 | |
| Motto | Latin:Sapientia urbs conditur |
|---|---|
Motto in English | A city is built on wisdom |
| Type | Public |
| Established | 1798 – As an Adult Education School 1881 – University College Nottingham 1948 – Receivedroyal charter |
| Endowment | £78.1 million (2024)[1] |
| Budget | £834.7 million (2023/24)[1] |
| Chancellor | Lola Young, Baroness Young of Hornsey[2] |
| Vice-Chancellor | Jane Norman[3][4] |
| Visitor | Alan Campbell (asLord President of the Councilex officio)[5][6] |
Academic staff | 7,220 Nottingham-based (2023/24)[7] |
| Students | 36,180 Nottingham based (2023/24)[8] 47,953 worldwide (2019/20)[9] |
| Undergraduates | 27,890 (2023/24)[8] |
| Postgraduates | 8,290 (2023/24)[8] |
| Location | , England 52°56′20″N1°11′49″W / 52.939°N 1.197°W /52.939; -1.197 |
| Colours | Nottingham Blue Green Gold |
| Affiliations | |
| Website | nottingham |
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TheUniversity of Nottingham is a publicresearch university inNottingham, England. It was founded asUniversity College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted aroyal charter in 1948.
Nottingham's main campus (University Park) with Jubilee Campus and teaching hospital (Queen's Medical Centre) are located within theCity of Nottingham, with a number of smaller campuses and sites elsewhere inNottinghamshire andDerbyshire. Outside the UK, the university has campuses inSemenyih, Malaysia, andNingbo, China. Nottingham is organised into five constituent faculties, within which there are more than 50 schools, departments, institutes and research centres. Nottingham has more than 46,000 students and 7,000 staff across the UK, China and Malaysia and had an income of £834.7 million in 2023–24, of which £141.6 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £615.3 million.[1]
The institution's alumni have been awarded several Nobel Prizes, a Fields Medal, and a Gabor Medal and Prize. The university is a member of theAssociation of Commonwealth Universities, theEuropean University Association, theRussell Group,Universitas 21,Universities UK, theVirgo Consortium, and participates in theSutton Trust Summer School programme as a member of theSutton 30.
The University of Nottingham traces its origins to both the founding of anadult education school in 1798, and the University Extension Lectures inaugurated by theUniversity of Cambridge in 1873—the first of their kind in the country.[10] However, the foundation of the university is generally regarded as being the establishment of University College Nottingham, in 1881 as a college preparing students for examinations of theUniversity of London.
In 1875, an anonymous donor provided £10,000 to establish the work of the Adult Education School and Cambridge Extension Lectures on a permanent basis, and the Corporation of Nottingham agreed to erect and maintain a building for this purpose and to provide funds to supply the instruction.[10]
The foundation stone of the college was duly laid in 1877 by the former Prime MinisterWilliam Ewart Gladstone,[11] and the college's neo-gothic building on Shakespeare Street was formally opened in 1881 byPrince Leopold, Duke of Albany.[11] In 1881, there were four professors – of Literature, Physics, Chemistry and Natural Science. New departments and chairs quickly followed: Engineering in 1884, Classics combined with Philosophy in 1893, French in 1897 and Education in 1905; in 1905 the combined Department of Physics and Mathematics became two separate entities; in 1911 Departments of English and Mining were created, in 1912, Economics, and Geology combined with Geography; History in 1914, Adult Education in 1923 and Pharmacy in 1925.[10]
The university college underwent significant expansion in the 1920s, when it moved from the centre of Nottingham to a large campus on the city's outskirts. The new campus, called University Park, was completed in 1928, and financed by an endowment fund, public contributions, and the generosity ofSir Jesse Boot (later Lord Trent) who presented 35 acres (14 ha) to the City of Nottingham in 1921.[12] Boot and his fellow benefactors sought to establish an "elite seat of learning" committed to widening participation,[13] and hoped that the move would solve the problems facing University College Nottingham, in its restricted building on Shakespeare Street. Boot stipulated that, whilst part of the Highfields site, lying south-west of the city, should be devoted to the University College, the rest should provide a place of recreation for the residents of the city, and, by the end of the decade, the landscaping of the lake and public park adjoining University Boulevard was completed. The original University College building on Shakespeare Street in central Nottingham, known as the Arkwright Building, now forms part ofNottingham Trent University's City Campus.[14]
