 2018, The Guardian reported that hundreds of academics has been accused of bullying students and colleagues, leading to calls from Venki Ramakrishnan, president of the Royal Society, for an overhaul of workplace practices in universities and from Fiona Watt, chair of the Medical Research Council, for an annual national audit of bullying incidents.[38]

In the years following the end of the Second World War, local education authorities (LEAs) paid student tuition fees and provided non-mature students with a maintenance grant. Under the Education Act 1962 a national mandatory award of student maintenance grant was established, payable by the LEAs to students on most full-time courses. In 1980, the level of grant increased from £380 to £1,430.[39]

As the university population rose during the 1980s the sums paid to universities became linked to their performance and efficiency, and by the mid-1990s funding per student had dropped by 40% since the mid-1970s, while numbers of full-time students had reached around 2,000,000 (around a third of the age group), up from around 1,300,000.

In 1989 the levels of maintenance grants were frozen at £2,265 – which since 1985 had been means tested – but a system of student loans was introduced to provide for additional funding. Initially loans of up to £420 were available, and could be taken out by all students.[39] The costs of tuition continued to be met in full for all domestic students.

Following an investigation into the future of universities, the July 1997 report of the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education,[40] chaired by the then Sir Ronald (later Lord) Dearing recommended the ending of universal free higher education, and that students should pay £1,000 towards the cost of their tuition fees, which would be recovered in the form of a graduate tax.

Tuition fees were introduced in 1998, raised to £3,000 a year in 2006, and passed £9,000 a year by 2012.[41] At the time of the Dearing Report, tuition fees were still paid in full by the local education authorities, student grants of up to £1,755 (£2,160 in London) were linked to family income, and a subsidised student loan of £1,685 (£2,085 in London) was available. Instead of following Dearing's suggestions, the grant was replaced by the present loan scheme, introduced for students starting in 1998. There was a transition year when about half the previous means-tested grant was available, though they still had to pay the new £1,000 tuition fee. From 1999, the grant was abolished altogether.

The abolition of tuition fees was a major issue in the 1999 Scottish parliamentary elections, and subsequently was part of the agreement that led to the Labour/Liberal Democrats coalition that governed Scotland from 1999 to 2003.

From the academic year 2006/7, a new system of tuition fees was introduced in England. These variable tuition fees of up to £3,000 per year are paid up-front as previously, but new student loans are available that may only be used to pay for tuition fees, and must be repaid after graduation, in addition to the existing loan. In fact, there is very little variation in the tuition fees charged by universities—nearly all charge the maximum tuition fee on all courses. Instead, the differences appear in the nature and value of various 'access' bursaries that are on offer. There has been considerable debate since the 1980s about the tendency toward vocationalism and the decline in the humanities, as well as a growing mindset among senior administrators that is preoccupied with marketing and corporate-like measures of "success."[42]

In 2010, the government voted to raise the amount universities can charge for undergraduate tuition fees (for England only) to between £6,000 – £9,000 per year though most charge the maximum.[43] In 2016, the government raised the cap on tuition fees to £9,250 from 2017, with tuition fees expected to continue rising in increments.[44][45]

Both degree awarding powers and university title are controlled under UK law, and it is illegal for an institution to call itself a university or to purport to offer UK degrees without authorisation.[1][47] Higher education is a devolved power, so the rules for degree awarding powers and university title differ between the four countries of the United Kingdom.

In Scotland and Northern Ireland the last UK national standards (from 1999) still apply. Institutions may hold taught degree awarding powers, allowing them to award ordinary and honours bachelor's degrees and taught master's degrees, and research degree awarding powers, allowing them additionally to award master's degrees by research and doctoral degrees. Institutions with taught degree powers may be awarded the title of "university college", but for university title an institution must hold research degree awarding powers, as well as having over 4,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) students, with over 3,000 on degree -level courses and at least 500 higher education students in each of five broad subject areas. For both degree awarding powers and university title, the final decision is made by the Privy Council on the advice of the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA).[48][49]

