Queen Mary, University of London

Coordinates: 51°31′23″N 0°02′25″W / 51.52306°N 0.04028°W / 51.52306; -0.04028

Queen Mary, University of London
Motto	Coniunctis Viribus With United Powers
Established	1123 (Medical College of St Bartholomew's Hospital) 1785 (London Hospital Medical College) 1843 (Medical College of St Bartholomew's Hospital) 1882 (Westfield College) 1885 (Queen Mary College) 1989 (merger of Queen Mary & Westfield) 1995 (medical schools merge with QMW)
Type	Public
Endowment	£33 million [1]
Principal	Professor Simon Gaskell
Students	15,000 [2]
Location	London, United Kingdom
Campus	Urban
Colours
Affiliations	University of London Association of Commonwealth Universities 1994 Group
Website	http://www.qmul.ac.uk/

Queen Mary, University of London (known as Queen Mary and Westfield College until 2000, and still officially named as such in its charter)^[1] is a constituent college of the University of London with roots dating back to 1785. The modern Queen Mary is formed from four historic colleges and since joining the University of London in 1915 has becoming one of the University's largest Colleges, offering degree programmes and research across 21 academic departments and institutes. Its degree courses in English, History, Linguistics, Law and those based at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry are particularly strong, ranking in the top 10 of national academic league tables. Queen Mary is a world leading research-focused university, which was highly ranked in the official 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, placed 11th (The Guardian) and 13th (The Times Higher) nationally, out of 132 higher education institutions submitted. As of 2009, the college has produced 6 Nobel Laureates. ^[3]

History

Queen Mary's origins lie in the mergers, over the years, of four older colleges: Queen Mary College, Westfield College, St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College and the London Hospital Medical College. In 1989 Queen Mary merged with Westfield College to form Queen Mary & Westfield College. Although teaching began at the London Hospital Medical College in 1785, it did not become part of Queen Mary until 1995. In that same year the two medical schools merged together to form the School of Medicine and Dentistry at Queen Mary & Westfield College, but Barts and The London has, to some extent, retained its own identity. In 2000, the college adopted its present title of Queen Mary, University of London.

Queen Mary College

Formative years

Queen Mary College was founded in the mid Victorian era 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."^[4] 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."^[5] 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. When opening them, the Master of the Drapers' Company declared their aims to be "to improve the scientific and technical knowledge of apprentices and workmen engaged in industrial life". However others saw the technical schools as one day becoming a technical university for the East End.^[6] The conflicting demands of pleasure and education were identified by the Assistant Charity Commissioner as early as 1891 and for the next forty years this was to dog the People's Palace. In 1892 the Drapers' Company provided £7000 a year for ten years to guarantee the educational side income.

Into the University of London

Part of the Charterhouse Square site

The classes reached a peak of 8000 tickets in 1892–1893 but fell to less than half for the following year, due to competition from the London School Board, despite the Palace's classes being more advanced. With the level of teaching grew, in 1895 John 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 University of London (then a degree awarding body) Bachelor of Science degree. By the turn of the 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 told it was "of the highest importance that there should be a School of the University in the faculties of Arts, Science and Engineering within easy reach of the very large population of the East End of London." The educational part of the People's Palace was admitted on an initial three year trial basis as a School of the University of London on 15 May 1907 as East London College. In 1910 the College's status in the University 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.^[7]

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.^[8]

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 another institution 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.^[9]

Under the Charter

The Queens' Building

During the Second World War the College was evacuated to Cambridge, where it shared with King's College. Meanwhile the Mile End site was requisitioned for war work and was for a time used as the Municipal Offices of Stepney Borough Council. After the war the College returned to London, facing many of the same problems but with prospects for westward expansion.^[10]

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. The former church of St Benets' to the immediate east of the College was now defunct and was demolished in 1950, with the space used to build a new block for physics, but most of the acquisitions in the immediate post war years were to the west of the college. Even the new People's Palace was no longer able to meet its needs and it was acquired by the College along with several pieces of land that together formed a significant continuous stretch along the Mile End Road. New buildings for 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 (to reflect the support and patronage of both Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother).

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. Consequently, student numbers continued to expand. 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), despite being physically separated from what was now a campus to the west.^[11]

From the mid 1960s until the mid 1980s the College was in a period of uncertainty and flux. Much planning was dominated by the "BLQ scheme" which proposed to link Queen Mary College with the London Hospital Medical College and St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College with a joint facility in Mile End, but the land was not yet available. Over the period land that come onto the market was purchased with the intention to consolidate as soon as possible. The Queen Mary College Act 1973 was passed "to authorise the disposal of the Nuevo burial ground in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and to authorise the use for other purposes thereof..." and gave the authority to disinter and reinter most of the graves to Dytchleys. 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.^[12]

At the start of the 1980s changing demographics and finances caused much concern through the university sector and 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.^[13]

From the mid 1980s onwards the College began expanding across the newly acquired land to the east, taking the campus to the Regent's Canal. A part of the burial ground remains to this day but the rest of the area has been absorbed by the College's expansion. The long planned Pre Clinical Medicine building for the BLQ Scheme finally materialised in the late 1980s, further strengthening the ties between the three colleges.^[14] 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.

