Imperial is organised into four faculties:Engineering,Medicine,Natural Sciences, andBusiness. The university encourages innovation and enterprise across all its faculties by integrating business courses into science degrees and providing business students with a scientific education.[10] The main campus is located inSouth Kensington, with an additional campus inWhite City.[11] The Faculty of Medicine also operates fiveteaching hospitals across London and is a founding institution of theFrancis Crick Institute.[12]
In 2024, Imperialranked fifth nationally forundergraduate education. Its graduates and lecturers include 14 Nobel Prize winners, 3 Fields Medal winners, 74 Fellows of the Royal Society and 84 Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering.[13]
In 1851, theGreat Exhibition was organised as an exhibition of culture andindustry byHenry Cole and by Prince Albert, husband of the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom,Queen Victoria. An enormously popular and financial success, proceeds from the Great Exhibition were designated to develop an area for cultural and scientific advancement inSouth Kensington.[18] Within the next six years theVictoria and Albert Museum andScience Museum had opened, joined by new facilities in 1871 for the Royal College of Chemistry, and in 1881 the opening of the Royal School of Mines andNatural History Museum.[19]
At the start of the 20th century, there was a concern that Great Britain was falling behind Germany in scientific and technical education. A departmental committee was set up at theBoard of Education in 1904, to look into the future of the Royal College of Science. A report released in 1906 called for the establishment of an institution unifying the Royal College of Science and the Royal School of Mines, as well as – if an agreement could be reached with the City and Guilds of London Institute – its Central Technical College.[22][23]
On 8 July 1907,Edward VII granted aRoyal Charter establishing the Imperial College of Science and Technology. This incorporated the Royal School of Mines and the Royal College of Science. It also made provisions for the City and Guilds College to join once conditions regarding its governance were met, as well as for Imperial to become a college of theUniversity of London.[24] The college joined the University of London on 22 July 1908, with the City and Guilds College joining in 1910.[8][25] The main campus of Imperial College was constructed beside the buildings of theImperial Institute, the new building for the Royal College of Science having opened across from it in 1906, and the foundation stone for the Royal School of Mines building being laid by KingEdward VII in July 1909.[22]
As students at Imperial had to study separately for London degrees, in January 1919, students and alumni voted for a petition to make Imperial a university with its own degree awarding powers, independent of the University of London.[26][27] In response, the University of London changed its regulations in 1925 so that the courses taught only at Imperial would be examined by the university, enabling students to gain a Bachelor of Science.[28] In October 1945,George VI andQueen Elizabeth visited Imperial to commemorate the centenary of the Royal College of Chemistry, which was the oldest of the institutions that united to form Imperial College. "Commemoration Day", named after this visit, is held every October as the university's main graduation ceremony.[29][30] The college also acquired abiology field station atSilwood Park nearAscot, Berkshire in 1947[31]
FollowingWorld War II, there was again concern that Britain was falling behind in science – this time to the United States. The Percy Report of 1945 and Barlow Committee in 1946 called for a "BritishMIT"-equivalent, backed by influential scientists as politicians of the time, includingLord Cherwell, SirLawrence Bragg and SirEdward Appleton.[32][33] TheUniversity Grants Committee strongly opposed however,[32] and so a compromise was reached in 1953, where Imperial would remain within the university but double in size over the following ten years.[34][35] The expansion led to a number of new buildings being erected. These included the Hill building in 1957 and the Physics building in 1960, and the completion of the East Quadrangle, built in four stages between 1959 and 1965. The building work also meant the demolition of the City and Guilds College building in 1962–63, and the Imperial Institute's building by 1967.[36] Opposition from theRoyal Fine Arts Commission and others meant thatQueen's Tower was retained, with work carried out between 1966 and 1968 to make it free standing.[37] New laboratories for biochemistry, established with the support of a £350,000 grant from theWolfson Foundation, were opened by theQueen in 1965.[38][39]
