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The University of Bristol was founded in 1876 as the University College, Bristol. It was the first UK university to admit women on the same basis as men and is one of the largest employers in the area. It is a member of the Russell Group of Universities as well as the Coimbra Group of leading European universities. The tower of the university's Wills Memorial Building is a Bristol landmark and a symbol of the university. The university offers a diverse range of courses, but is most well known for its Medicine, Law and Engineering faculties. In 2001 Bristol University had the highest intake ratio of any British university with 11 applications to every place. The university also consistently ranks in the top ten of British universities in newspaper league tables and is known for its research strength, having fifteen departments gaining the top grade in the latest RAE research assesment.
The university has been regarded as being elitist, as in the past it took nearly half of its students from non-state schools. In late February and early March 2003 the university became embroiled in a row about its admission policies, with some private schools threatening a boycott based on their claims that, in an effort to improve equality of access, the university is discriminating against their students.
In recent years, vice-chancellor Eric Thomas has advocated shifting the university's emphasis from undergraduate teaching towards research. The university has an reputation for excellence in science and technology, but also in many areas of the humanities and social sciences.
History
The University College of Bristol opened, in 1876, as a college of the University of London. In 1893 University College merged with the Bristol Medical School, and in 1909 the college merged with the Merchant Venturers' Technical College to become the University of Bristol. At this point the university was granted a Royal Charter. In 1912 Long Ashton Research Station was added as the University's Department of Agricultural and Horticultural Research.
Between 1905 and 1930 during the years of the University's birth, financial and political support came from the influential Bristol families of Fry and Wills. The first Chancellor of the University, in 1909, was Henry Overton Wills III, who had donated £100,000 (equivalent to £6m today) to the cause of making the university independent. Wills death in 1911 prompted the construction of the Wills Memorial Building by his sons, George Alfred Wills and Henry Herbert Wills.
Most of the buildings here are used by the university. The Wills Memorial Building is left of centre. Viewed from the Cabot Tower on Brandon Hill
Miscellaneous Facts From 1929 to 1965 Sir Winston Churchill was the Chancellor of the university.
On March 12, 2004 The Right Honourable the Baroness Hale of Richmond (aka Brenda Hale) was installed as the University's seventh Chancellor, succeeding Sir Jeremy Morse who retired at the end of 2003.
Among university properties is the student hall of residence Goldney Hall, which is a popular location for filming with The Chronicles of Narnia, The House of Eliott and Berkeley Square being filmed there. The grotto in Goldney's garden is a grade I listed building. The University also owns Royal Fort House and Clifton Hill House, both also grade I, and the grade II* Victoria Rooms, an impressive public hall with an imposing corner site. The Wills Memorial Building is listed grade II*.
At the 1988 and 2004 AGMs the University Union voted to hold a referendum on whether to disaffiliate from the National Union of Students. On both occasions the Union remained affiliated.
Students gaining first degrees from Bristol are in the select group of British students who do not wear mortarboards at graduation. According to legend, this is because, at an early graduation ceremony, the male graduands all threw their headgear either at the female graduands, or off the Clifton Suspension Bridge, by way of 'protest' at coeducation. Subsequently mortarboards were not worn for receiving Bachelors or Masters degrees.
The University is the home to the country's oldest drama department, opened in 1946.
Student alumni
Academia The Victoria Rooms now house the university's Department of Music.
Authors
Business
Journalism - Plum Sykes (Fashion journalist)
- Alistair Stewart (TV Journalist)
- Kate Sanderson (TV Journalist)
- Laura Trevelyan (TV Journalist)
- Matthew Norman (Newspaper journalist)
- Misha Glenny
Politics
Science  The university's physics department - Paul Dirac (Nobel laureate, Physics)
- Professor Judith Howard (Chemist)
- Klaus Fuchs (Physicist and Russian spy)
- Philip Charles Ruffles (Director of Engineering and Technology at Rolls Royce)
TV
Staff alumni
Related topics
External links - University of Bristol website (http://www.bris.ac.uk/)
- University of Bristol Student Union website (http://www.ubu.org.uk/)
- Epigram, the University of Bristol Student newspaper (http://www.epigram.org.uk/)
- BURST, Bristol University Radio Station (http://www.burst.org.uk/)
2003 Admissions policy dispute - BBC News - Elite uni aims to broaden its appeal (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/1768564.stm)
- BBC News - Bristol denies admissions bias (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/2798507.stm)
- BBC News - 'University bias' debate rumbles on (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/2814743.stm)
- Guardian - 'Bristol University access row' (http://education.guardian.co.uk/universityaccess)
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