The rules in England and Wales diverged from those in Scotland and Northern Ireland in 2004 and were further modified in 2010 with the introduction of foundation degree awarding powers for further education colleges. Under these regulations, which remain in force in Wales, while taught and research degree awarding powers are awarded indefinitely to institutions in the publicly funded higher education sector, they are time limited to six years for other institutions (e.g. private colleges and universities) after which they must be renewed. The rules for university title allowed institutions holding only taught degree awarding powers to become universities in England and Wales from 2004, and the requirement for minimum student numbers across five broad subject areas was dropped. The overall higher education FTE student number criterion remained at 4,000, with 3,000 on degree-level courses (clarified to include foundation degrees, which has been introduced since the 1999 regulations). The final award of degree awarding powers continued to rest with the Privy Council; for university title it lay with the Privy Council for publicly funded institutions while alternative providers had to get permission to use University in their name under the Companies Act 2006, the recommendation in both cases coming from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) via the relevant government department (in England) or from the Welsh Government.[50][51][52]

England diverged from Wales in 2012 with a reduction in the number of higher education FTE students needed for university title to 1,000 (750 on degree level courses), with the addition that at least 55% of total FTE students had to be on higher education courses.[53] There were further technical changes in 2015 before a complete overhaul of the system in England under the Higher Education and Research Act 2017. This saw the abolition of HEFCE and its replacement by the Office for Students (OfS). A new tier of degree awarding powers – bachelor's degree awarding powers, allowing the award of degrees up to level 6 on the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications – was introduced.

Under this act, degree awarding powers were made available on a probationary basis, termed "New DAPs" to providers without a track record in higher education, who had previously had to have a validation agreement with a recognised body to establish a track record prior to gaining their own powers. Providers with a track record of the years or more can apply for time-limited "Full DAPs" and those who have held time-limited date awarding powers for more than three years can apply for "Indefinite DAPs". Another change is that degree awarding powers can now be limited to some subjects rather than covering all possible degrees at that level as previously. There is also an intention to make it possible for institute to gain research degree awarding powers without taught degree awarding powers. New criteria for university title will apply for applications from April 2019, the government had started its intention that student numbers limits will be removed but that the criterion that 55 percent of students are on higher education courses will remain, and that providers with bachelor's degree awarding powers and single subject degree awarding powers will be eligible for university title. The OfS will take over the responsibility of granting degree awarding powers and university title from the Privy Council, and will also be responsible for the awarding of university title to institutions outside of the publicly-funded higher education sector. The act gives OfS the ability to remove indefinite degree awarding powers and university title from any institution in England, including those granted these by royal charter.[52][54][55]

Almost all universities by law require staff and student representation in the governing body. Lack of transparency means many rules, like under the King's College London Act 1997, have not yet been put into practice.[56]

Governance of universities is set by each university's constitution, typically deriving from an Act of Parliament, a royal charter or an Order in Council issued by the Privy Council. The most progressive models support a high degree of voice for staff and students, with the Higher Education Code of Governance stating that:

"There is an expectation, often enshrined within the constitutional documents of HEIs, that governing bodies will contain staff and student members and encourage their full and active participation."[57]

Reforms were first put into law after an Oxford University commission of 1852 stated it must reverse "successive interventions by which the government of the University was reduced to a narrow oligarchy."[58] For example, since the Cambridge University Act 1856 set its rules in law,[59] Cambridge University's statutes require that its Regent House (mostly full-time university members) elects its governing body, the 23 member "Council". Four members are elected by heads of colleges, four by professors and readers, eight by other academic fellows, three by students, four by a "grace" (a vote) of the whole Regent House.[60]

In Scotland, the Universities (Scotland) Act 1966, with amendments by the Higher Education Governance (Scotland) Act 2016, contains minimum standards for the composition of courts, with a rector elected by students (but at Edinburgh University, staff also vote) and an elected vice-chairman. Assessors are appointed by the local authority, chancellor, general council and senatus academicus. Also there are student members, employee representatives and co-opted lay members. For instance, Aberdeen University has up to a 22 person "court", with an elected rector and a person she or he chooses, a principal plus one she or he chooses, a vice-principal (five members), two members appointed by the local councils, four members appointed by the General Council, six members from the Senatus Academicus, and up to five co-opted members.[61]

