60-633: Birmingham Archaeology (formerly Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit (BUFAU)) was the commercial arm of the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity at the University of Birmingham . Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit was founded in 1976 under its founder-director Martin Carver . Birmingham Archaeology closed down in 2012. Before its closure, Birmingham Archaeology comprised three distinct teams; Birmingham Archaeology Heritage Services,
120-610: A 30 feet (9.1 m) drop, so the architects placed their buildings on two tiers with a 16 feet (4.9 m) drop between them. The clock tower stands in the centre of the Court. The campanile itself draws its inspiration from the Torre del Mangia , a medieval clock tower that forms part of the Town Hall in Siena , Italy. When it was built, it was described as 'the intellectual beacon of
180-471: A grand campanile which commemorates the university's first chancellor, Joseph Chamberlain . Chamberlain may be considered the founder of Birmingham University, and was largely responsible for the university gaining its Royal Charter in 1900 and for the development of the Edgbaston campus. The university's Great Hall is located in the domed Aston Webb Building, which is named after one of the architects –
240-760: A major expansion in the 1960s due to the production of a masterplan by Casson, Conder and Partners. The first of the major buildings to be constructed to a design by the firm was the Refectory and Staff House which was built in 1961 and 1962. The two buildings are connected by a bridge. The next major buildings to be constructed were the Wyddrington and Lake Halls and the Faculty of Commerce and Social Science, all completed in 1965. The Wyddrington and Lake Halls, on Edgbaston Park Road, were designed by H. T. Cadbury-Brown and contained three floors of student dwellings above
300-585: A new Indoor Sports Centre as part of a £175 million investment in the campus. In 1978, University station , on the Cross-City Line , was opened to serve the university and its hospital. It is the only university campus in mainland Britain with its own railway station. In 2021, construction began on a redeveloped facility adjacent to the existing structure as part of the West Midlands Rail Programme (WMRP). The rebuilt station
360-528: A proposal for the construction of a proton- synchrotron in 1943; however, he made no assertion that the machine would work. In 1945, phase stability was discovered; consequently, the proposal was revived, and construction of a machine that could surpass proton energies of 1 GeV began at the university. However, because of lack of funds, the machine did not start until 1953. The Brookhaven National Laboratory managed to beat them; they started their Cosmotron in 1952, and had it entirely working in 1953, before
420-482: A quarter of a million pounds. In 1967, Lucas House, a new hall of residence designed by The John Madin Design Group , was completed, providing 150 study bedrooms. It was constructed in the garden of a large house. The Medical School was extended in 1967 to a design by Leonard J. Multon and Partners. The two-storey building was part of a complex which covers the southside of Metchley Fort , a Roman fort. In 1968,
480-520: A single floor of communal facilities. The Faculty of Commerce and Social Science, now known as the Ashley Building, was designed by Howell, Killick, Partridge and Amis and is a long, curving two-storey block linked to a five-storey whorl . The two-storey block follows the curve of the road, and has load-bearing brick cross walls. It is faced in specially-made concrete blocks. The spiral is faced with faceted pre-cast concrete cladding panels. It
540-641: A training camp for the Jamaican athletics team prior to the 2012 London Olympics . A new library was opened for the 2016/17 academic year, and a new sports centre opened in May 2017. The previous Main Library and the old Munrow Sports Centre, including the athletics track, have both since been demolished, with the demolition of the old library being completed in November 2017. The discipline of cultural studies
600-520: A wide diversity in architectural types and architects. "What makes Birmingham so exceptional among the Red Brick universities is the deployment of so many other major Modernist practices: only Oxford and Cambridge boast greater selections". The Guild of Students original section was designed by Birmingham inter-war architect Holland Hobbiss who also designed the King Edward's School opposite. It
660-646: Is a 450-seat concert hall, called the Bramall Music Building, which completes the redbrick semicircle of the Aston Webb building designed by Glenn Howells Architects with venue design by Acoustic Dimensions. This auditorium, with its associated research, teaching and rehearsal facilities, houses the Department of Music. In August 2011 the university announced that architects Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands and S&P were appointed to develop
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#1732801209619720-824: Is home to the Barber Institute of Fine Arts , housing works by Van Gogh , Picasso and Monet ; the Shakespeare Institute ; the Cadbury Research Library, the Mingana Collection of Middle Eastern manuscripts; the Lapworth Museum of Geology ; and the 100-metre Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower , which is a prominent landmark visible from many parts of the city. Academics and alumni of
