Queen Mary University of London

St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College and The London Hospital Medical College

The Medical College of The Royal London Hospital (now part of the School of Medicine and Dentistry) was England's first medical school when it opened in 1785.^[12] In 1850, Elizabeth Blackwell became the first fully qualified female doctor in the UK, after training at St Bartholomew's Hospital.^[12]

People's Palace

The predecessor to Queen Mary College was founded in the mid-Victorian era as a People's Palace 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."^{[13]: 15–17} 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."^[13]: 21 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. However others saw the technical schools as one day becoming a technical university for the East End.^[13]: 37 In 1892 the Drapers' Company provided £7,000 a year for ten years to guarantee the educational side income.

East London College

Part of the Charterhouse Square site

In 1895 John Leigh Smeathman 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 Bachelor of Science degree of the University of London. By the start of the 20th 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 admitted on an initial three-year trial basis as a school of the University of London on 15 May 1907 as East London College.

The ground-breaking wind tunnel built in the first-ever aeronautical department in the UK

Teaching of aeronautical engineering began in 1907, which led to the first UK aeronautical engineering department being established in 1909, boasting a ground-breaking wind tunnel and creating what became (following the demise of the University of Paris) the oldest aeronautical programme in the world.^[14]

In 1910 the college's status in the University of London 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.^{[13]: 39–48}

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 re-amalgamate 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.^{[13]: 49–57}

Queen Mary College

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 The Queen's College, Oxford 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.^{[13]: 57–62}

Under the charter

The Queens' Building

During the Second World War, the college was evacuated to Cambridge, where it shared with King's College. After the war the college returned to London, facing many of the same problems but with prospects for westward expansion.^{[13]: 75–85} 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. New buildings for physics, 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.

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. 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), as well as the former headquarters of Spratt's Patent Ltd^[15] (operators of the "largest dog biscuit factory in the world" – see Spratt's Complex) at 41–47 Bow Road, which was converted into a building for the Faculty of Economics founded by Maurice Peston, Baron Peston. Both faculties were physically separated from what was now a campus to the west.^{[13]: 86–102}

From the mid-1960s until the mid-1980s the college proposed to link with the London Hospital Medical College and St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College with a joint facility in Mile End. 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.^{[13]: 103–117}

At the start of the 1980s changing demographics and finances 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]: 117–130}

1989 to 2010

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.

In 1989 Queen Mary College (informally known as QMC) merged with Westfield College 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.

In 1990, The London Hospital was renamed The Royal London Hospital, after marking its 250th year, and a re-organisation of medical education within the University of London resulted in most of the free-standing 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 into Queen Mary & Westfield College to form an entity named Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry.^[16]

In 2000 the college changed its name for general public use to Queen Mary, University of London; in 2013, the college legally changed its name to Queen Mary University of London.

The VISTA telescope is a 4-metre class wide-field telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile that was conceived and developed by a consortium of UK universities led by Queen Mary University, costing approximately £36m.^[17]

The Westfield Student Village opened in 2004 on the Mile End Campus, bringing over 2,000 rooms to students and a huge array of facilities, restaurants, and cafes.^[16][18]

The Blizard Building, home to the Medical School's Institute of Cell and Molecular Science opened at the Whitechapel campus in 2005. The award-winning building was designed by Will Alsop, and is named after William Blizard, an English surgeon and founder of The London Hospital Medical College in 1785.^[19][20]

The year 2006 saw the refurbishment of The Octagon, the original library of the People's Palace dating back to 1888.^[21]

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. The Women at Queen Mary Exhibition was staged in the Octagon, marking 125 years of Westfield College and 120 years of Queen Mary College.^[16]

In September 2009, the world's first science education centre located within a working research laboratory opened at the Blizard Institute of Cell and Molecular Science, hoping to inspire children with school tours and interactive games and puzzles.^[22]

2010 to present

Queen Mary became one of the few university-level institutions to implement a requirement of the A* grade at A-Level after its introduction in 2010 on some of their most popular courses, such as Engineering, Law, and Medicine.^[23][24]

Following on from the 2010 UK student protests, Queen Mary set fees of £9,000 per year for September 2012 entry, while also offering bursaries and scholarships.^[25]

On 12 March 2012 it was announced that Queen Mary would be joining the Russell Group in August 2012.^[26][27] Later in March, Queen Mary and the University of Warwick announced the creation of a strategic partnership, including research collaboration, joint teaching of English, history and computer science undergraduates, and the creation of eight joint post-doctoral research fellowships.^[28][29]

In January 2013, Queen Mary established the world's first professorial chair in animal replacement science.^[30]

From 2014, Queen Mary began awarding its own degrees, rather than those of the University of London.^[31]

Queen Mary became the first Russell Group university to offer Degree Apprenticeships and three years later was the first UK university to launch a social change degree,^[32] the BSc in Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship.

In 2021, Queen Mary became the first UK university to receive the Platinum-level Engage Watermark from the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement.^[33]

Discover more about History related topics

History of Queen Mary University of London

History of Queen Mary University of London

The history of Queen Mary University of London lies 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 to form the School of Medicine and Dentistry at Queen Mary & Westfield College.

Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry

Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry

Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, commonly known as Barts or BL, is a medical and dental school in London, England. The school is part of Queen Mary University of London, a constituent college of the federal University of London, and the United Hospitals. It was formed in 1995 by the merger of the London Hospital Medical College and the Medical College of St Bartholomew's Hospital .

Elizabeth Blackwell

Elizabeth Blackwell

Elizabeth Blackwell was a British and American physician, notable as the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States, and the first woman on the Medical Register of the General Medical Council for the United Kingdom. Blackwell played an important role in both the United States and the United Kingdom as a social reformer, and was a pioneer in promoting education for women in medicine. Her contributions remain celebrated with the Elizabeth Blackwell Medal, awarded annually to a woman who has made a significant contribution to the promotion of women in medicine.