In 2003, Imperial was granted degree-awarding powers in its own right by thePrivy Council. In 2004, theImperial Business School and a new main college entrance on Exhibition Road were opened.[42][43] TheUK Energy Research Centre was also established in 2004 and opened its headquarters at Imperial. On 9 December 2005, Imperial announced that it would commence negotiations to secede from the University of London.[44] Imperial became fully independent of the University of London in July 2007.[45][46][47]
In April 2011, Imperial andKing's College London joined the UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation as partners with a commitment of £40 million each to the project. The centre was later renamed theFrancis Crick Institute and opened on 9 November 2016. It is the largest single biomedical laboratory in Europe. The college began moving into the new White City campus in 2016, with the launching of the Innovation Hub.[48] This was followed by the opening of the Molecular Sciences Research Hub for theDepartment of Chemistry, officially opened byMayor of London,Sadiq Khan in 2019.[49]
In 2014,Stefan Grimm, of the Department of Medicine, was found dead after being told that he was "struggling to fulfil the metrics" of his professorial post.[50][51][52] The college announced an internal inquiry into his death and found that the performance metrics for his position were unreasonable, but new metrics would be needed to replace them.[53]
The campus has many restaurants and cafés run by the college, and contains much of the college's student accommodation, including the Prince's Garden Halls, and Beit Hall, home to thecollege union, which runs student pubs, a nightclub, and a cinema on site. To the north, within easy walking distance of the college, areKensington Gardens andHyde Park, with green spaces and sports facilities used by many of the student clubs.
The White City campus was built on land previously owned by the BBC.
Imperial has a new second major campus inWhite City providing a platform forinnovation andentrepreneurship. This campus was built on land previously owned by BBC.[54] The hub houses research facilities, postgraduate accommodation, as well as a commercialisation space.[55][56] The campus is home to the Scale Space andincubator, Invention Rooms, a collegehackerspace and community outreach centre.[57] The White City campus also includes another biomedical centre funded by SirMichael Uren.[58][59][60]
Silwood Park is a postgraduate campus of Imperial in the village of Sunninghill nearAscot in Berkshire. The Silwood Park campus remains a centre for research and teaching in ecology, evolution, and conservation. It is set in 100 hectares of parkland used for ecological field experiments.
Imperial has teaching hospitals across London which are used by theSchool of Medicine for undergraduate clinical teaching and medical research. All are based around college-affiliated hospitals, and also provide catering and sport facilities. College libraries are located on each campus, including the Fleming library at St Mary's.[61]
Imperial is organised into four faculties: the Faculty of Engineering, the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Natural Sciences, and the Imperial Business School. As of 2024,[update] the academic departments are:[62]
Imperial hosts centres to promote inter-disciplinary work under the titles of Global Challenge institutes, Imperial Centres of Excellence and Imperial Networks of Excellence. It also participates as a partner in a number of national institutes.[63]
The Centre for Languages, Culture and Communication operates as Imperial College London's adult education centre, offering evening class courses in the arts, humanities, languages and sciences.[64] The university also houses two academic centres offering teaching to undergraduate and postgraduate students in subjects outside of science, technology and medicine. The academic centres are the:
The council is the governing body of Imperial. The council consists of between 19 and 27 members, with an independent chair andex officio members being the president, the provost, the chief operating officer, the president of Imperial College Union, and four senior staff members. There are also up to four further staff members (comprising one member elected by the academic staff, one further appointed member of academic staff and two members of the professional services staff), up to one further representative of Imperial College Union, and between nine and 13 other independent members, with the proviso that the independent members (including the chair) must comprise the majority.[65][66] Thepresident is the highest academic official and chief executive of Imperial College London.[67] The position has been held byHugh Brady, since August 2022[update].[68] As of 2024,[update] theprovost isIan Walmsley and the chair is Vindi Banga.[65]