780-545: Is the 10th largest in the UK (out of 169). The annual income of the university for 2022–23 was £909.1 million of which £196.7 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £884.7 million. In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework , the University of Birmingham ranked equal 13th out of 129 institutions on grade point average, up from equal 31st in the previous REF in 2014. The university
840-576: The Barber Institute of Fine Arts , designed by Robert Atkinson , was opened. In 1956, the first MSc programme in Geotechnical Engineering commenced under the title of "Foundation Engineering", and has been run annually at the university since. The UK's longest-running MSc programme in Physics and Technology of Nuclear Reactors also started at the university in 1956, the same year that the world's first commercial nuclear power station
900-838: The Birmingham Workhouse Infirmary was founded in 1828, but Cox began teaching in December 1825. Queen Victoria granted her patronage to the Clinical Hospital in Birmingham and allowed it to be styled "The Queen's Hospital". It was the first provincial teaching hospital in England. In 1843, the medical college became known as Queen's College. In 1870, Sir Josiah Mason , the Birmingham industrialist and philanthropist, who made his fortune in making key rings, pens, pen nibs and electroplating, drew up
960-658: The Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery ), and Mason Science College (established in 1875 by Sir Josiah Mason ), making it the first English civic or 'red brick' university to receive its own royal charter, and the first English unitary 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 student population includes 24,885 undergraduate and 13,825 postgraduate students (2022/23), which
1020-610: The Lapworth Museum of Geology in the Aston Webb Building in Edgbaston . It is named after Charles Lapworth , a geologist who worked at Mason Science College. Birmingham Workhouse Infirmary The Birmingham Union Workhouse was a workhouse on Western Road in Birmingham , England. The Birmingham Workhouse Infirmary was a workhouse constructed in 1734 on the site of the present day Coleridge Passage in
1080-569: The Staffordshire Hoard , the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found. In 2010 they excavated at Knowles Mill , a former corn mill in the Wyre Forest . University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University ) is a public research university in Birmingham , England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as
1140-571: The glucoside ring tautomeric structure of aldose sugars. His research helped to define the basic features of the starch , cellulose , glycogen , inulin and xylan molecules. He also contributed towards solving the problems with bacterial polysaccharides. He was a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1937. The cavity magnetron was developed in the Department of Physics by Sir John Randall , Harry Boot and James Sayers . This
1200-549: The 1st Southern General Hospital, a facility for the Royal Army Medical Corps to treat military casualties; it was equipped with 520 beds and treated 125,000 injured servicemen. In June 1921, the university appointed Linetta de Castelvecchio as Serena Professor of Italian : she was the first woman to hold a chair at the university and one of the first women professors in Great Britain. In 1939,
1260-447: The Cadbury Research Library, the new home for the university's Special Collections. The podium was remodeled around the existing Allardyce Nicol studio theatre, providing additional rehearsal spaces and changing and technical facilities. The ground floor lobby now incorporates a Starbucks coffee shop. The name, Muirhead Tower, came from that of the first philosophy professor of the university John Henry Muirhead . Recently completed
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#17328012096191320-630: The Flemish sculptor John van Nost . Final negotiations for part of what is now the Vale were only completed in March 1947. By then, properties which would have their names used for halls of residences such as Wyddrington and Maple Bank were under discussion and more land was obtained from the Calthorpe estate in 1948 and 1949 providing the setting for the Vale. Landscape architect Mary Mitchell designed
1380-632: The Foundation Deed for Mason Science College . The college was founded in 1875. It was this institution that would eventually form the nucleus of the University of Birmingham. In 1882, the Departments of Chemistry, Botany and Physiology were transferred to Mason Science College, soon followed by the Departments of Physics and Comparative Anatomy . The transfer of the Medical School to Mason Science College gave considerable impetus to
1440-478: The Institute for Education in the Department for Education was opened. This was another Casson, Conder and Partners-designed building. The complex consisted of a group of buildings centred around an eight-storey block, containing study offices, laboratories and teaching rooms. The building has a reinforced concrete frame which is exposed internally and the external walls are of silver-grey rustic bricks. The roofs of