University College Nottingham was initially accommodated within theTrent Building, an imposing white limestone structure with a distinctive clock tower, designed by Morley Horder, and formally opened byKing George V on 10 July 1928. During this period of development, Nottingham attracted high-profile lecturers, includingAlbert Einstein,H. G. Wells, andMahatma Gandhi.[15] The blackboard used by Einstein during his time at Nottingham is still on display in the Physics department.[16]
Apart from its physical transfer to surroundings that could not be more different from its original home, the college made few developments between the wars. The Department of Slavonic Languages (later Slavonic Studies) was established in 1933, the teaching of Russian having been introduced in 1916. In 1933–34, the Departments of Electrical Engineering, Zoology and Geography, which had been combined with other subjects, were made independent; and in 1938 a supplemental Charter provided for a much wider representation on the Governing Body. However, further advances were delayed by the outbreak of war in 1939.[10]
University College Nottingham students received their degrees from the University of London.[17] However, in 1943, the university was granted itsroyal charter which endowed it with university status and gave it the power to confer degrees. In 1948 University College Nottingham was incorporated as the University of Nottingham.[18]
In the 1940s, the Midlands Agricultural and Dairy College atSutton Bonington merged with the university as the School of Agriculture, and in 1956 the Portland Building was completed to complement the Trent Building. In 1970, the university established the UK's first new medical school of the 20th century.[11]
The university has used several logos throughout its history, beginning with its coat of arms. Later, Nottingham adopted a simpler logo, in which a stylised version ofNottingham Castle was surrounded by the text "The University of Nottingham". In 2001 Nottingham undertook a major re-branding exercise, which included replacing the logo with the current one.
In 1999, Jubilee Campus was opened on the former site of theRaleigh Bicycle Company, one mile (1.6 km) away from theUniversity Park Campus. Nottingham then began to expand overseas, opening campuses inMalaysia and in China in 1999 and 2004 respectively. In 2005, theKing's Meadow Campus opened near University Park.
In November 2023, the University of Nottingham became the first university in the UK to be awarded anAthena SWAN Gold Award for its commitment to advancing gender equality.[19]
In November 2025, the university announced that it would permanently suspend 16 courses, including all modern language and music courses, for new students.[20] It cited "significant financial challenges" due to decreasing numbers of students, especially international students, as the reason.[21]
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University Park Campus, to the west of Nottingham city centre, is the 330-acre (1.3 km2) main campus of the University of Nottingham. Set around its lake and clock-tower and with extensive parkland greenery,[22][23] University Park has won numerous awards for its architecture and landscaping, and has been named the greenest campus in the country in a Green Flag Award.[24]
At the south entrance to the main campus, in Highfields Park, lies the Lakeside Arts Centre, the university's public arts facility and performance space. The D.H. Lawrence Pavilion houses a range of cultural facilities, including a 225 capacity theatre space, a series of craft cabinets, the Weston Gallery (which displays the university's manuscript collection), the Wallner gallery, which exists as a platform for local and regional artists, and a series of visual arts, performance and hospitality spaces. Other nearby facilities include the Djanogly Art Gallery, Recital Hall and Theatre, which in the past have hosted recordings and broadcasts by BBC Radio 3, local community theatre partnerships, contemporary art exhibitions, and cultural festivals.[25][26]
Jubilee Campus, designed by SirMichael Hopkins, was opened byQueen Elizabeth II in 1999, and is approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) from University Park. The campus' facilities house the Schools of Education and Computer Science, and TheNottingham University Business School. The site is also the home of The National College for School Leadership. Additional investment of £9.2 million in Jubilee Campus was completed in 2004, with a second building for Nottingham University Business School opened byLord Sainsbury.[27] The environmentally friendly nature of the campus and its buildings have been a factor in the awards that it has received, including the Millennium Marque Award for Environmental Excellence, the British Construction Industry Building Project of the Year, the RIBA Journal Sustainability Award, and the Civic Trust Award for Sustainability.