Victorian era

Victorian era

In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian period, and its later half overlaps with the first part of the Belle Époque era of Continental Europe.

Walter Besant

Walter Besant

Sir Walter Besant was an English novelist and historian. William Henry Besant was his brother, and another brother, Frank, was the husband of Annie Besant.

Mayfair

Mayfair

Mayfair is an affluent area in the West End of London towards the eastern edge of Hyde Park, in the City of Westminster, between Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly and Park Lane. It is one of the most expensive districts in the world.

Bancroft's School

Bancroft's School

Bancroft's School is a co-educational private day school located in Woodford Green, London Borough of Redbridge. The school currently has around 1,000 pupils aged between 7 and 18, around 200 of whom are pupils of the Preparatory School and 800 of whom are pupils of the Senior School.

Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria

Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previous British monarch and is known as the Victorian era. It was a period of industrial, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. In 1876, the British Parliament voted to grant her the additional title of Empress of India.

John Leigh Smeathman Hatton

John Leigh Smeathman Hatton

Professor John Leigh Smeathman was a mathematician and Principal of East London College, England, one of the founding colleges of what is now Queen Mary College, part of London University. He was also Vice Chancellor of London University in the 1930s.

University of London

University of London

The University of London is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree-awarding examination board for students holding certificates from University College London and King's College London and "other such other Institutions, corporate or unincorporated, as shall be established for the purpose of Education, whether within the Metropolis or elsewhere within our United Kingdom". This fact allows it to be one of three institutions to claim the title of the third-oldest university in England, and moved to a federal structure in 1900. It is now incorporated by its fourth (1863) royal charter and governed by the University of London Act 2018.

Wind tunnel

Wind tunnel

Wind tunnels are large tubes with air blowing through them which are used to replicate the interaction between air and an object flying through the air or moving along the ground. Researchers use wind tunnels to learn more about how an aircraft will fly. NASA uses wind tunnels to test scale models of aircraft and spacecraft. Some wind tunnels are large enough to contain full-size versions of vehicles. The wind tunnel moves air around an object, making it seem as if the object is flying.

University of Paris

University of Paris

The University of Paris, known metonymically as the Sorbonne, was the leading university in Paris, France, active from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 under the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated with the cathedral school of Notre Dame de Paris, it was considered the second-oldest university in Europe.

Queen's Clocktower at the Mile End campus

The main Mile End campus contains the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Faculty of Science and Engineering, the Queens' Building, the main college library, the student union, Draper's bar and club, several restaurants, a number of halls of residences and a gym. The educational and research sites of the Arts Research Centre, Computer Science, the large Engineering building, G.E. Fogg Building, Francis Bancroft Building, G. O. Jones Building, Joseph Priestley Building, Lock-keeper's Graduate Centre, and the Mathematical Science Building, are all located within the Mile End campus.^[34][35]

The Grade II listed Queens' Building is home to the Octagon. Built in 1887, the Octagon was originally the Queen Mary University of London library. It was designed by architect ER Robson and inspired by the British Museum Reading Room. In 2006, "brightly coloured leather bound books" were restored and reinstated to the bookshelves, along with "busts of famous literati looking down from the beautiful high domed ceiling."^[36]

The Statue of Clement Attlee at QMUL's Mile End Campus

The People's Palace is home to the Grade II listed art deco style Great Hall; this has a seating capacity of over 700 and standing of 1,000. It is complemented by 3 lecture theatres and a foyer.^[37] The night the votes were counted for the 1945 general election, the then local MP for Limehouse and Leader of the Labour Party, Clement Attlee, was present at The People's Palace, where he learned the final result and received confirmation that he had become Prime Minister. A statue of Attlee that was originally displayed outside Limehouse Library was, after its restoration, unveiled outside the Queen Mary library by Peter Mandelson in April 2011.^[38]

The Whitechapel campus encompasses Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, the Whitechapel Medical Library, the award-winning Blizard Institute of Cell and Molecular Science, and The Royal London Hospital.

The West Smithfield campus of the School of Medicine and Dentistry, the West Smithfield Medical Library, the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, the John Vane Science Centre, the Heart Centre and St Bartholomew's Hospital are based in Smithfield.^[39]

The Centre for Commercial Law Studies and LLM teaching and postgraduate law research activities are based in Lincoln's Inn Fields in Holborn.^[39]

The Malta campus, situated on the island of Gozo, is part of Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry. Students taught at the Malta campus are offered the same curriculum as taught in London, for the MBBS Medicine and Medicine Foundation programmes.^[40]

Harold Pinter Drama Studio

The Harold Pinter Drama Studio is the main teaching and performance space of the students and staff of the Department of Drama. 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 (Department of Drama, School of English and Drama) in the Mile End campus,^[41][42] to celebrate its refurbishment.^[43]

Discover more about Campuses related topics

Edward Robert Robson

Edward Robert Robson

Edward Robert Robson FRIBA FSA FSI was an English architect famous for the progressive spirit of his London state-funded school buildings of the 1870s and early 1880s.

British Museum Reading Room

British Museum Reading Room

The British Museum Reading Room, situated in the centre of the Great Court of the British Museum, used to be the main reading room of the British Library. In 1997, this function moved to the new British Library building at St Pancras, London, but the Reading Room remains in its original form at the British Museum.

Bust (sculpture)

Bust (sculpture)

A bust is a sculpted or cast representation of the upper part of the human figure, depicting a person's head and neck, and a variable portion of the chest and shoulders. The piece is normally supported by a plinth. The bust is generally a portrait intended to record the appearance of an individual, but may sometimes represent a type. They may be of any medium used for sculpture, such as marble, bronze, terracotta, plaster, wax or wood.

Intellectual

Intellectual

An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for the normative problems of society. Coming from the world of culture, either as a creator or as a mediator, the intellectual participates in politics, either to defend a concrete proposition or to denounce an injustice, usually by either rejecting or producing or extending an ideology, and by defending a system of values.