In England and Wales, the pattern is more haphazard and often deficient in representation. The constitution of the London School of Economics, which unusually takes the legal form of a company limited by guarantee, currently requires its seventeen-member "Council" to have two student representatives, and three staff representatives.[62] Anomalously, the King’s College London Act 1997 required a 38 member council with five ex-officio members, twenty lay appointees, eight elected by academics, three elected by students, and two by non-academic staff members, however this provision still remains to be put into effect on the "appointed day".[63] Other universities have a broad variety of governance structures,[64] although if there is not a special statute or constitution, the general rules are set by the Education Reform Act 1988. This says that university governing bodies with constitutions issued by the Privy Council should have between 12 and 24 members, with up to thirteen lay members, up to two teachers, up to two students, and between one and nine members co-opted by the others.[65] The wide variations in governing bodies raise the question about staff or student voice should have any limit, given their fundamental expertise in university life.[66]

The chancellorship of a university is a ceremonial position held by a prominent public figure. The actual executive responsibilities are borne by a vice-chancellor. In recent years, the role of the vice-chancellor has shifted from one of academic administration to strategic management.[67] Accompanying this shift has been a massive rise in remuneration. In 2019, the Office for Students reported that the average basic salary for a university vice chancellor rose ahead of inflation, from £245,000 a year to £253,000 a year, with five heads earning more than £500,000 with benefits and severance payments included.[68][69]

Universities are funded by endowments, funding councils paid for by taxation, and tuition fees levied on students. Cambridge's endowment, at £6.25bn is the largest, while tuition fees have been abolished in Scotland and remain highly controversial elsewhere.

Before 1998, universities were funded mainly by central government, although they have been increasingly reliant on charging students and seeking to raise private capital. First, universities have the power to generate income through endowment trust funds, accumulated over generations of donations and investment.[70] Second, under the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 there are funding councils paid for through general taxation for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. For England and Wales, the Secretary of State appoints 12 to 15 members and the chair, of which 6 to 9 should be academics and the remainder with "industrial, commercial or financial" backgrounds. Funds are administered at the councils' discretion but must consult with "bodies representing the interests of higher education institutions" such as the University and College Union and Universities UK.[71] After the Higher Education and Research Act 2017, the English council from 2018 will be renamed the "Office for Students".[72] Further, there are seven research councils (AHRC, ESRC, MRC, etc.) which distribute funds after peer review of applications by academics conducting research.[lower-alpha 1]

Third, and most controversially, funding may come from charging students. From WW2 tuition fees in the UK were effectively abolished and local authorities paid maintenance grants. The Education Act 1962 formally required this position for all UK residents,[73] and this continued through the expansion of university places recommended by the Robbins Report of 1963.[74] However, over the 1980s and 1990s, grants were diminished, requiring students to become ever more reliant on their parents' wealth. Further, appointed in 1996, the Dearing Report argued for the introduction of tuition fees because it said graduates had "improved employment prospects and pay."[75] Instead of funding university through progressive tax, the Teaching and Higher Education Act 1998 mandated £1,000 fees for home students. In England, this rose to £3,000 in the Higher Education Act 2004, and £9,000 after the Browne Review in 2010 led by the former CEO of oil corporation BP plc.[76] In 2017, the limit on fees was £9,250 for students in England,[77] £9,000 in Wales,[78] and £3,805 in Northern Ireland. The same rates apply for European Union students, who cannot be discriminated against under EU law.[79] By contrast, under the Scotland Act 1998, the Scottish government resolved not to introduce tuition fees for students under 25.[80] Under EU law, it is allowable that English students are charged tuition fees in Scottish universities while EU students may not be, because non-discrimination does not apply to internal domestic affairs.[81] For English universities, the Higher Education Act 2004 enables the Secretary of State to set fee limits, while universities are meant to ensure "fair access" by drafting a "plan" for "equality of opportunity".[82] There is no limit on international students fees, which have steadily risen to typically around double. A system of student loans is available for UK students through the government owned Student Loans Company. Means-tested grants were also available, but abolished for students who began university after August 2016. While EU students qualify for the same fees as UK students, they only qualify for loans (or previously grants) if they have been resident for three years in the UK.[83] As the UK is in a minority of countries to still charge tuition fees, increasing demands have been made to abolish fees on the ground that they burden people without wealthy families in debt, deter disadvantaged students from education, and escalate income inequality.[84]