The college's endowment is sub-divided into three distinct portfolios:
Unitised Scheme – a unit trust vehicle for the college, Faculties and Departments to invest endowments and unfettered income to produce returns for the long term
Non-Core Property – a portfolio containing around 120 operational and developmental properties which the college has determined are not core to the academic mission
Strategic Asset Investments – containing the college's shareholding inImperial Innovations and other restricted equity holdings.[69]
In the financial year ending 31 July 2024, Imperial had a total income of £1.309 billion (2022/23 – £1.256 million) and total expenditure of £1.051 billion (2022/23 – £1.235 billion).[2] Key sources of income included £507.5 million from tuition fees and education contracts (2022/23 – £452.1 million), £165.4 million from funding body grants (2022/23 – £183.3 million), £396.2 million from research grants and contracts (2022/23 – £383.1 million), £28.8 million from investment income (2022/23 – £24.1 million) and £35.5 million from donations and endowments (2022/23 – £51.5 million).[2]
At year end, Imperial had endowments of £235.2 million (2022/23 – £220.1 million) and total net assets of £2.082 billion (2022/23 – £1.792 billion). It holds theeighth-largest endowment of any university in the UK.[2]
In the 2021Research Excellence Framework, Imperial's research profile was assessed as 66 per cent world class (4*) 30 per cent internationally important (3*) and 3 per cent internationally recognised (2*), with insignificant quantities of research in lower categories. This led to Imperial being ranked first in the UK on GPA and ninth for research power byTimes Higher Education, with a GPA of 3.63 and research power 47.3 per cent of the top-ranked University of Oxford.[73]
In January 2018, the mathematics department of Imperial and theFrench National Centre for Scientific Research launched an "international joint research unit" (unité mixte internationale; UMI) at Imperial, known as UMI Abraham de Moivre after theFrench mathematician, focused on unsolved problems and bridging British and French scientific communities.[79] In October 2018, Imperial College launched the Imperial Cancer Research UK Center, a research collaboration that aims to find innovative ways to improve the precision of cancer treatments, inaugurated byJoe Biden as part of his Biden Cancer Initiative.[80][81]
Neil Ferguson's 16 March 2020 report entitled "Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions to reduce COVID-19 mortality and healthcare demand" was described in aNew York Times article as the coronavirus "report that jarred the U.S. and the U.K. to action".[82][83] Since 18 May, Imperial College's Dr. Samir Bhatt advised thestate of New York for its reopening plan.[84] Thegovernor of New York,Andrew Cuomo, said at the time that "the Imperial College model, as we've been following this for weeks, was the best, most accurate model."[84]
QueenElizabeth II opening the Alexander Fleming Building
In the academic year 2021/22, the ratio of applicants to admissions was 9:1 for undergraduates and 7.7:1 for postgraduates.[91] The university gave offers of admission to 30.1% of its undergraduate applicants in 2022, the 7th lowest offer rate across the country.[92] The undergraduate courses with the highest ratios of applicants to admissions werecomputing (19.2:1), mathematics (14.6:1) and mechanical engineering (11.2:1).[91]
The postgraduate courses with the highest ratios of applicants to admissions were computing (21:1), mathematics (17.9:1), and electrical engineering (14:1).[91] Imperial is among the most international universities in the United Kingdom,[93][94] with 50% of students from the UK, 16% of students from the EU, and 34% of students from outside the UK or EU.[93][95][96] The student body is 39% female and 61% male.[96]
In 2023/24, the student body consisted of 22,420 students, composed of 12,150 undergraduates and 10,265 postgraduate students.[4] 36.5% of Imperial's undergraduates areprivately educated, the fourth highest proportion amongst mainstream British universities.[94]
The Imperial Faculty of Medicine was formed through mergers between Imperial and the St Mary's, Charing Cross and Westminster, and Royal Postgraduate medical schools and has sixteaching hospitals. It accepts more than 300 undergraduate medical students per year and has around 321 taught and 700 research full-time equivalent postgraduate students.