Art Deco

Art Deco

Art Deco, short for the French Arts Décoratifs, and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s, and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920s and 1930s. Through styling and design of the exterior and interior of anything from large structures to small objects, including how people look, Art Deco has influenced bridges, buildings, ships, ocean liners, trains, cars, trucks, buses, furniture, and everyday objects like radios and vacuum cleaners.

1945 United Kingdom general election

1945 United Kingdom general election

The 1945 United Kingdom general election was a national election held on Thursday 5 July 1945, but polling in some constituencies was delayed by some days, and the counting of votes was delayed until 26 July to provide time for overseas votes to be brought to Britain. The governing Conservative Party sought to maintain its position in Parliament but faced challenges from public opinion about the future of the United Kingdom in the post-war period. Prime Minister Winston Churchill proposed to call for a general election in Parliament, which passed with a majority vote less than two months after the conclusion of the Second World War in Europe.

Limehouse (UK Parliament constituency)

Limehouse (UK Parliament constituency)

Limehouse was a borough constituency centred on the Limehouse district of the East End of London. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

Leader of the Labour Party (UK)

Leader of the Labour Party (UK)

The leader of the Labour Party is the highest position within the United Kingdom's Labour Party. The current holder of the position is Keir Starmer, who was elected to the position on 4 April 2020, following his victory in the party's leadership election.

Clement Attlee

Clement Attlee

Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, was a British statesman and politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. He was Deputy Prime Minister during the wartime coalition government under Winston Churchill, and served twice as Leader of the Opposition from 1935 to 1940 and from 1951 to 1955. Attlee remains the longest serving Labour leader.

Limehouse Library

Limehouse Library

Limehouse Public Library is a historical building in Limehouse, London, formerly a public library. The library was first proposed for construction in 1888, but the required finances could not be raised until 1900 when John Passmore Edwards was approached for assistance. He subscribed a sum of £5,000 and he subsequently laid the foundation stone on 19 October that year. The library was opened to the public in November 1901 by the mayor of Stepney.

Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry

Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry

Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, commonly known as Barts or BL, is a medical and dental school in London, England. The school is part of Queen Mary University of London, a constituent college of the federal University of London, and the United Hospitals. It was formed in 1995 by the merger of the London Hospital Medical College and the Medical College of St Bartholomew's Hospital .

Blizard Building

Blizard Building

The Blizard Building is a building in Whitechapel in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It houses the Blizard Institute, formerly known as the Blizard Institute of Cell and Molecular Science, part of Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Queen Mary and Westfield College was established by Act of Parliament and the granting of a Royal charter in 1989, following the merger of Queen Mary College (incorporated by charter in 1934) and Westfield College (incorporated in 1933).^[44] The Charter has subsequently been revised three times: in 1995 (as a result of the merger of the college with the Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry); in 2008 (as a result of the Privy Council awarding the College Degree Awarding Powers; and in July 2010 (following a governance review).^[44]

Schools, faculties and departments

There are three faculties and an interdisciplinary life sciences institute. These are split further into independent schools, institutes, and departments:^[45][46]

Central administration

Queen Mary is an 'exempt charity' under the Charities Act 1993. The Higher Education Funding Council for England has been Queen Mary's principal regulator since June 2010.^[44]

Finances

In the financial year ended 31 July 2011, Queen Mary had a total income (including share of joint ventures) of £297.1 million (2009/10 – £289.82 million) and total expenditure of £295.35 million (2009/10 – £291.56 million).^[44] Key sources of income included £100.02 million from funding body grants (2009/10 – £103.97 million), £82.8 million from tuition fees and education contracts (2009/10 – £76.22 million), £73.66 million from research grants and contracts (2009/10 – £68.47 million) and £1.17 million from endowment and investment income (2008/09 – £1.48 million).^[44] During the 2010/11 financial year Queen Mary had a capital expenditure of £42.53 million (2009/10 – £45.61 million).^[44]

At year end Queen Mary had endowments of £33.59 million (2009/10 – £29.95 million) and total net assets of £300.79 million (2009/10 – £291.38 million).^[44]

Queen Mary offers several packages of bursaries and scholarships, many of which are aimed at supporting undergraduate students from low income households. In 2017/18, 5,215 students were awarded a Queen Mary Bursary worth £7,724,401, 53 students received Science and Engineering Excellence Scholarships worth £157,500 and 21 students received Economics and Finance Excellence Scholarships worth £63,000.^[47]

Discover more about Organisation and administration related topics

Royal charter

Royal charter

A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta of 1215, but since the 14th century have only been used in place of private acts to grant a right or power to an individual or a body corporate. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organisations such as boroughs, universities and learned societies.

Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry

Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry

Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, commonly known as Barts or BL, is a medical and dental school in London, England. The school is part of Queen Mary University of London, a constituent college of the federal University of London, and the United Hospitals. It was formed in 1995 by the merger of the London Hospital Medical College and the Medical College of St Bartholomew's Hospital .

Exempt charity

Exempt charity

An exempt charity is an institution established in England and Wales for charitable purposes which is exempt from registration with, and oversight by, the Charity Commission for England and Wales.

Higher Education Funding Council for England

Higher Education Funding Council for England

The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) was a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom, which was responsible for the distribution of funding for higher education to universities and further education colleges in England since 1992. It ceased to exist as of 1 April 2018, when its duties were divided between the newly created Office for Students and Research England.

The Blizard Building, housing the Institute of Cell and Molecular Sciences

Around 32,000 students study at the 21 academic schools and institutes, with over 40 percent coming from overseas, representing over 170 different nationalities. Queen Mary awarded over £2 million in studentships to prospective postgraduate students for the 2011/12 academic year.^[39][48][49]

Research

The G.E. Fogg Building at QMUL, 2012

QMUL was ranked joint ninth in the UK amongst multi-faculty institutions for the quality (GPA) of its research.^[50] In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework^[51] it was 20th for its Research Power, fifth in the UK for the quality of research outputs and the Linguistics department was ranked first in the UK.