There are five private universities (the charitable University of Buckingham and Regent's University London, and the for-profit institutions The University of Law,[85] BPP University and Arden University[86]) where the government does not subsidise the tuition fees; as of 2003 at all other universities the government pays 75% or more of the average student fee.[87] (The non-profit Richmond, The American International University in London is accredited by the American Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.[88]) In April 2017 the House of Commons voted to increase the cap on tuition fees to £9,250 per year, which took effect for students starting in September 2017.[89] Students in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland are also eligible for a means-tested grant, and many universities provide bursaries to poor students. Non-European Union students are not subsidised by the UK government and so have to pay much higher tuition fees.

Rights to other standards go for staff, or students, universities are subject to both judicial review and rights in contract law because they are seen as having both an equally "public" and "private" nature.[90] In a leading case of Clark v University of Lincolnshire and Humberside a student claimed that she should not have received a third class degree after her computer crashed, she lost an assignment, and was forced to rush a new one.[91] The Court of Appeal held that her application for both breach of contract and judicial review should not be struck out because there could be a good case to hear, so long as it did seek to overturn "issues of academic or pastoral judgment" where "any judgment of the courts would be jejune and inappropriate". However, the shorter time limit of three months in judicial review was more appropriate than six years in contract.[92] Cases which have sought to challenge academic judgment for failing students are typically bound to fail, as grading with a fair process is in the bounds of academic judgment.[93] In Buckland v Bournemouth University, where the university management interfered with academic assessment of student grades, this founded a right for a professor to claim he was constructively and unfairly dismissed.[94] All access to education must be free from unlawful discrimination under the Equality Act 2010.[95] In the Higher Education Act 2004 sections 11-21 provides for a modern complaints procedure to be followed in universities.[96]

All UK universities are independent bodies. With the exception of three private for-profit universities, British universities are charities. UK universities have four principal charity regulators. For universities outside England, this is the relevant national regulator: the Charity Commission for England and Wales for Welsh universities;[97] the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator for Scottish Universities;[98] and the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland for both Northern Irish universities.[99]

In England, most (all but twenty, as of May 2018) higher education institutes are exempt charities that are not registered with the Charity Commission; the principal regulator for universities that are exempt charities is the Office for Students while for those that are not exempt it is the Charity Commission.[100] Both of the two charitable private universities in England are regulated by the Charity Commission.[101][102]

Universities in the UK have a wide variety of legal structures, leading to differences in their rights and powers, and in who is a member of the corporate body of the university.[103][104]

The most common form among "old" universities is incorporation by royal charter. The form and objectives of the corporation are laid down in the individual charter and statutes, but commonly all graduates are members of the university. Many London colleges were also incorporated by this route. At the ancient Scottish universities the corporation is formed, under the Universities (Scotland) Act 1889, by the university court rather than the graduates.[105] A chartered corporation may not change its statutes without the approval of the Privy Council.

Newcastle University is the only English university to be purely a statutory corporation, and the only "old" university not incorporated by royal charter, having been created by the Universities of Durham and Newcastle upon Tyne Act 1963. Among London colleges, Royal Holloway, University of London was created in 1985 by the Royal Holloway and Bedford New College Act 1985 (merging the 19th century Royal Holloway and Bedford colleges), and is similarly a statutory corporation.[106] The main difference between this and a chartered corporation is that a statutory corporation has no power to do something that is not aligned with its defined aims and objectives.[107]

Durham and London, while both incorporated by royal charter, have statutes made under Acts of Parliament rather than under their charters (in the case of Durham, this arrangement dates back to its creation by Act of Parliament in 1832, while for London it dates from the university's reconstitution by Act of Parliament in 1900). This makes them both chartered and statutory corporations.[106]