1500-608: The Midlands' by the Birmingham Post . The clock tower was Birmingham's tallest building from the date of its construction in 1908 until 1969; it is now the third highest in the city. It is one of the top 50 tallest buildings in the UK, and the tallest free-standing clock tower in the world, although there is some confusion about its actual height, with the university listing it both as 110 metres (361 ft) and 325 feet (99 m) tall in different sources. The campus has
1560-435: The University of Birmingham. In 1947, Sir Peter Medawar was appointed Mason Professor of Zoology at the university. His work involved investigating the phenomenon of tolerance and transplantation immunity. He collaborated with Rupert E. Billingham and they did research on problems of pigmentation and skin grafting in cattle. They used skin grafting to differentiate between monozygotic and dizygotic twins in cattle. Taking
1620-702: The University of Warwick. The initial plan was to establish a satellite university college in Coventry but Aitken advised an independent initiative to the University Grants Committee. Malcolm X , the Afro-American human rights activist, addressed the University Debating Society in 1965. The university has been involved in many scientific breakthroughs and inventions. From 1925 until 1948, Sir Norman Haworth
1680-446: The University published a report into, and apologised for, its involvement in developing, promoting and administering electric-shock conversion therapy to gay men, during the period 1966-1983. The main campus of the university occupies a site some 3 miles (4.8 km) south-west of Birmingham city centre , in Edgbaston . It is arranged around Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower (affectionately known as 'Old Joe' or 'Big Joe'),
1740-470: The Visual and Spatial Technology Centre (VISTA) and Birmingham Archaeo-Environmental (BAE). Each of the groups was responsible for the undertaking of commercial projects and services, the development of research projects and the delivery of postgraduate and professional training via taught Masters programmes and CPD workshops. In 2009, Birmingham Archaeology was co-responsible for the archaeological recovery of
1800-600: The capacity of the old one, was constructed between 1850 and 1852 under the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, to designs by John Jones Bateman and G Drury. It was built in the Winson Green area, to the west of the city centre. The main entrance building, though derelict, survived until demolition in September 2017. Its arched entrance was known as "the arch of tears". The remainder of the workhouse
1860-554: The city centre, now opposite Birmingham Children's Hospital . This facility had hosted the medical lectures of Mr John Tomlinson, the First Surgeon of the infirmary; these lectures, commencing in 1767 were the precursor to the foundation of the Birmingham Medical School in 1825 and were among the first formal medical lectures held outside London and Scotland. A new infirmary building, built to increase
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1920-552: The corners. The frame is of pre-cast reinforced concrete with columns in groups of four and the whole is planned as a tartan grid, allowing services to be carried vertically and horizontally so that at no point in a room are services more than ten feet away. The building received the 1966 RIBA Architecture Award for the West Midlands. It was statutorily listed in 1993. Taking the full five years from 1962 to 1967, Birmingham erected twelve buildings which each cost in excess of
1980-590: The court order defines the defendants as: Persons unknown (including students of the University of Birmingham) entering or remaining upon the buildings known as No. 2 Lodge Pritchatts Road, Birmingham at the University of Birmingham for the purpose of protest action (without the consent of the University of Birmingham). The university and the Guild of Students also clarified the scope of the injunction in an e-mail sent to all students on 11 January 2012, stating: "The injunction applies only to those individuals who occupied
2040-592: The earlier research of R. D. Owen into consideration, they concluded that actively acquired tolerance of homografts could be artificially reproduced. For this research, Medawar was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society . He left Birmingham in 1951 and joined the faculty at University College London , where he continued his research on transplantation immunity. He was a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1960. In 1999 talks commenced on
2100-479: The first principal , was complete. A remnant of Josiah Mason's legacy is the Mermaid from his coat-of-arms, which appears in the sinister chief of the university shield and of his college, the double-headed lion in the dexter. The commerce faculty was founded by Sir William Ashley in 1901, who from 1902 until 1923 served as first Professor of Commerce and Dean of the Faculty. From 1905 to 1908, Edward Elgar held
2160-550: The growing importance of that college and in 1896 a move to incorporate it as a university college was made. As the result of the Mason University College Act 1897 ( 60 & 61 Vict. c. xx) it became incorporated as Mason University College on 1 January 1898, with Joseph Chamberlain becoming the President of its Court of Governors. It was largely due to Chamberlain's enthusiasm that the university