In the UK Research Assessment Exercise results published in December 2008, Queen Mary was placed 11th according to an analysis by The Guardian newspaper^[52] and 13th according to The Times Higher Education Supplement,^[53] 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."^[54]

Since 2007 Queen Mary University of London's Centre for Digital Music develops the free and open source software Sonic Visualizer for audio analysis, in particular for analyzing audio spectrograms.^[55] With over 100,000 downloads, it is the most famous software for its category.^[56]

The QS World University Rankings 2019 ranked Queen Mary third in the world for research citations for the subject of medicine.^[57]

The growth and strength of research at the college was rewarded with an invitation to join the Russell Group of research-intensive universities in the UK in 2012.^[58]

The university is also a member of the Screen Studies Group, London. Other research highlights include an international team of scientists, led by astronomers at Queen Mary, discovering a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Solar System.^[59] In 2018, a project involving Queen Mary researchers reached its goal of sequencing 100,000 whole genomes from National Health Service patients.^[60]

Libraries

Queen Mary's main library is located on the Mile End campus where most subjects are represented. It also has two medical libraries in Whitechapel and West Smithfield. Usual opening hours are 8 am to midnight. Since September 2017, the Mile End Library has been open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week during term time (including bank holidays).^[61]

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 King's College London and University College London, in addition to library access throughout most of the individual University of London colleges, subject to approval at the given University.

Partnerships

Queen Mary offers a joint degree programme with Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. 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 staff from Queen Mary teach 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.^[62] 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.^[63]

Queen Mary collaborated with Royal Holloway to help run programmes at the University of London Institute in Paris (ULIP) which is a central academic body of the University of London located in Paris, France, enabling undergraduate and graduate students to study University of London ratified French Studies degrees in France.^[64] From September 2016, Queen Mary took over the functions provided by Royal Holloway and all students are now considered registered students of Queen Mary.^[9]

Queen Mary provides academic guidance for the Global Master of Business Administration degree offered by the University of London's distance learning.^[10]

Queen Mary is a founding partner in UCLPartners, an academic health science centre located in London. Queen Mary joined UCLPartners in 2011.

Admissions

In terms of average UCAS points of entrants, Queen Mary ranked 32nd in Britain in 2014.^[72] The university gives offers of admission to 75.0% of its applicants, the 12th lowest amongst the Russell Group.^[73]

According to the 2017 Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide, approximately 12% of Queen Mary's undergraduates come from independent schools.^[74] In the 2016–17 academic year, the university had a domicile breakdown of 68:10:22 of UK:EU:non-EU students respectively with a female to male ratio of 54:46.^[75]

Rankings and reputation

This section needs to be updated. The reason given is: in section references to rankings should be contextualised, or the most recent available. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (February 2023)

Queen Mary University of London's national league table performance over the past ten years

National

Queen Mary ranks eighth in the UK in the CWTS Leiden Ranking 2016.^[82] Queen Mary ranks 13th in the U.S. News & World Report Best Global Universities in the United Kingdom, and fifth in London.^[83] In Times Higher Education Best universities in the UK 2017, it has been ranked 15th.^[84] The Guardian ranks Queen Mary in the University league tables 2017 first for Media & Film Studies, second for Medicine in the UK, third in the UK for Dentistry, ninth for History in the UK, fifth for Law in the UK.^[85] The Complete University Guide 2019 ranks Queen Mary 38th overall.^[86]

In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF), which assesses the quality of research in UK higher education institutions, Queen Mary is ranked 19th by GPA and 21st for research power (the grade point average score of a university, multiplied by the full-time equivalent number of researchers submitted).^[87]

Queen Mary students feature in the top 10 in the UK for graduate starting salaries, according to The Times and Sunday Times University League Table 2016.^[88]

International

U.S. News & World Report 2022-23 ranked Queen Mary as 100th in the world.^[89] Similarly, QS World University Rankings 2022 ranked Queen Mary as 117th in the world.^[90] Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2021 ranked Queen Mary 110th in the world.^[91] Academic Ranking of World Universities 2020 ranks Queen Mary between 201 and 300 in the world.^[92] The university was ranked 51st in the world in the CWTS Leiden Ranking 2018.^[82]

Queen Mary was ranked 11th in Europe in the CWTS Leiden Ranking 2016.^[82] The university was ranked 47th in the 2017 U.S. News & World Report Best Global Universities in Europe.^[83] 2017 Times Higher Education ranked Queen Mary equal 46th among European universities.^[93]

Subject specific

In 2019, QS World Universities ranked both the schools of Law and English Literature and Language 32nd in the world,^[57] with the schools of Geography, History, Linguistics and Medicine all making top 100. In 2020, Law at Queen Mary University of London was ranked 30th in the world and seventh in the UK.

The Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry has been ranked as the 15th best medical school in the UK by The Guardian^[94] and, globally, is ranked ninth by the QS World University Rankings.

According to Times Good University Guide 2020 strong subject areas for Queen Mary University are Dentistry (5), Medicine (8), Materials Technology (11) and Drama, Dance and Cinematics (17).

The Guardian in 2018 ranked the School of Law as third best in the UK.

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Blizard Building

Blizard Building

The Blizard Building is a building in Whitechapel in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It houses the Blizard Institute, formerly known as the Blizard Institute of Cell and Molecular Science, part of Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Research Excellence Framework

Research Excellence Framework

The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is a research impact evaluation of British higher education institutions. It is the successor to the Research Assessment Exercise and it was first used in 2014 to assess the period 2008–2013. REF is undertaken by the four UK higher education funding bodies: Research England, the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW), and the Department for the Economy, Northern Ireland (DfE).