At Oxford and Cambridge, incorporated by a public Act of Parliament in 1571, only graduates who have proceeded to the academic rank of MA are members of the university. Their statues are made under Acts of Parliament, thus they are also considered statutory corporations for some purposes.[106]

Most new universities are Higher Education Corporations, a form of corporation created by the Education Reform Act 1988 to incorporate the polytechnics independently of their local councils. In a higher education corporation, only the governing board is incorporated, not the graduates. Some newer London colleges share this status. Some new universities are companies limited by guarantee, a common form of incorporation used inter alia for some charities. The London School of Economics is also incorporated in this manner. The University of Chester and Bishop Grosseteste University are both unincorporated trusts within the Church of England. This was also the original form of Durham University (at that time also a church university) between its foundation in 1832 and its incorporation by royal charter in 1837.

Under the Education Reform Act 1988, higher education providers will be either recognised bodies or listed bodies. A recognised body is defined as "a university, college or other body which is authorised by Royal Charter or by or under Act of Parliament to grant degrees"[108] or a body authorised by such a body "to act on its behalf in the granting of degrees"[108] (this later category covers the colleges of the University of London with regard to the issuing of London degrees).[109] A listed body is defined as a body which either "provides any course which is in preparation for a degree to be granted by a recognised body and is approved by or on behalf of the recognised body"[110] – independent institutions whose degrees are validated by a recognised body; or "is a constituent college, school or hall or other institution of a university which is a recognised body"[111] – including the colleges of the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Durham and the Highlands and Islands, the central institutes of the University of London (although not its colleges, which are recognised bodies), Manchester Business School, the university colleges affiliated to Queens University Belfast (Stranmillis University College and St Mary's University College), and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (part of the University of South Wales).[112]

The first merger between British universities was that between King's College, Aberdeen and Marischal College, Aberdeen under the Universities (Scotland) Act 1858 to form the University of Aberdeen, explicitly maintaining the foundation date of King's College.

In 1984 the New University of Ulster merged with Ulster Polytechnic to form Ulster University. There have also been a number of mergers between colleges of the University of London, of particular note is the merger of Royal Holloway College and Bedford College in 1985 by Act of Parliament.

Cardiff University merged with the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology in 1984, and then re-merged with the University of Wales College of Medicine in 2004, the two having previously been separated in the 1930s.

Also in 2004, the Victoria University of Manchester and the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology merged to form the University of Manchester.

In 2002, London Guildhall University and the University of North London merged to form London Metropolitan University.[113]

At around the same time a merger was proposed between Imperial College London and University College London, but was abandoned following protests.[114]

In 2011, a merger was proposed between two universities in Scotland: University of Abertay Dundee and University of Dundee. This similarly did not occur.

In Wales, the University of Wales Lampeter and Trinity University College merged in 2010 to form the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, with Swansea Metropolitan University joining in 2012 and the University of Wales committed to joining once out has completed its commitments to current students. Legally this was a takeover rather than a merger as UWTSD remains incorporated under Lampeter's 1828 charter.

Also in Wales, the University of South Wales was formed in 2013 by a merger of the University of Glamorgan and the University of Wales, Newport. The University of Wales Institute Cardiff declined to take part in the merger, becoming Cardiff Metropolitan University.

One of the earliest attempts to categorise British universities was by George Edwin Maclean in a 1917 report for the US Department of the Interior.[115] This split the universities into five groups based on age and location: ancient universities of England, Scottish universities, the University of London, the "new or provincial universities", and the university colleges (Maclean's report only covered England and Scotland, Wales and Ireland were omitted).