Imperial is known for its hardworkingentrepreneurial culture, which blends business studies with the sciences.[112] Facilities such as the Enterprise Lab—which one in eight students uses and which reports a 79 per cent startup survival rate—demonstrates a commitment to innovation.[112] Reflecting this, the 2023QS MBA Rankings by Career Specialisation ranked its MBA programme 3rd worldwide for entrepreneurship.[113]
Imperial is also recognised for itsinterdisciplinary scientific research. Its strategic collaborations with institutions around the world have led to advancements that inform industries and public policy. The college’s basic and translational research reinforces its reputation as an institution where research and entrepreneurship complement one another.
For the 2023/24 academic year, Imperial had a total full-time student body of 19,400, consisting of 10,475 undergraduate students and 8,925 postgraduates.[118] 50.7% of the student body is from outside of the UK.[119] 32% of all full-time students came from outside theEuropean Union in 2013–14,[120] and around 13% of the International students had Chinese nationality in 2007–08.[121] Imperial's male to female ratio for undergraduate students is uneven at approximately 64:36 overall,[121] and 5:1 or higher in some engineering courses. However, medicine has an approximate 1:1 ratio with biology degrees tending to be higher.[122]
Examples of notable student groups and projects areProject Nepal which sends Imperial College students to work on educational development programmes in rural Nepal[124] andthe El Salvador Project, a construction based project in Central America.[125] The Union also hosts sports-related clubs such asImperial College Boat Club andImperial College Gliding Club. The Union operates on two sites, with most events at the Union Building on Beit Quad at South Kensington, with mostlymedical school events at the Reynold's bar,Charing Cross.
Sports facilities at Imperial's London campuses include four gyms, including the main Ethos gym at the South Kensington Campus, two swimming pools and two sports halls.[126] Imperial has additional sports facilities at the Heston and Harlington sports grounds. On the South Kensington campus, there are a total of six music practice rooms which consist of upright pianos for usage by people of any grade, and grand pianos which are exclusively for people who have achieved Grade 8 or above.[127]
There are two student bars on the South Kensington campus, one at theImperial College Union and one at Eastside.[128]There are a number of pubs and bars on campus and also surrounding the campus, which become a popular social activity for Imperial's students. ThePewter tankard collection at Imperial College Union is the largest in Europe, with the majority of clubs and societies having tankards associated with their clubs.[129]
Imperial College Radio (ICRadio) was founded in November 1975 with the intention of broadcasting to the studenthalls of residence from a studio under Southside, actually commencing broadcasts in late 1976. It now broadcasts from the West Basement of Beit Quadover the internet.[130]
Imperial College Television (ICTV) is the university's TV station, founded in 1969 as STOIC (Student Television of Imperial College) and operated from a small TV studio in the Electrical Engineering block. The department had bought an earlyAMPEXType A 1-inch videotape recorder and this was used to produce an occasional short news programme which was then played to students by simply moving the VTR and a monitor into a common room. A cable link to the Southside halls of residence was laid in a tunnel under Exhibition Road in 1972.
Felix is weekly student newspaper, first released on 9 December 1949.[131] In addition to news, Felix also carries comic strips, features, opinions, puzzles and reviews, plus reports of trips and Imperial College sporting events.
Racing Green Endurance is a student-led project to demonstrate the potential of zero-emission cars.
TheImperial College Boat Club is the rowing club of Imperial and was founded on 12 December 1919. The college's boat house is located inPutney on theThames, and has been refurbished, reopening in 2014.[132]
Beit HallPrince's Gardens surrounded by college halls of residence
Imperial's Exploration Board was established in 1957 to assist students with a desire for exploration. Trips have included Afghanistan, Alaska, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Fiji, the Himalayas, Iran, Morocco, Norway, Tanzania, Thailand, Ukraine, and the Yukon.[134]
The Imperial College Dramatic Society (DramSoc)[135] is one of two major theatrical arts societies, with the other being the Musical Theatre Society, and it was founded in 1912.[136] The society puts on three major plays each year, in addition to several smaller fringe productions. It is additionally one of the London-based dramatic societies to participate in the London Student Drama Festival,[137] and regularly attends theEdinburgh Fringe. DramSoc is responsible for the day-to-day maintenance of the Union's theatrical space, theUnion Concert Hall.