Research Assessment Exercise

Research Assessment Exercise

The Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) was an exercise undertaken approximately every five years on behalf of the four UK higher education funding councils to evaluate the quality of research undertaken by British higher education institutions. RAE submissions from each subject area are given a rank by a subject specialist peer review panel. The rankings are used to inform the allocation of quality weighted research funding (QR) each higher education institution receives from their national funding council. Previous RAEs took place in 1986, 1989, 1992, 1996 and 2001. The most recent results were published in December 2008. It was replaced by the Research Excellence Framework (REF) in 2014.

Freeware

Freeware

Freeware is software, most often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines freeware unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the freeware it offers. For instance, modification, redistribution by third parties, and reverse engineering are permitted by some publishers but prohibited by others. Unlike with free and open-source software, which are also often distributed free of charge, the source code for freeware is typically not made available. Freeware may be intended to benefit its producer by, for example, encouraging sales of a more capable version, as in the freemium and shareware business models.

Open-source software

Open-source software

Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Open-source software may be developed in a collaborative, public manner. Open-source software is a prominent example of open collaboration, meaning any capable user is able to participate online in development, making the number of possible contributors indefinite. The ability to examine the code facilitates public trust in the software.

Audio analysis

Audio analysis

Audio analysis refers to the extraction of information and meaning from audio signals for analysis, classification, storage, retrieval, synthesis, etc. The observation mediums and interpretation methods vary, as audio analysis can refer to the human ear and how people interpret the audible sound source, or it could refer to using technology such as an Audio analyzer to evaluate other qualities of a sound source such as amplitude, distortion, frequency response, and more. Once an audio source's information has been observed, the information revealed can then be processed for the logical, emotional, descriptive, or otherwise relevant interpretation by the user.

Russell Group

Russell Group

The Russell Group is a self-selected association of twenty-four public research universities in the United Kingdom. The group is headquartered in Cambridge and was established in 1994 to represent its members' interests, principally to government and Parliament. It was incorporated in 2007. Its members are often perceived as being the UK's best universities, but this has been disputed.

Proxima Centauri

Proxima Centauri

Proxima Centauri is a small, low-mass star located 4.2465 light-years (1.3020 pc) away from the Sun in the southern constellation of Centaurus. Its Latin name means the 'nearest [star] of Centaurus'. It was discovered in 1915 by Robert Innes and is the nearest-known star to the Sun. With a quiescent apparent magnitude of 11.13, it is too faint to be seen with the unaided eye. Proxima Centauri is a member of the Alpha Centauri star system, being identified as component Alpha Centauri C, and is 2.18° to the southwest of the Alpha Centauri AB pair. It is currently 12,950 AU (0.2 ly) from AB, which it orbits with a period of about 550,000 years.

National Health Service

National Health Service

The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the "NHS" name. Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland was created separately and is often locally referred to as "the NHS". The four systems were established in 1948 as part of major social reforms following the Second World War. The founding principles were that services should be comprehensive, universal and free at the point of delivery—a health service based on clinical need, not ability to pay. Each service provides a comprehensive range of health services, free at the point of use for people ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom apart from dental treatment and optical care. In England, NHS patients have to pay prescription charges; some, such as those aged over 60, or those on certain state benefits, are exempt.

King's College London

King's College London

King's College London is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's became one of the two founding colleges of the University of London. It is one of the oldest university-level institutions in England. In the late 20th century, King's grew through a series of mergers, including with Queen Elizabeth College and Chelsea College of Science and Technology, the Institute of Psychiatry, the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals and the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery.

Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications

Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications

The Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT) is a key national university distinguished by the teaching and research in the field of cable communications, wireless communications, computer, and electronic engineering. BUPT is ranked as one of the top engineering schools in China under the Double First Class University Plan and former Project 211. In 2017 the U.S. News & World Report "Best Global Universities" rankings, BUPT is ranked 28th in computer science in the world. BUPT comprises 15 schools, and has an Joint Program with Queen Mary University of London, which is being educated in International School. It is a Chinese state Double First Class University identified by the Ministry of Education.

Royal Holloway, University of London

Royal Holloway, University of London

Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public research university and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It has six schools, 21 academic departments and approximately 10,500 undergraduate and postgraduate students from over 100 countries. The campus is located west of Egham, Surrey, 19 miles (31 km) from central London.

Queen Mary Students' Union

Queen Mary Students' Union (QMSU) unites the various clubs and societies of Queen Mary. The union is based at the recently refurbished Students' Hub. The elected representatives within the union are made up of a president and five vice-presidents. The union mascot is a leopard called Mary. The union has a sub-division to represent students studying at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, called Barts and The London Students' Association.^[95]

SU facilities and publications

1. Qmotion (Gym/Fitness Centre)
2. Drapers Bar
3. Ground
4. The Learning Cafe
5. Infusion Shop
6. The Print (newspaper)
7. CUB (magazine)
8. Quest (radio)
9. Queen Mary Theatre Company
10. QMTV (television)
11. Students' Union Hub

The Students' Union Hub replaces the previous office called the Blomley Centre. It is named after a former president and VP Education, Laura Blomeley, who completed her term in office with terminal cancer. In remembrance of her commitment to QMSU, two key rooms in the new Students' Union Hub have been named after her.

Sports

The Merger Cup is a series of annual sporting fixtures played between Queen Mary and Barts and The London (BL) sports clubs. The event has taken place since the merger of the two institutions in 1995. The results of a number of matches normally played on the same day are combined to determine the overall winner. Sporting fixtures include badminton, basketball, football, hockey, netball, rugby, squash, swimming, tennis and rowing.

In recent times Queen Mary have won the cup in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. 2009 saw the cup return to the medical school with a 9–7 victory over Queen Mary, but a close 10–9 win brought it back to Queen Mary in 2010. In 2011, Barts and The London were Merger Cup winners. In 2012 QM won with a 15–7 defeat of BL, QM were also victorious in 2013. In 2014 Barts dominated 29–24, winning most major sports in the process. In 2016, Barts won against Queen Mary 67–37.