Westfield College

Queen Mary & Westfield College

The arms of Queen Mary & Westfield College (prior to the merger with the medical schools), combining details from the arms of the two individual colleges. The triple crowns come from the arms of Queen Mary College, originating in the Drapers' arms.

Continued uncertainty about the future of Westfield College led to its merger with Queen Mary in 1989 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 off.

Merger with the medical schools

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 together and into Queen Mary & Westfield College to form the entity now named Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Public name change

In 2000 the college changed its name for general public use to Queen Mary, University of London; however, the College's charter has not been reissued and its legal name remains Queen Mary & Westfield College.

Research

In the UK Research Assessment Exercise results published in December 2008 Queen Mary achieved outstanding results, being 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."^{[citation needed]}

Queen Mary is ranked third for research amongst University of London multi-faculty colleges.^[15]

Queen Mary was ranked 99th in The Times Higher Education Supplement rankings of higher education institutions worldwide in 2004,^{[citation needed][16][17]} The Times Higher Education Supplement's peer review-based separate table for the top 100 international Universities in Arts and Humanities subjects included Queen Mary in joint 21st place in the world, alongside University College London.^{[citation needed]} The Shanghai Jiao Tong University's 2007 Academic Ranking of World Universities placed it 57 - 80 in Europe and 151 - 201 globally, putting it level with LSE, Durham and St. Andrews.^[18] The 2007 CHE-ExcellenceRanking, examining the academic performance of graduate programs in natural sciences, placed Queen Mary in the European top group for biology and physics.^[19] In addition, The Guardian Newspaper's League Tables placed Queen Mary 12th in the UK in 2005; it was placed 42nd by The Times; and 28th in 2006. Queen Mary has also been ranked the sixth best UK university for student employability^[20] — with the second highest UK graduate starting salary.^[21]

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 Kings College London and UCL and are permitted to use the facilities at the University of London Union, located a 15 minute tube ride away in the academic melting pot of Bloomsbury. Requests by students to carry out research at other College's libraries, such as the Maughan Library and the collections at SOAS, are also welcomed by member institutions.

Academic strengths

In the 2008 official Research Assessment Exercise, according to the Times Higher Education rankings, Queen Mary was placed in the top five nationally, including:

• Linguistics (ranked 1st)
• Geography (ranked 1st equal with Bristol)
• Drama, dance and performing arts (ranked 1st for Drama, but 2nd equal in the unit of assessment with the department ahead of Queen Mary not being entered for Drama)
• Dentistry (ranked 2nd)
• English Language and Literature (ranked 2nd)
• Epidemiology and public health (ranked 3rd)
• Pre-clinical and human biological sciences (ranked 4th)
• Health Services Research (ranked 4th)
• Cancer studies (ranked 5th equal).^{[citation needed]}

Queen Mary was also placed in the highest quartile in:

• Law
• Iberian Languages
• History
• Computer Science
• Economics and Econometrics
• Other hospital-based clinical subjects^{[citation needed]}

In addition, Queen Mary has recorded substantial achievements in a number of other competitive subjects, including

• Russian
• French
• Materials
• Politics
• Pure Maths, and
• Electronic Engineering.^{[citation needed]}

Business and Management, a new department not entered in the 2001 RAE,^{[citation needed]} has equalled the Cass Business School at City University, London in the Times Higher Education RAE rankings, coming within the top half of business schools.^[22]

Collaborative international programmes

Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications

Queen Mary offers a groundbreaking 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 a college of the University of London in Paris, France, known as the University of London Institute in Paris (ULIP), enabling undergraduate and graduate students to study University of London ratified French Studies degrees in France.^{[citation needed]}

Facilities

Campuses

This section requires expansion.

The college has four campuses within London, at Mile End, Whitechapel, Charterhouse Square and Lincoln's Inn Fields

Students' accommodation

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.^{[citation needed]}

Halls of Residence

MILE END

• Albert Stern House (and Cottages) *Alderney Road
• Arbery Road *Bancroft Road
• Beaumont Court *Chapman House
• Chesney House *Sir Christopher France House
• Creed Court *Ifor Evans Place
• Lindop House *Lynden House
• Maynard House *Maurice Court
• Pooley House *Richard Feilden House
• Stocks Court *Strahan Road
• Tredegar Square *Varey House

WHITECHAPEL

• Floyer House

CHARTERHOUSE SQUARE

• Dawson Hall

Harold Pinter Drama Studio

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 (School of English and Drama) in the Mile End campus,^[23][24] to celebrate its refurbishment.^[25]

Queen Mary Students' Union

The Queen Mary Students' Union unites the various clubs and societies of Queen Mary, University of London. The students' union is split between two sites, the Blomeley Centre and the original students' union site (recently refurbished).

Sabbatical Officers

The elected representatives within the Union are made up of a President and four vice-Presidents. The current SU president is Mazdak Alizadeh.