2220-497: The layout of the campus and she included mature trees that were retained from the former gardens. Construction on the Vale started in 1962 with the creation of a 3-acre (12,000 m ) artificial lake and the building of Ridge, High, Wyddrington and Lake Halls. The first, Ridge Hall, opened for 139 women in January 1964, with its counterpart High Hall admitting its first male residents the following October. The university underwent
2280-507: The lecture halls, penthouse and Child Study wing are covered in copper. Arup Associates returned in the 1960s to design the Arts and Commerce Building, better known as Muirhead Tower and houses the Institute of Local Government Studies. This was completed in 1969. A£42 million refurbishment of the 16-storey tower was completed in 2009 and it now houses the Colleges of Social Sciences and
2340-403: The lodge". The university said that it sought this injunction as a safety precaution based on a previous occupation. Three separate human rights groups, including Amnesty International , condemned the move as restrictive on human rights. In 2019, several women said the university refused to investigate allegations of campus rape . One student who complained of rape in university accommodation
2400-646: The other was Ingress Bell . The initial 25-acre (100,000 m ) site was given to the university in 1900 by Lord Calthorpe. The grand buildings were an outcome of the £50,000 given by steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie to establish a "first class modern scientific college" on the model of Cornell University in the United States. Funding was also provided by Sir Charles Holcroft . The original domed buildings, built in Accrington red brick , semicircle to form Chancellor's Court. This sits on
2460-581: The position of Peyton Professor of Music at the university. He was succeeded by his friend Granville Bantock . The university's own heritage archives are accessible for research through the university's Cadbury Research Library which is open to all interested researchers. During the First World War , the Great Hall in the Aston Webb Building was requisitioned by the War Office to create
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2520-412: The possibility of Aston University integrating itself into the University of Birmingham as the University of Birmingham, Aston Campus. This would have resulted in the University of Birmingham expanding to become one of the largest universities in the UK, with a student body of 30,000. Talks were halted in 2001 after Aston University determined the timing to be inopportune. While Aston University management
2580-686: The roots of the Birmingham Medical School in the medical education seminars of John Tomlinson, the first surgeon to the Birmingham Workhouse Infirmary , and later to the Birmingham General Hospital . These classes, held in the winter of 1767–68, were the first such lectures ever held in England or Wales. The first clinical teaching was undertaken by medical apprentices at the General Hospital, founded in 1779. The medical school which grew out of
2640-555: The sports hall consists of eight conoidal 2½-inch thick sprayed concrete shells springing from 80-foot (24 m) long pre-stressed valley beams. On the south elevation, the roof is supported on raking pre-cast columns and reversed shells form a cantilevered canopy. Also completed in 1966 was the Mining and Minerals Engineering and Physical Metallurgy Departments, which was designed by Philip Dowson of Arup Associates . This complex consisted of four similar three-storey blocks linked at
2700-677: The university during the 2010 British general election campaign on 29 April 2010. On 9 August 2010 the university announced that for the first time it would not enter the UCAS clearing process for 2010 admission, which matches under-subscribed courses to students who did not meet their firm or insurance choices, due to all places being taken. Largely a result of the Great Recession , Birmingham joined fellow Russell Group universities including Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Bristol in not offering any clearing places. The university acted as
2760-537: The university helped in the establishment of the faculty of medicine at the University of Rhodesia, now the University of Zimbabwe (UZ). UZ is now independent but both institutions maintain relations through student exchange programmes. Birmingham also supported the creation of Keele University (formerly University College of North Staffordshire) and the University of Warwick under the Vice-Chancellorship of Sir Robert Aitken who acted as 'godfather' to
2820-561: The university include former British Prime Ministers Neville Chamberlain and Stanley Baldwin , the British composer Sir Edward Elgar and eleven Nobel laureates . The earliest beginnings of the university were originally traced back to the Queen's College , which is linked to William Sands Cox in his aim of creating a medical school along strictly Christian lines, unlike the contemporary London medical schools. Further research revealed
2880-482: The university is the Winterbourne Botanic Garden , a 24,000 square metre (258,000 square foot) Edwardian Arts and Crafts style garden. The large statue in the foreground was a gift to the university by its sculptor Sir Edward Paolozzi – the sculpture is named 'Faraday', and has an excerpt from the poem 'The Dry Salvages' by T. S. Eliot around its base. The University of Birmingham operates