The university has an alumni football club, Queen Mary College Old Boys FC, which was founded in 1989 and maintains close links with university. The club has three teams and competes in the Amateur Football Combination ^[96] The club's 1st XI won four league titles in five seasons, including two league and London Old Boys Cup doubles^{[97][98][99][100][101][102]}

Student housing

Many Queen Mary students are accommodated in the college's own halls of residence or other accommodation; 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.^[103]

Undergraduate

Feilden House with The Curve restaurant beneath, located in the centre of Westfield Student Village

Pooley House, the largest campus building, on the edge of Regent's Canal

The college's Westfield Student Village, situated in the north-east corner of the Mile End Campus, has en-suite, self-catering housing for 1,195 students, staff and academic visitors in six contemporary buildings. A shop, laundrette, café bar, 200-seat restaurant and central reception (staffed 24 hours a day), and a communal area situated adjacent to the Regents canal, form part of the Village development. Rooms are arranged in flats and maisonettes housing between four and eleven students.

Undergraduate student housing at Queen Mary includes:

• Albert Stern House – Located next to Ifor Evans at the western end of the main Queen Mary campus.
• Beaumont Court – Housing for 167 first year, associate and foundation students in maisonettes and flats. Located opposite Sir France House and adjacent to Creed Court.
• Sir Christopher France House – Situated on the bank of the Regents canal, flats in this building have full en-suite facilities.
• Creed Court – Housing for 124 postgraduate students in 10 maisonettes and 12 flats. Located opposite Sir France House and adjacent to Beaumont Court.
• Ifor Evans – Located at the western end of the campus.
• Lindop House – A residential development situated directly opposite the Queens' Building. Housing for 74 first year undergraduate, mostly medics, and foundation students in single rooms in 11 six-person flats and 2 four-person flats.
• Maurice Court – containing 12 maisonettes and 18 flats for up to 173 first year students. Located at the rear of Creed and Beaumont Courts and very close to Mile End Hospital.
• Maynard & Varey Houses – Two buildings housing 200 first year undergraduate, associate and foundation students. Situated in Westfield Way at the eastern end of the Mile End campus directly opposite the college's Chemistry and IT Resource Centre.
• Pooley House – Located at the far end of the campus, providing housing for 378 first year, associate and foundation students in 48 flats. The largest building in the village development.
• Richard Feilden House – Housing for 200 first year, associate and foundation students. The Curve, a 200-seat restaurant is situated on the ground floor. Opened in 2007, it is the newest dwelling in the Village and is situated opposite the Joseph Priestley Building.

Postgraduate

Postgraduate student housing at Queen Mary includes:

• Chapman, Chesney and Selincourt – Four residences situated in Westfield Way, at the eastern end of the Mile End campus adjacent to the Regents Canal. 94 single en-suite rooms for final year undergraduate and new postgraduate students
• Dawson Hall – Located near Barbican tube station in the City of London and set around lawns and trees on the college's Charterhouse campus, close to St Bartholomew's Hospital. Provides single rooms for 207 medical and dental students and medical based postgraduates.
• Floyer House – Houses 145 medical and dental students and medical based postgraduates, located close to The London Hospital and Dental Institute at the college's Whitechapel campus.

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University of London

University of London

The University of London is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree-awarding examination board for students holding certificates from University College London and King's College London and "other such other Institutions, corporate or unincorporated, as shall be established for the purpose of Education, whether within the Metropolis or elsewhere within our United Kingdom". This fact allows it to be one of three institutions to claim the title of the third-oldest university in England, and moved to a federal structure in 1900. It is now incorporated by its fourth (1863) royal charter and governed by the University of London Act 2018.

Connaught Hall, London

Connaught Hall, London

Connaught Hall is a fully catered hall of residence owned by the University of London and situated on Tavistock Square, Bloomsbury, London, UK. It is an intercollegiate hall, and as such provides accommodation for full-time students at constituent colleges and institutions of the University of London, including King's College, University College London (UCL), Queen Mary, the London School of Economics (LSE) and the School of Oriental and African Studies and others.

Regent's Canal

Regent's Canal

Regent's Canal is a canal across an area just north of central London, England. It provides a link from the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal, 550 yards (500 m) north-west of Paddington Basin in the west, to the Limehouse Basin and the River Thames in east London. The canal is 8.6 miles (13.8 km) long.

Barbican tube station

Barbican tube station

Barbican is a London Underground station situated near the Barbican Estate, on the edge of the ward of Farringdon Within, in the City of London in Central London. It has been known by various names since its opening in 1865, mostly in reference to the neighbouring ward of Aldersgate.

Students from over 170 nationalities attend Queen Mary, approximately 41% of them from overseas.^[104] According to The Times' Good University Guide, in 2021-2, 77% of Queen Mary students came from a black or ethnic minority background; this is the highest proportion of any university in the Russell Group and in the top 5 of any UK institution of higher education. The Times also cites QM as having one of the narrowest (i.e. best) black achievement gaps among UK institutions.^[105]

In 2008, in recognition of the institution's commitment to advancing gender equality and diversity, the university achieved an Athena SWAN bronze award. This was elevated to a silver award in 2017, and the accreditation was renewed in 2022.^[106]

In 2019, the Queen Mary's Diversity and Inclusion Manager resigned, citing a "tick-box mentality" to equality, diversity and inclusion, as well as a "toxic" working environment that prioritised accolades over meaningful improvement; the departing manager further declared that Queen Mary was "institutionally racist."^[107] Other academics have raised grievances regarding incidents of racism. In January 2020, a former lecturer who had brought the university to an employment tribunal for direct racial and gender discrimination and harassment as a continuing act had her case dismissed on the basis that the alleged incidents had occurred after statutory time limits had expired.^[108][109]

Queen Mary's UCU branch established an anti-racism working group in 2020 to “focus attention on institutional racism at Queen Mary University of London, but also to address questions of equality and diversity within the Union itself.”^[110]