President: Responsible for the running of the Union and also the main figure head of the organisation.

Vice President Association: Also known as the Barts and the London SU President, responsible for the running of the Association and are specifically there to make sure that the needs of the Medical and Dental Students are addressed and met.

Vice President Education Welfare and Representation: Responsible for the course reps, elections systems, campaigning on student issues and most importantly making sure that College has appropriate services to meet the welfare needs of our students.

Vice President Student Activities: Responsible for the running of clubs and societies, RAG and Provide volunteering, INTERSOC (Inter Society Football) and coming up with innovative activities that students can participate in.

Vice President Media & Publication: Responsible for the Website, Cub Magazine and Surveys and Research.

SU facilities and publications

• QMotion (Gym/Fitness Centre)
• Drapers Bar
• Ground (Costa)
• QMessenger (Newspaper)
• CUB (Magazine)

Merger Cup

QMSU and BLSA sports clubs compete every year in the Merger Cup where many of the sports teams within both SUs compete against each other. Barts and The London regained the merger cup in 2009.

Notable staff (past and present)

• Peter Cameron - mathematician
• Bernard Carr - maths and astronomy
• Roger Cotterrell - Professor of Legal Theory
• Toby Dodge - international politics
• Graham Dorrington - aeronautical engineer, subject of The White Diamond
• Felipe Fernández-Armesto - Professor of Global Environmental History
• Michael Green - theoretical physicist
• Peter Hennessy - Professor of Contemporary British History
• Tristram Hunt - modern British historian
• Julian Jackson - Professor of History
• Lisa Jardine - Professor of Renaissance Studies
• Jeremy Jennings - Professor of Political Theory
• Colin Jones - Professor of History
• Gwyn Jones - Professor of Physics
• Peter Landin - Professor of Theoretical Computer Science
• Michael Mingos - chemistry
• Nicholas O'Shaughnessy - Professor of Marketing and Communication
• Jacqueline Rose - Professor of English
• David Pinder
• Miri Rubin - Professor of Early Modern History
• Charles Saumarez Smith - British art historian
• Kevin Sharpe - Professor of Renaissance Studies
• Denise Sheer - Professor of Human Genetics
• Quentin Skinner - Professor of the Humanities
• Evelyn Welch
• Maurice Preston, Baron Preston - Professor of Economics

Notable alumni

• Kia Abdullah - Novelist
• Alia Bano - playwright
• Dr Thomas Barnardo - Children's philanthropist
• Sir Malcolm Bradbury - Novelist
• Bernard Butler - Indie guitarist
• Peter Caruana - Chief Minister of Gibraltar
• Graham Chapman - Monty Python star
• Adrian Chiles - BBC presenter
• Bruce Dickinson - Member of Iron Maiden
• Michael Duff - string theorist
• Baroness Falkender - Politician
• Romola Garai - Actress
• Roy Goode - Commercial Lawyer and Author.
• Sean Gilder - Actor
• Roger Tan Kor Mee - senior Malaysian lawyer
• Peter Hain - Labour MP, Former Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Secretary of State for Wales.
• Mike Hennessy - Olympic rower
• Jane Hill - Newsreader, BBC News
• Ruth Prawer Jhabvala - Novelist and Academy Award winning screenwriter
• Sir Michael Lyons - Chairman of the BBC Trust
• Alasdair MacIntyre - philosopher
• Sir Peter Mansfield - Nobel Prize winning physicist
• Basil Markesinis - International Lawyer
• Bill O'Reilly - Host of The O'Reilly Factor on the Fox News Channel
• Jeremy Phillips - Intellectual Property lawyer.
• Geoffrey Robertson - Human Rights lawyer
• Prannoy Roy - Indian journalist
• Sir Roy Strong - Historian
• Sir Phillip Leech - Historian
• James Theaker - Radio personality
• David Sullivan - Pornographer and owner of the Sport and Sunday Sport newspapers
• Sir John Meurig Thomas - Chemist
• Roger Tilling - Broadcaster and voice of University Challenge
• Kate Williams - Broadcaster and Historian
• Robert Winston, Baron Winston - Pioneer of in vitro fertilisation
• Matthew Roberts - Disc Jockey
• Eleanor Goodwin - Disc Jockey and PR specialist
• Dr Thomas Dyson - Commercial Lawyer
• Peter Edward Taylor - Actor
• Scott Thomas Waldrup - American Ambassador
• Peter Edwin Harrison - Writer and Director
• Caroline Spelman - Current Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
• W.G Grace - Cricketer ^[26]
• J.G Ballard - Author of Empire Of The Sun and Crash amongst other works.^[27]
• Sarah Waters - Author of Tipping The Velvet.^[27]

In addition, the musicians Pete Doherty and Jay Sean attended Queen Mary, but both left before completing their courses.

See also

• Queen Mary, University of London Boat Club
• University of London Institute in Paris

References

External links

• Queen Mary, University of London website
• Queen Mary University of London Business Society