In the early 1950s the University Grants Committee (UGC) divided British universities by age into five groups by age and location. The English universities were divided into three: ancient, Durham and London, and the civic universities, with the other groups being the ancient Scottish universities (then the only universities in Scotland) and the University of Wales (then the only university in Wales).[116] The 1963 Robbins Report split the (then existing) universities into seven categories: the ancient universities of England, the ancient universities of Scotland, the University of London, the older civic universities of England (Maclean's "new or provincial" universities, with the addition of Durham, which at the time took in Newcastle), the University of Wales, the newer civic universities of England (mostly comprising Maclean's university colleges), and the new foundations in England (the plate glass universities).[117]

Watts (1972) expanded this to eight "conventional" categories: Oxbridge, ancient Scottish, London, larger civic (or redbrick), smaller civic (or white tile), Wales and Belfast, new (or plate glass) and technological.[118] Scott (1995) has 12 categories: ancient English, the University of London, the Victorian civic universities, the newer civic universities (which Scott calls "redbrick"), the sui generis universities (which do not fit well into any other classification), the technological universities, Scottish universities, Welsh universities, Northern Irish universities, the Open University, the "old 'new'" (plate glass) universities and the "new 'new'" universities (former polytechnics), along with four categories of colleges (many of which have since become universities): multi-faculty, liberal arts, further/higher education and specialised.[119] This was referred to by Henkel and Little (1999) as "an extraordinary hodge-podge of historical, territorial and functional criteria".[120] Bligh, McNay and Thomas (1999) divided universities more simply into six categories: (Oxford, Cambridge and St Andrews), other collegiate (Durham, Lancaster and York, with a sub-category for the federal universities of London and Wales), older civic (including Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow), newer civic (including Newcastle but not Keele), post-war (also explicitly including York and implicitly Lancaster) and post-1992.[121] Watson (2013) updates Scott's (1995) classification, removing the separate categories for Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish universities and most of the categories of college (retaining only "HE in FE"), and adding "New new new universities" for the colleges that became universities following the Higher Education Act 2004, "Private" (a category defined as, at the time, only containing Buckingham) and "For profit".[122]

The groupings tend to be somewhat fuzzy in definition, with membership of each group varying between different authors. The common categories are:

• Ancient universities, which are normally subdivided geographically into the ancient universities of Scotland and Oxbridge in England.
• The University of London and its constituent colleges, which were founded in London from the early 19th century onwards as non-residential university colleges, following the pattern of the ancient universities of Scotland.[123] Scott notes that it "compris[es] large schools like Imperial College, University College and the London School of Economics, and small specialised institutes".[119] London does not always feature as a stand-alone category: the UGC joined London with Durham,[116] while Bligh, McNay and Thomas put it in with Durham, York, Lancaster and Wales in their 'other collegiate' group.[121]
• Civic universities, often divided into older or larger and younger or smaller, or some similar division.[117][118][119] The older or larger civic universities, also known as redbrick universities, were founded in provincial cities as non-residential university colleges in the later 19th and early 20th century.[124] The newer or smaller civic universities, sometimes called "white tile" universities, were founded later.[117][118] "Redbrick" is sometimes used to mean any university established between 1800 and 1960,[125] or between 1800 and 1992.[126] Scott, unusually, uses "redbrick" to refer to the younger civics universities.[119]
• Plate glass universities were created in the 1960s as residential universities with degree-awarding powers from the start, in contrast to being created as university colleges.[127] The UGC took the decision to create these universities in the late 1950s and early 1960s, prior to the Robbins Report.[117] The Scottish University of Stirling was the only entirely new university created as a result of the Robbins Report, and is often considered (e.g. by Scott) as a Scottish equivalent of the plate glass universities.[119]
• Technological universities were created from the colleges of advanced technology as a result of the recommendations of the 1963 Robbins Report and are thus also known as Robbins expansion universities.[119][128]
• Old universities refers to institutions that were part of the university sector prior to 1992, including full colleges of the federal universities of London and Wales in 1992.[129][119]
• New universities or post-1992 universities are institutions that entered the university sector following the passing of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992, including former Polytechnics, colleges and institutes of higher education, and other higher education corporations, but not older university institutions that were part of the university sector as colleges of the universities of London or Wales (e.g., Imperial College or Cardiff University).[119] More recent classifications divide the post-1992 universities into those (mainly former polytechnics) that became universities after the 1992 act and other colleges that became universities after the Higher Education Act 2004.[122]
• Scottish universities, Welsh universities and Northern Irish universities form three of Scott's twelve categories, with the other nine consisting solely of English universities, although he does allow for the Scottish category to be subdivided into ancient, civic, technological, "old 'new'" (plate glass), and "new 'new'" (post-1992).[119] The four Scottish universities founded in the 1960s (covering Scott's sub-categories of civic, technological and "old 'new'") are sometimes termed the Scottish chartered universities.[130]