QMUL and Leopold II of Belgium

In 2016, the university authorities removed plaques commemorating two visits by Leopold II of Belgium to the university site in 1887.^[111] Leopold, a cousin of Queen Victoria, had no links to Queen Mary other than a visit in April 1887 to Mile End and a subsequent visit in June 1887 to lay the foundation stone of the Octagon library, where the plaques were sited.^[112] The brutal and exploitative nature of Leopold's rule over the Congo Free State between 1885 and 1908, and his commemoration at Queen Mary, came under renewed scrutiny as of institutional links with colonial repression were re-evaluated in the wake of the global attention paid to the Rhodes Must Fall campaign. However, the suitability of any commemoration of Leopold on university property had been raised as early as 2013.^[113] In June 2016, the university's Pan-African society launched a petition for the removal of the plaques that celebrated a “genocidal colonialist” and were offensive to students from ethnic minority backgrounds. The society argued that their removal would help those students feel more “welcome, respected and integrated”.^[114] By December 2016, the plaques had been removed from public view "as part of ongoing refurbishment work.” This attracted criticism from academics at other institutions who called the decision a "whitewashing" of history that "suggests a fear within the university authorities... of attracting negative attention."^[112]

UCU Strikes and Snitch Forms

In 2022, as part of ongoing national strikes by the University and College Union, more than 100 staff at Queen Mary University of London taking part in a national marking boycott were withheld 100% of their wages for 21 days.^[115] Several other universities had threatened to dock full pay for action short of a strike, however Queen Mary University of London was the only institution to follow through on the threat. This led to the university being branded the worst university employer in the UK.

In the 2022/23 academic year, while strike action was continuing, the university continued to crack down and became the first university in the UK to implement a 'student snitch form'.^[116] Students were encouraged to report striking staff, with threats of docking 39 days pay for those who did not reschedule missed teaching. Several senior academics resigned from the university in response to this action, citing a lack of trust leading to unbearable working conditions. Throughout this process, students and staff were sent very different messages in email updates by principal Colin Bailey, leading to increased division within the university.

Discover more about Equality, diversity and inclusion related topics

Russell Group

Russell Group

The Russell Group is a self-selected association of twenty-four public research universities in the United Kingdom. The group is headquartered in Cambridge and was established in 1994 to represent its members' interests, principally to government and Parliament. It was incorporated in 2007. Its members are often perceived as being the UK's best universities, but this has been disputed.

Athena SWAN

Athena SWAN

Athena SWAN is a equality charter mark framework and accreditation scheme established and managed by the UK Equality Challenge Unit in 2005 that recognises and celebrates good practices in higher education and research institutions towards the advancement of gender equality: representation, progression and success.

Employment tribunal

Employment tribunal

Employment tribunals are tribunal public bodies in England and Wales and Scotland which have statutory jurisdiction to hear many kinds of disputes between employers and employees. The most common disputes are concerned with unfair dismissal, redundancy payments and employment discrimination. The tribunals are part of the UK tribunals system, administered by the HM Courts and Tribunals Service and regulated and supervised by the Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council.

University and College Union

University and College Union

The University and College Union (UCU) is a British trade union in further and higher education representing over 120,000 academics and support staff.

Leopold II of Belgium

Leopold II of Belgium

Leopold II was the second King of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909, and the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State from 1885-1908.

Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria

Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previous British monarch and is known as the Victorian era. It was a period of industrial, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. In 1876, the British Parliament voted to grant her the additional title of Empress of India.

Congo Free State

Congo Free State

The Congo Free State, also known as the Independent State of the Congo, was a large state and absolute monarchy in Central Africa from 1885 to 1908. It was privately owned by and in a personal union with King Leopold II; it was not a part of, nor did it belong to, the Kingdom of Belgium, of which he was the constitutional monarch. Leopold was able to seize the region by convincing other European states at the Berlin Conference on Africa that he was involved in humanitarian and philanthropic work and would not tax trade. Via the International Association of the Congo, he was able to lay claim to most of the Congo Basin. On 29 May 1885, after the closure of the Berlin Conference, the king announced that he planned to name his possessions "the Congo Free State", an appellation which was not yet used at the Berlin Conference and which officially replaced "International Association of the Congo" on 1 August 1885. The Congo Free State operated as a separate nation from Belgium, in a personal union with its King. It was privately controlled by Leopold II, although he never personally visited the state.

Rhodes Must Fall

Rhodes Must Fall

Rhodes Must Fall was a protest movement that began on 9 March 2015, originally directed against a statue at the University of Cape Town (UCT) that commemorates Cecil Rhodes. The campaign for the statue's removal received global attention and led to a wider movement to "decolonise" education across South Africa. On 9 April 2015, following a UCT Council vote the previous night, the statue was removed.

Colin Bailey

Colin Bailey

Colin Bailey may refer to:Colin Bailey (drummer) (1934–2021), British-born American jazz drummer Colin Bailey (engineer), British structural engineer Drums of Death (musician), real name Colin Bailey, British electronic musician Colin Bailey, British constable Colin Bailey, American cyclist in the 1999 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup Colin B. Bailey, British–American museum director

Notable alumni

• 

  Davidson Nicol, Former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations

• 

  Simon Case, 13th Cabinet Secretary

• 

  Guðni Th. Jóhannesson, President of Iceland

• 

  Tigran Avinyan, Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia

• 

  Peter Caruana, fifth Chief Minister of Gibraltar

• 

  Peter Mathieson, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the
  University of Edinburgh

• 

  Simon Woolley, Principal of Homerton College, Cambridge

• 

  Janet Royall, Principal of Somerville College, Oxford

• 

  Nicholas Burns^{[note 1]}, 13th United States Ambassador to China

• 

  Peter Hain, former Leader of the House of Commons

• 

  Jane Hill, BBC News presenter

• 

  Jay Sean, singer, songwriter, record producer

• 

  Ibilola Amao, engineer

Notable academics

• 

  Sir Richard Owen, British biologist, comparative anatomist and paleontologist

• 

  Lorna Casselton, British professor of genetics, Vice-President of the Royal Society.