2940-433: The university was fourth in a list of British universities that faced the most employment tribunal claims between 2008 and 2011. They were the second most likely to settle these before the hearing date. In 2011 a parliamentary early day motion was proposed, arguing against the Guild suspending the elected Sabbatical Vice President (Education), who was arrested while taking part in protest activity. In December 2011 it
3000-492: Was statutorily listed in 1993 and a refurbishment by Berman Guedes Stretton was completed in 2006. Chamberlain, Powell and Bon were commissioned to design the Physical Education Centre which was built in 1966. The main characteristic of the building is the roof of the changing rooms and small gymnasium which has hyperbolic paraboloid roof light shells and is completely paved in quarry tiles. The roof of
3060-448: Was Professor and Director of the Department of Chemistry. He was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Science and acted as Vice-Principal from 1947 until 1948. His research focused predominantly on carbohydrate chemistry in which he confirmed a number of structures of optically active sugars. By 1928, he had deduced and confirmed the structures of maltose , cellobiose , lactose , gentiobiose , melibiose , gentianose, raffinose , as well as
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#17328012096193120-400: Was announced that the university had obtained a 12-month-long injunction against a group of around 25 students, who occupied a residential building on campus from 23 to 26 November 2011, preventing them from engaging in further "occupational protest action" on the university's grounds without prior permission. It was misreported in the press that this injunction applied to all students; however,
3180-556: Was completed and opened to the public in January 2024. Nearby, the Steampipe Bridge, which was constructed in 2011, transports steam across the Cross-City Railway Line and Worcester & Birmingham Canal from the energy generation plant to the medical school as part of the university's sustainable energy strategy. Its laser-cut exterior is also a public art feature. Located within the Edgbaston site of
3240-603: Was described as "Redbrick Tudorish" by Nikolaus Pevsner . The statue on horseback fronting the entrance to the university and Barber Institute of Fine Arts is a 1722 statue of George I rescued from Dublin in 1937. This was saved by Bodkin, a director of the National Gallery of Ireland and first director of the Barber Institute. The statue was commissioned by the Dublin Corporation from
3300-440: Was founded at the university and between 1964 and 2002 the campus was home to the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies , a research centre whose members' work came to be known as the Birmingham School of Cultural Studies. Despite being established by one of the key figures in the field, Richard Hoggart , and being later directed by the theorist Stuart Hall , the department was controversially closed down. Analysis showed that
3360-488: Was granted a royal charter by Queen Victoria on 24 March 1900. The Calthorpe family offered twenty-five acres (10 hectares) of land on the Bournbrook side of their estate in July. The Court of Governors received the Birmingham University Act 1900 ( 63 & 64 Vict. c. xix), which put the royal charter into effect on 31 May. The transfer of Mason University College to the new University of Birmingham, with Chamberlain as its first chancellor and Sir Oliver Lodge as
3420-404: Was in favour of the integration, and reception among staff was generally positive, the Aston student union voted two-to-one against the integration. Despite this set back, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Birmingham said the door remained open to recommence talks when Aston University is ready. The final round of the first ever televised leaders' debates, hosted by the BBC , was held at
3480-399: Was opened at Calder Hall in Cumbria. In 1957, Sir Hugh Casson and Neville Conder were asked by the university to prepare a masterplan on the site of the original 1900 buildings which were incomplete. The university drafted in other architects to amend the masterplan produced by the group. During the 1960s, the university constructed numerous large buildings, expanding the campus. In 1963,
3540-401: Was told by employees of the university that there were no specific procedures for handling rape complaints. In other cases students were told they would have to prove the alleged rapes occurred on university property. The university has been criticized by legal professionals for not adequately assessing the risk to students by refusing to investigate complaints of criminal conduct. In June 2022
3600-438: Was vital to the Allied victory in World War II. In 1940, the Frisch–Peierls memorandum , a document which demonstrated that the atomic bomb was more than simply theoretically possible, was written in the Physics Department by Sir Rudolf Peierls and Otto Frisch . The university also hosted early work on gaseous diffusion in the Chemistry department when it was located in the Hills building. Physicist Sir Mark Oliphant made
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