The Jubilee Campus won the commendation of the Energy Globe Award judges in 2005.[27] The campus is distinct for its modern and unique architecture, culminating inAspire, a 60-metre tall artistic structure is the tallest freestanding structure in the UK. The university plans to invest £200 million in a new scheme designed byKen Shuttleworth, designer of the London 'Gherkin' and founder ofMake Architects. However, the architecture of the Jubilee Campus is not admired by all, and the newly completed Amenities Building and YANG Fujia Building have been labelled the second worst new architectural design in Britain in a survey.[28]
TheGlaxoSmithKline Carbon Neutral Laboratory is part of the university's School of Chemistry and is the UK's first carbon neutral laboratory.[29] On 12 September 2014 a large fire broke out during its construction,[30][31] resulting in the official opening being delayed until 2017.
TheCity Hospital Campus houses staff and postgraduate students specialising in respiratory medicine, stroke medicine, oncology, physiotherapy, and public health. The campus was expanded in 2009 to house a new institute of public health and a specialist centre for tobacco research.
Sutton Bonington Campus houses Nottingham's School of Biosciences and the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, and is about 12 miles (19 kilometres) south of the City of Nottingham, between the M1 motorway,Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station, and theMidland Main Line railway. The campus is centred on the historic manor of Sutton Bonington and retains many of its own botanic gardens and lakes.[32] The University Farm, including the Dairy Centre, is at the Sutton Bonington Campus.
King's Meadow Campus was established in 2005 on the formerCentral Independent Television Studios site on Lenton Lane. It mainly accommodates administrative functions, but also the Department of Manuscripts and Special Collections. A functioning television studio remains at the site, that continues to be rented to the film and television industry.
Castle Meadow Campus is a 3.75-hectare site belowNottingham Castle, purchased by the university in 2021, having been previously owned by HMRC (HM Revenue and Customs). Existing buildings are to be refurbished with the campus planned to open from 2023.[33]
Nottingham has introduced overseas campuses as part of a growth strategy. The first stage in this strategy was the establishment in 1999 of a campus inSemenyih, Selangor, Malaysia, a short distance fromKuala Lumpur. This was followed in 2004 by a campus inNingbo,Zhejiang Province, China.
The Malaysia campus was the first campus of a British university in Malaysia and one of the first anywhere in the world, earning theQueen's Award for Enterprise 2001 and the Queen's Award for Industry (International Trade) 2006.[34] In September 2005, the Malaysia campus moved to a purpose-built campus at Semenyih, 18 miles (29.0 km) south of Kuala Lumpur city centre.
The £40 million Ningbo campus was completed in 2005, and was officially opened byJohn Prescott, the UK's Deputy Prime Minister, in February 2006. Like the Malaysia Campus, Ningbo Campus builds on the University Park in the UK and includes a lake, its own version of Nottingham's famous Trent Building, and the Centre for Sustainable Energy Technologies (CSET), China's first zero-carbon building.
In November 2012, the university launched a new joint venture in collaboration with theEast China University of Science and Technology: the Shanghai Nottingham Advanced Academy (SNAA). The SNAA will deliver joint courses in Shanghai including periods of study in Nottingham, with teaching and research at undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral levels.[35]
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The university is made up of a number of schools and departments organised into five faculties:[36] Arts, Engineering, Medicine and Health Sciences, Science, and Social Science. Each faculty encompasses a number of schools and departments.
The chief officer is theChancellor, elected by the University Court on the recommendation of the University Council.[37] The chief academic and administrative officer is theVice-Chancellor, who is assisted byPro-Vice-Chancellors.[37] On 16 December 2024,Jane Norman was announced as the next Vice-Chancellor, following the resignation ofShearer West.[38]
The governing body is the University Council, which has 35 members and is mostly non-academic.[37] The academic authority is the Senate, consisting of senior academics and elected staff and student representatives.[37] The largest forum is the University Court, presided over by the Chancellor.[37]
The outgoing Registrar is Paul Greatrix, who finishes in post at the end of 2024.[39]
In the financial year ending 31 July 2024, Nottingham had a total income of £834.7 million (2022/23 – £811.2 million) and total expenditure of £615.3 million (2022/23 – £763.8 million).[1] Key sources of income included £437.5 million from tuition fees and education contracts (2022/23 – £435.4 million), £120.7 million from funding body grants (2022/23 – £118.7 million), £141.6 million from research grants and contracts (2022/23 – £129.5 million), £3.5 million from investment income (2022/23 – £3.6 million) and £4.2 million from donations and endowments (2022/23 – £2.8 million).[1]
