Cardiff University Information

Cardiff University (Welsh: Prifysgol Caerdydd) is a public research university in Cardiff, Wales. Founded in 1883 as the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire, it became one of the founding colleges of the University of Wales in 1893, and in 1997 received its own degree-awarding powers, although it held them in abeyance. It merged with the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology (UWIST) in 1988. The college adopted the public name of Cardiff University in 1999, and in 2005 this became its legal name, when it became an independent university awarding its own degrees. The third oldest university institution in Wales, it is composed of three colleges: Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; and Physical Sciences and Engineering.

Cardiff is the only Welsh member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities. It is recognised as providing high-quality, research-based university education, and placed between 100th and 200th in the world by the four major international rankings, and in the top 40 in all three UK achievement tables. It ranked 5th in the UK among multi-faculty institutions for the quality (GPA) of its research and 17th for its Research Power in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework. For 2017–2018, Cardiff had a turnover of £516.1 million, including £106.0 million in research grants and contracts.

The university has an undergraduate enrolment of 23,085 and a total enrolment of 31,595 (according to HESA data for 2016/17) making it one of the ten largest universities in the UK. The Cardiff University Students Union works to promote the interests of the student body within the University and further afield. The universitys sports teams compete in the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) leagues.

Discussions on the founding of a university college in South Wales began in 1879, when a group of Welsh and English MPs urged the government to consider the poor provision of higher and intermediate education in Wales and "the best means of assisting any local effort which may be made for supplying such deficiency."

In October 1881, William Gladstones government appointed a departmental committee to conduct "an enquiry into the nature and extent of intermediate and higher education in Wales", chaired by Lord Aberdare and consisting of Viscount Emlyn, Reverend Prebendary H. G. Robinson, Henry Richard, John Rhys and Lewis Morris. The Aberdare Report, as it came to be known, took evidence from a wide range of sources and over 250 witnesses and recommended a college each for North Wales and South Wales, the latter to be located in Glamorgan and the former to be the established University College of Wales in Aberystwyth (now Aberystwyth University). The committee cited the unique Welsh national identity and noted that many students in Wales could not afford to travel to University in England or Scotland. It advocated a national degree-awarding university for Wales, composed of regional colleges, which should be non-sectarian in nature and exclude the teaching of theology.

After the recommendation was published, Cardiff Corporation sought to secure the location of the college in Cardiff, and on 12 December 1881 formed a University College Committee to aid the matter. There was competition to be the site between Swansea and Cardiff. On 12 March 1883, after arbitration, a decision was made in Cardiffs favour. This was strengthened by the need to consider the interests of Monmouthshire, at that time not legally incorporated into Wales, and the greater sum received by Cardiff in support of the college, through a public appeal that raised £37,000 and a number of private donations, notably from the Lord Bute and Lord Windsor. In April Lord Aberdare was appointed as the Colleges first president. The possible locations considered included Cardiff Arms Park, Cathedral Road, and Moria Terrace, Roath, before the site of the Old Royal Infirmary buildings on Newport Road was chosen.

The University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire opened on 24 October 1883 with courses in Biology, Chemistry, English, French, German, Greek, History, Latin, Mathematics and Astronomy, Music, Welsh, Logic and Philosophy, and Physics. It was incorporated by Royal Charter the following year, this being the first in Wales to allow the enrolment of women, and specifically forbidding religious tests for entry.John Viriamu Jones was appointed as the Universitys first Principal at the age of 27. As Cardiff was not an independent university and could not award its own degrees, it prepared its students for examinations of the University of London or for further study at Oxford or Cambridge.

In 1888 the University College at Cardiff and that of North Wales (now Bangor University) proposed to the University College Wales at Aberystwyth joint action to gain a university charter for Wales, modelled on that of Victoria University, a confederation of new universities in Northern England. Such a charter was granted to the new University of Wales in 1893, allowing the colleges to award degrees as members. The Chancellor was set ex officio as the Prince of Wales, and the position of operational head would rotate among heads of the colleges.

In 1885, Aberdare Hall opened as the first hall of residence, allowing women access to the university. This moved to its current site in 1895, but remains a single-sex hall. In 1904 came the appointment of the first female associate professor in the UK, Millicent Mackenzie, who in 1910 became the first female full professor at a fully chartered UK university.

In 1901 Principal Jones persuaded Cardiff Corporation to give the college a five-acre site in Cathays Park (instead of selling it as they would have done otherwise). Soon after, in 1905, work on a new building commenced under the architect W. D. Caröe. Money ran short for the project, however. Although the side-wings were completed in the 1960s, the planned Great Hall has never been built. Caroe sought to combine the charm and elegance of his former (Trinity College, Cambridge) with the picturesque balance of many Oxford colleges. On 14 October 1909 the "New College" building in Cathays Park (now Main Building) was opened in a ceremony involving a procession from the "Old College" in Newport Road.

In 1931, the School of Medicine, founded as part of the college in 1893 along with the Departments of Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Pharmacology, was split off to form the Welsh National School of Medicine, which was renamed in 1984 the University of Wales College of Medicine.

In 1972, the institution was renamed University College Cardiff.

In 1988, University College Cardiff underwent financial difficulties, and a declaration of insolvency was considered. This led to a merger with the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology (UWIST), to form the University of Wales College of Cardiff. The Principal of the new institution was Sir Aubrey Trotman-Dickenson, who had been the principal of UWIST. After changes to the constitution in 1996, its name was changed to the University of Wales, Cardiff.

In the early 1990s, the universitys computer systems served as the home for The Internet Movie Database.

In 1997, the college was granted full independent degree-awarding powers by the Privy Council, though, as a member of the University of Wales it could not begin using them, and in 1999 the public name of the university was changed to Cardiff University.

In 2002, ideas were floated to merge Cardiff again with the University of Wales College of Medicine, after publication of the Welsh Assembly Governments review of higher education in Wales. This merger became effective on 1 August 2004, when Cardiff University ceased to be a constituent of the University of Wales and became an independent "link institution" affiliated to the federal university. The process of the merger was completed on 1 December 2004, when the Act of Parliament transferring UWCMs assets to Cardiff University received Royal Assent. On 17 December it was announced that the Privy Council had given approval to the new Supplemental Charter and had granted university status to Cardiff, legally changing the name of the institution to Cardiff University. Cardiff awarded University of Wales degrees to students admitted before 2005, but these have been replaced by Cardiff degrees.

In 2005, Wales College of Medicine, as part of the University, launched the North Wales Clinical School in Wrexham, in collaboration with the North East Wales Institute of Higher Education in Wrexham, the University of Wales, Bangor, and the National Health Service in Wales. This received funds of £12.5 million from the Welsh Assembly and trebled the number of trainee doctors in clinical training in Wales over a four-year period.

The university also has a popular Centre for Lifelong Learning, which has been teaching a wide range of courses for over 125 years. However in July 2009, the University announced it was ending over 250 humanities courses at the centre, making over 100 staff redundant. The University has since reintroduced a number of humanities courses for a trial period beginning in 2010.

In June 2010, the University launched three new research institutes, each offering a new approach to a major modern research issue. The Neurosciences and Mental Health Research Institute and the Cancer Stem Cell Research Institute are housed in the purpose-built Hadyn Ellis Building, and in the Sustainable Places Research Institute. Another part of the Science and Development Campus, the Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), opened in June 2016 for neuroimaging research.

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