The Techtonics are an all-male a cappella group from Imperial College London, and are a part of the Imperial College A Cappella Society.[138] The group was formed in 2008, and has since risen to prominence in the world a cappella scene. The group is best known for winning theInternational Championship of Collegiate A Cappella in 2016.[139]
Imperial College owns and manages ten halls of residence inInner London,Acton andAscot, Berkshire. Over three thousand rooms are available, with first year undergraduates guaranteed a place in one of the six main college residences (subject to certain requirements). The majority of halls offer single or twin accommodation with some rooms having en suite facilities. Bedrooms are provided with basic furniture and with access to shared kitchens and bathrooms. All rooms come with internet access and access to the Imperial network.[140]
Most students in college or university accommodation are first-year undergraduates. The majority of older students and postgraduates find accommodation in the private sector, help for which is provided by the college private housing office. However a handful of students may continue to live in halls in later years if they take the position of a "hall senior", and places are available for a small number of returning students in three small halls.[141] The accommodation in Ascot is only for postgraduate students based at the Silwood Park site.[142]
^Includes those who indicate that they identify asAsian,Black,Mixed Heritage,Arab or any other ethnicity except White.
^Calculated from the Polar4 measure, using Quintile1, in England and Wales. Calculated from theScottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) measure, using SIMD20, in Scotland.
^abJean Bocock; Lewis Baston; Peter Scott; David Smith (2003). "American influence on British higher education: science, technology, and the problem of university expansion, 1945–1963".Minerva.41 (4):327–346.doi:10.1023/B:MINE.0000005154.25610.b2.JSTOR41821255.S2CID143347639.
^Ferguson, Neil M; Laydon, Daniel; Nedjati-Gilani, Gemma; Imai, Natsuko; Ainslie, Kylie; Baguelin, Marc; Bhatia, Sangeeta; Boonyasiri, Adhiratha; Cucunubá, Zulma; Cuomo-Dannenburg, Gina; Dighe, Amy; Fu, Han; Gaythorpe, Katy; Thompson, Hayley; Verity, Robert; Volz, Erik; Wang, Haowei; Wang, Yuanrong; Walker, Patrick GT; Walters, Caroline; Winskill, Peter; Whittaker, Charles; Donnelly, Christl A; Riley, Steven; Ghani, Azra C (16 March 2020)."Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to reduce COVID-19 mortality and healthcare demand"(PDF).Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine: 20.Archived(PDF) from the original on 16 March 2020. Retrieved22 March 2020.
^'CROOKES, Prof. Sir William', Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2016; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014; online edn, April 2014accessed 2 April 2017Archived 27 February 2021 at theWayback Machine
^"Thomas, Prof. Huw Jeremy Wyndham, (Born 25 Feb. 1958), Consultant Physician and Gastroenterologist, St Mary's Hospital, London, since 1994; Professor of Gastrointestinal Genetics, Imperial College London, since 2007; Physician to the Queen and Head of HM Medical Household, since 2014".Who's Who. 2014.doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U282180.ISBN978-0-19-954089-1.Archived from the original on 4 June 2024. Retrieved26 July 2024.
^"Bannister, Sir Roger (Gilbert), (Born 23 March 1929), Master of Pembroke College, Oxford, 1985–93; Hon. Consultant Physician, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, WC1 (Formerly Consultant Physician, National Hospital for Nervous Diseases), 1963–96; Hon. Consultant Neurologist: St Mary's Hospital and Western Ophthalmic Hospital, W2 (Formerly Consultant Neurologist); Oxford Regional and District Health Authorities, 1985–95".Who's Who. 2007.doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U6405.ISBN978-0-19-954089-1.Archived from the original on 5 June 2024. Retrieved26 July 2024.
^'VOGEL, Hon. Sir Julius', Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2016; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014; online edn, April 2014accessed 2 April 2017Archived 25 February 2021 at theWayback Machine
^'GANDHI, Rajiv', Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2016; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014; online edn, April 2014accessed 2 April 2017Archived 15 July 2021 at theWayback Machine
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