At year end, Nottingham had endowments of £78.1 million (2023 – £72.5 million) and total net assets of £783.5 million (2023 – £574.1 million).[1]
The university is a member of theRussell Group of research-led British universities, and theSutton 13 group of top-ranked universities in the UK.[40] Sutton Trust universities are regarded as the UK's "most prestigious",[41] "elite"[42] and "most selective" universities[43] offering around 30,000 places annually.[44] The 13 universities are used as a benchmark for monitoring social mobility by academics, educational organisations and the government.[45]
The university is home to the Leverhume Centre for Research on Globalisation and Economic Policy (GEP). GEP was established in the Nottingham School of Economics in 2001, and conducts research activities structured on the theme of globalisation.[citation needed] Other facilities at Nottingham include a 46teraflop supercomputer.[46]
In the 2021Research Excellence Framework (REF), which assesses the quality of research in UK higher education institutions, Nottingham is ranked joint 25th by GPA and 7th for research power (the grade point average score of a university, multiplied by the full-time equivalent number of researchers submitted).[47]
|
| Domicile[51] and Ethnicity[52] | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| British White[a] | 52% | ||
| British Ethnic Minorities[b] | 26% | ||
| International EU | 2% | ||
| International Non-EU | 20% | ||
| UndergraduateWidening Participation Indicators[51][53] | |||
| Female | 55% | ||
| Independent School | 18% | ||
| Low Participation Areas[c] | 8% | ||
According to the latest statistics (2023/24) compiled by theHigher Education Statistics Agency, Nottingham is the UK's9th largest university based on total student enrolment with 34,840 students;[8] from more than 130 countries.[54] 20% of Nottingham's undergraduates areprivately educated, the 17th highest proportion among mainstream British universities.[55] In the 2016–17 academic year, the university had a domicile breakdown of 78:5:17 of UK:EU:non-EU students respectively with a female to male ratio of 55:45.[56]
The university gave offers of admission to 67.7% of its undergraduate applicants in 2022, the 50th lowest offer rate across the country.[57]
| National rankings | |
|---|---|
| Complete (2026)[58] | 26= |
| Guardian (2026)[59] | 51 |
| Times / Sunday Times (2026)[60] | 30 |
| Global rankings | |
| ARWU (2025)[61] | 101–150 |
| QS (2026)[62] | 97 |
| THE (2026)[63] | 136= |
The university was namedTimes Higher Education "University of the Year" in 2006,Times Higher Education "Entrepreneurial University of the Year" in 2008.[64]In 2016–17, Nottingham was named 'University of the Year' for graduate employment byThe Sunday Times.[65]
The 2024 QS University Ranking placed Nottingham University 100th globally and 17th nationally.[66]
In 2019, Nottingham was ranked Europe's 87th 'Most Innovative University' by Reuters.[67]
2025 UK Complete University Guide: Subject League Tables[68]
2024 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings: By Subject[69]
The University of Nottingham Students' Union is heavily involved with providing student activities at the university and has more than 190student societies affiliated to it. A further 76 clubs are affiliated to the Students' Union'sSports Committee. Nottingham participates yearly in theVarsity Series, a number of sporting events between the students and staff of the university and traditional rivalsLoughborough University[70] andNottingham Trent University.
The student newspaperImpact is published regularly during term time. The Students' Union radio station isUniversity Radio Nottingham. A range of student theatre takes place atThe New Theatre. The Students' Union also operates a student-run professional sound and lighting company,TEC PA & Lighting, who provide services for many events such as graduation, balls, and many other events, both within the university and to external clients.
The Students' Union also organises a number of activities and events involving students and staff with the local community. The Student Volunteer Centre sees more than 4500 students each year volunteering in local schools and community organisations, as well as a range of other projects throughout the city of Nottingham. The Union has the largest student-run RAG organisation outside of the US, "Karnival" (abbreviated to "Karni"), which raised £1.61 million in 2012.[71] The Students' Union also runs an international volunteering project,InterVol, which sends student volunteers to work in rural African communities.[72]
Karnival also ran "RAG raids", a format of charity fundraising in other cities, which proved to be one of the most profitable charity sources for the university with notably a single RAG raid in 2014 raising £66,552.72 for the Poppy Appeal. However, in April 2017 the raids were controversially banned by the students' union over the fears for the safety on students.
The University of Nottingham has a system of halls located on its campus. The halls are generally named either after counties, districts, or places in theEast Midlands or significant people associated with the university.