• 

  Lord Peter Hennessy, British contemporary and constitutional historian, author and broadcaster.

• 

  Miri Rubin, Israeli historian of early modern and medieval Europe, author.

• 

  Tristram Hunt, British cultural historian, Labour MP, Director of the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Nobel laureates

To date, nine Nobel laureates have been either students, or academics, at Queen Mary and its historically preceding institutions.

Name		Institutional role	Prize	Year	Rationale
	Sir Ronald Ross	Student at St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College (1874-1880).	Physiology or Medicine	1902	For discovering the life-cycle of the malarial parasite Plasmodium[117]
	Edgar Adrian	Undertook clinical work at St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College during the First World War.	Physiology or Medicine	1932	For his work on the function of neurons[118]
	Sir Henry Hallett Dale	Undertook clinical training at St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College (1900-1902).	Physiology or Medicine	1936	For his discoveries relating to the chemical transmission of nerve impulses[119]
	Sir John Vane	Founded the William Harvey Research Institute at St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College (1986).	Physiology or Medicine	1982	For his work on prostaglandins
	Sir Joseph Rotblat	Professor of Physics at St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College (1950-1976).	Peace	1995	For his lifelong devotion to nuclear abolition[120]
	Sir Peter Mansfield	BSc (1959) and PhD (1962) in physics from Queen Mary's College.	Physiology or Medicine	2003	For his pioneering work on Magnetic Resonance Imaging as a diagnostic technique[121]
	Sir Charles K. Kao	Visiting associate at Queen Mary's College (1969), later an Honorary Fellow of QMUL (2008).	Physics	2009	For his achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibres for optical communication
	Mario Vargas Llosa	Formerly a visiting professor at Queen Mary's College, and later an Honorary Fellow (1988).	Literature	2010	"For his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat"[122]
	Sir Peter John Ratcliffe	Completed MBBChir at St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College (1978).	Physiology or Medicine	2019	For the discovery of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability

Principals

To date, Queen Mary has had a total of 22 principals (11 of Westfield College, eight of Queen Mary College, and three since the merger of Queen Mary, Westfield, Barts, and The London).^[16]

The current principal is Colin Bailey, a structural engineer, who became Principal in September 2017.^[123]

Discover more about Notable people related topics

List of alumni of Queen Mary University of London

List of alumni of Queen Mary University of London

The following is a list of alumni of Queen Mary University of London.

Davidson Nicol

Davidson Nicol

Davidson Sylvester Hector Willoughby Nicol or pen named Abioseh Nicol was a Sierra Leone Creole academic, diplomat, physician, writer and poet. He was able to secure degrees in the arts, science and commercial disciplines and he contributed to science, history, and literature. Nicol was the first African to graduate with first class honours from the University of Cambridge and he was also the first African elected as a fellow of a college of Cambridge University. Davidson Nicol also contributed to medical science when he was the first to analyse the breakdown of insulin in the human body, a discovery which was a breakthrough for the treatment of diabetes.

Cabinet Secretary (United Kingdom)

Cabinet Secretary (United Kingdom)

The Cabinet Secretary is the most senior civil servant in the United Kingdom, and is based in the Cabinet Office. The person in this role acts as the senior policy adviser to the Prime Minister and Cabinet and as the Secretary to the Cabinet, is responsible to all ministers for the efficient running of government. The role is currently occupied by Simon Case.

Guðni Th. Jóhannesson

Guðni Th. Jóhannesson

Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson is an Icelandic historian and politician serving as the sixth and current president of Iceland. He took office in 2016 after winning the most votes in the 2016 election, 71,356 (39.1%). He was reelected in 2020 with 92.2% of the vote.

President of Iceland

President of Iceland

The president of Iceland is the head of state of Iceland. The incumbent is Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson, who is now in his second term as president, elected in 2016 and re-elected in 2020.

Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia

Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia

The Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia is the official deputy of the head of government of Armenia.

Peter Caruana

Peter Caruana

Sir Peter Richard Caruana, is a Gibraltarian former politician who served as Chief Minister of Gibraltar from 1996 to 2011 and Leader of the Gibraltar Social Democrats (GSD) from 1991 to 2013.

Chief Minister of Gibraltar

Chief Minister of Gibraltar

The chief minister of Gibraltar is the head of His Majesty's Government of Gibraltar who is elected by the Gibraltar Parliament, and formally appointed by the governor of Gibraltar, representative of the British monarch. The incumbent chief minister is Fabian Picardo, since 9 December 2011, leader of the Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party.

Peter Mathieson (nephrologist)

Peter Mathieson (nephrologist)

Sir Peter William Mathieson is an English nephrologist and current principal and vice-chancellor of the University of Edinburgh. Previously, he served as the vice-chancellor and president of the University of Hong Kong (HKU). He was the dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry of the University of Bristol before he assumed office at the HKU in April 2014, and was previously director of studies at Christ's College, Cambridge.

Principal (academia)

Principal (academia)

The principal is the chief executive and the chief academic officer of a university or college in certain parts of the Commonwealth.

Homerton College, Cambridge

Homerton College, Cambridge

Homerton College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Its first premises were acquired in Homerton, London in 1768, by an informal gathering of Protestant dissenters with origins in the seventeenth century. In 1894, the college moved from Homerton High Street, Hackney, London, to Cambridge. Homerton was admitted as an "Approved Society" of the university in 1976, and received its Royal charter in 2010, affirming its status as a full college of the university. The college celebrated its 250th anniversary in 2018.

Janet Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon

Janet Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon

Janet Anne Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon,, is a British Labour Co-operative Party politician. She was Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council. She is the principal of Somerville College, Oxford.