Some universities are hard to categorise. Durham University is particularly challenging, being treated variously as an ancient university,[115][131][132] an older/larger civic or a smaller civic. Maclean, who classified it as "ancient", noted that: "Several Englishmen have been surprised that Durham should be grouped with Oxford and Cambridge, rather than with the newer English universities, since it was founded in 1832. In fact, in its Durham division it is an inchoate Oxford or Cambridge, the third of the ancient universities in England, brought forth after an interval of 700 years as one born out of due time."[133] The grouping of Durham and other pre-redbrick universities with the ancient universities may also sometimes be termed "pre-Victorian" or (by analogy to redbrick) "grey brick".[134][135][136] Durham is also sometimes classified, on the grounds of age, as a larger or older civic university. Watts, who categorises Durham among the large civic universities, notes that: "Objection … may be made to the inclusion of Durham with the larger civic universities, which is made primarily on age grounds and in spite of the fact that in terms of structure and academic tradition Durham is probably rather closer to Oxbridge. The Robbins Committee (1963) rejected both these arguments and paid more attention to the criterion of size, including Durham with the smaller civic universities".[118] The main report of the Robbins Committee, however, classified Durham as the oldest of the older civic universities.[117] The UGC joined Durham with London to form a separate group between the ancient and civic universities,[116] while others have considered "redbrick" to include London and Durham along with the civic universities, but excluding the technological and plate glass universities from the 1960s.[125] Whyte, in his history of Redbrick universities, considers Durham, along with St David's College, Lampeter as a religiously-exclusive, residential, university institution, following the Oxbridge pattern and separated from the development of the redbrick universities and from the London colleges.[137] Scott classifies Lampeter with the other Welsh universities and Durham as sui generis.[119]

The University of Dundee is similarly sometimes joined with the ancient universities of Scotland.[138] Watts places it here, while noting that "there might … be dispute about the inclusion of Dundee with the ancient Scottish universities".[118] Whyte considered it to be a redbrick university,[124] while Scott considered it to be the only Scottish civic university.[119]

The University of Keele is also categorised by Scott as sui generis on the basis that it was "bravely designed in the 1940s up provide a broad undergraduate education but with an extra-mural twist to reflect its Potteries location".[119] As Durham lies between the ancient and civic universities, Keele lies between the civic and plate glass universities. Watts identifies it among the plate glass universities,[118] but it was a former university college (founded in 1949 and promoted to a university in 1962) not a new institution founded as a university. The Robbins report classified it as newer civic university.[117]

Many categorisations do not include the Open University, the UK's open-access distance learning university at all,[118][121] while Scott considers it to form its own category of institution.[119] The private University of Buckingham, founded in 1973 and made a university by royal charter in 1983, is not considered by either Scott or by Bligh, McNay and Thomas,[119][121] but Watson assigns it to a separate category of private universities.[122] The colleges (and now former colleges) of the federal universities of London and Wales are also normally omitted – it is only the parent university that is categorised.[115][116][117][118][119][121]

Location and arms of Russell Group universities

These are actual groupings with defined memberships:[139]

• Russell Group – self-selected association of 24 public research universities.
• MillionPlus – coalition of post-1992 universities
• University Alliance – coalition of "business engaged" (mostly) post-1992 universities.
• Cathedrals Group – coalition of (mostly) new universities with historic links to one or more of the Christian churches.[140]
• Independent Universities Group – private universities.[141]
• Independent Higher Education – private universities and higher education providers.[142][143]