![Florence Boot Hall is the oldest hall of residence at the university. It is named after Florence Boot, the wife of Jesse Boot who was a major benefactor to the university[73]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aUniversity_Park_MMB_D0_Florence_Boot_Hall.jpg)
TheDavid Ross Sports Village is a multi-sport facility, which opened in October 2016.[74]
 | This sectionmay lendundue weight to views against the University. The specific problem is: Section reads like a news bulletin, there is too much in this section on isolated incidents and needs reducing Please helpimprove it by rewriting it in abalanced fashion that contextualises different points of view.(March 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
On 14 May 2008,Hicham Yezza, a member of staff, andRizwaan Sabir, a postgraduate student, were arrested at the University of Nottingham and weredetained for six days under the Terrorism Act 2000. The university informed the police after finding an edited version of theal-Qaeda training manual the student was using for his research. Both were released without charge from terrorism offences.[75][76] In September 2011, Rizwaan Sabir was awarded £20,000 compensation for false imprisonment byNottinghamshire Police.
The university came under criticism after the only professor involved in terrorism studies at the institution,Rod Thornton, decided that, because of the university's lack of guidance to him regarding their position over possession of terrorist publications, he was no longer willing to risk possible arrest by teaching terrorism studies at the university, although he would continue in his other responsibilities.[77] As a result, terrorism studies are no longer being taught at the University of Nottingham.[77]
For a 2011 conference of theBritish International Studies Association, Thornton prepared a paper which alleged the university had engaged in systematic persecution against Yezza, Sabir, and junior academics in the department.[78] One of Thornton's colleagues at Nottingham complained to BISA about allegeddefamatory content of Thornton's paper, and a spokesman for the university called it "highly defamatory of a number of his colleagues". The paper was later removed from BISA's website.[79]
In early May 2011, Thornton was suspended by the university for the "breakdown in working relationships" caused by the paper. In an open letter published inThe Guardian, 67 international researchers includingNoam Chomsky asked for Thornton's reinstatement and an independent examination of the university's actions, saying that Thornton's paper "carefully details what appear to be examples of serious misconduct from senior university management over the arrest of two university members".[80] In 2011, a campaign was launched calling for the reinstatement of Rod Thornton and for a public inquiry into the university's actions.[81] In March 2012 it was announced that Thornton was leaving his job as a lecturer at Nottingham, and that, "for his part, Dr Thornton accepts that the article which he published on the BISA website in April 2011 contained a number of inaccuracies."[82] Thornton apologized for any offence he might have caused.
In the 2020–21 academic year, students of the University of Nottingham organised large-scale campaigning against the university management team and specifically the Vice-Chancellor,Shearer West, for wider academic, welfare, and financial support for students, due to the on-goingCOVID-19 pandemic.[83][84][85]
At the start of the 2021–22 academic year,Patrick McKinney,Bishop of Nottingham, appointedFr David Palmer to position ofCatholic Chaplain to the university. The university actively blocked his appointment on the basis of his views onabortion andeuthanasia.[86][87] This triggered mass international criticism, including fromAnn Furedi, a former chief executive of theBritish Pregnancy Advisory Service with strongly pro-choice views, who described the decision as "stupid" and stated "I disagree with his views on abortion but as a Catholic priest he's expressing a mainstream Catholic view. Universities can't tell chaplains what religious beliefs to express".[88]
Fr Palmer's criticism of abortion and euthanasia were entirely in line withthe Catholic Church's teaching.[89][improper synthesis?]
The university has been associated with a range of notable alumni and staff in a number of disciplines: Nobel Prize or Fields Medal winners include SirClive Granger – 2003Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, SirPeter Mansfield – 2003Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for contributions toMagnetic Resonance Imaging,Andre Geim – Nobel Prize–winning physicist, andCaucher Birkar – Fields Medal–winning mathematician.[90]
Frederick Kipping, professor of chemistry (1897–1936), made the discovery ofsiliconepolymers at Nottingham.[91] Major developments in thein vitro culture of plants andmicropropogation techniques were made by plant scientists at Nottingham, along with the first production of transgenic tomatoes byDon Grierson in the 1980s. Other innovations at the university includecochlear implants for deaf children and thebrace-for-impact position used in aircraft. In 2015, theAssemble collective, of which the part-time Architecture Department tutor Joseph Halligan is a member, won theTurner Prize for art.[92]
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