• Unitary universities – the standard structure, with all teaching and services provided by the central University. Long standard in Scotland, the first unitary university in England was Birmingham in 1900.
• Examining Board universities – modelled on the separation of teaching in College and examination by the Senate House in the University of Cambridge, the University of London (1836–1900) and the Royal University of Ireland (1880–1909) were set up to function purely as examining boards; there are no current universities in this category.
• Federal universities – Starting with the Queen's University of Ireland (1850–1880) a number of universities have been federal in nature, including the Victoria University (1880–1904), the University of Wales (1893–2007), Durham University (1909–1963) and the Federal University of Surrey (2000–2004); the only current federal universities in the UK are the University of London (from 1900) and the University of the Highlands and Islands (from 2011).
• Collegiate universities – the classical Oxbridge model of a university containing a number of colleges. In addition to Oxford and Cambridge, this has been adopted by Durham, York, and Lancaster, although these differ from the Oxbridge model in that there is no teaching in their colleges. The University of Roehampton and the University of the Arts London are also collegiate, with teaching taking place in academic departments associated with the colleges.[144][145] Federal universities are also sometimes referred to as collegiate.

Research by Vikki Boliver in 2015 used cluster analysis to divide UK universities into four clusters based on how elite they were using data on academic selectivity, research activity, teaching quality, socio-economic exclusivity and economic resources. The first cluster consisted of only Oxford and Cambridge. The second cluster contained the remaining universities from the Russell Group along with the former members of the defunct 1994 Group (except for the University of Essex), all of the pre-1992 universities in Scotland, and the University of Kent. The third cluster was the remaining pre-1992 universities (with the exception of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD), which is technically pre-1992 as it operates under the University of Wales, Lampeter's 1828 Royal Charter), many of the former polytechnics and central institutions, and a few former HE colleges that became university colleges and then universities after the polytechnics. The fourth cluster has the remaining polytechnics and the majority of the former HE colleges, along with UWTSD.[146][147]

Research England carried out a cluster analysis of English universities in 2018 as part of is preparation for the Knowledge Exchange Framework. This used three key dimensions: existing knowledge base, knowledge generation and physical assets. Ninety nine broad-discipline institutions were classified using the cluster analysis, with heuristics (and in one case manual intervention) being used to identify specialist institutions based on concentration of academics; these were manually assigned by field of specialisation to STEM (subdivided into biosciences and veterinary (5 institutions), engineering (1 institution), and agriculture (3 institutions)), social sciences and business (5 institutions), and arts and design (18 institutions). The cluster analysis identified five clusters, randomly assigned labels to avoid implying any ranking of which cluster was "better". The key characteristics of the clusters were:[148]

• Cluster E (29 institutions): "Large universities with broad discipline portfolio across both STEM and non-STEM generating a mid-level amount of world-leading research across all disciplines. Significant amount of research funded by gov’t bodies/hospitals; 9.5% from industry. Large proportion of part-time undergraduate students, and small postgraduate population dominated by taught postgraduates."
• Cluster J (17 institutions): "Mid-sized universities with limited funded research activity and generating limited world-leading research. Academic activity across STEM and non-STEM including other health, computer sciences, architecture/planning, social sciences and business, humanities, arts and design. Research activity funded largely by government bodies/hospitals; 13.7% from industry."
• Cluster M (17 institutions): "Small universities with limited funded research activity and generating limited world-leading research. Academic activity across disciplines, particularly in other health domains and non-STEM. Much of research activity funded by gov’t bodies/hospitals; 14.7% from industry."
• Cluster V (16 institutions): "Very large, very high research intensive and broad-discipline universities undertaking significant amounts of world-leading research. Research funded by range of sources incl. RCs, gov’t bodies, charities and 10.2% from industry. Discipline portfolio: significant activity in clinical medicine and STEM. Student body includes significant numbers of taught and research postgraduates."
• Cluster X (20 institutions): "Large, high research intensive and broad-discipline universities undertaking a significant amount of world-leading research. Much of research funded by RCs and gov’t bodies; 8.5% from industry. Discipline portfolio balanced across STEM and non-STEM with less or no clinical medicine activity. Large proportion of taught postgraduates in student population."