Imperial College London (officially Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom. Its founder, Prince Albert, envisioned a cultural area composed of the Victoria and Albert Museum, Natural History Museum, Royal Albert Hall, and the Imperial Institute. His wife, Queen Victoria, laid the foundation stone for the Imperial Institute in 1888. In 1907, the college joined the University of London, before leaving it a century later. In 1988, the Imperial College School of Medicine was formed through a merger with St Mary's Hospital Medical School. In 2004, Queen Elizabeth II opened the Imperial College Business School.
The main campus is located in South Kensington, with a new innovation campus in White City. Imperial is organised through faculties of science, engineering, medicine and business. The university's emphasis is on technology and its practical application.
In 2018-19, Imperial is ranked 8th globally and first in London in the QS World University Rankings, as well as 9th in the THE World University Rankings and 24th in the Academic Ranking of World Universities. It was ranked by Reuters as the most innovative university in Europe. Imperial is also ranked as the second most difficult university to get into in the UK by The Complete University Guide. Staff and alumni include 14 Nobel laureates, 3 Fields Medalists, 74 Fellows of the Royal Society, 84 Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and 85 Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
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History
Great Exhibition
Proceeds of the Great Exhibition in 1851 were used by Prince Albert to develop a cultural area composed of the Victoria and Albert Museum, Science Museum, Natural History Museum, Geological Museum, Royal College of Science, Royal College of Art, Royal School of Mines, Royal College of Music, Royal College of Organists, Royal School of Needlework, Royal Geographical Society, Royal Horticultural Gardens, Royal Albert Hall and the Imperial Institute. Several royal colleges and the Imperial Institute merged to form what is now Imperial College London.
The Royal College of Science, established in 1881, was a higher education institution located in South Kensington; it was a constituent college of Imperial College London from 1907 until it was wholly absorbed by Imperial in 2002. Famous alumni include H. G. Wells and are distinguishable by the letters ARCS (Associate of the Royal College of Science) after their name. Organisations linked with the college include the Royal College of Science Union and the Royal College of Science Association.
20th century
In 1907, the Board of Education found that greater capacity for higher technical education was needed and a proposal to merge the Royal School of Mines, the Royal College of Science, and City and Guilds College, was approved and passed, creating The Imperial College of Science and Technology as a constituent college of the University of London. Imperial's Royal Charter, granted by Edward VII, was officially signed on 8 July 1907. The main campus of Imperial College was constructed beside the buildings of the Imperial Institute in South Kensington.
In 1959 the Wolfson Foundation donated £350,000 for the establishment of a new Biochemistry Department. A special relationship between Imperial and the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi was established in 1963.
The Department of Management Science was created in 1971 and the Associated Studies Department was established in 1972. The Humanities Department was opened in 1980, formed from the Associated Studies and History of Science departments.
In 1988, Imperial merged with St Mary's Hospital Medical School, becoming The Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine. In 1995, Imperial launched its own academic publishing house, Imperial College Press, in partnership with World Scientific. Imperial merged with the National Heart and Lung Institute in 1995 and the Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, Royal Postgraduate Medical School (RPMS) and the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in 1997. In the same year the Imperial College School of Medicine was formally established and all of the property of Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, the National Heart and Lung Institute and the Royal Postgraduate Medical School were transferred to Imperial as the result of the Imperial College Act 1997.
21st century
In 2000, Imperial merged with both the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology and Wye College, the University of London's agricultural college in Wye, Kent, which later closed.
In 2003 Imperial was granted degree-awarding powers in its own right by the Privy Council. The London Centre for Nanotechnology was established in the same year as a joint venture between UCL and Imperial College London.
In 2004 the Tanaka Business School and a new Main Entrance on Exhibition Road were opened by Queen Elizabeth II. The UK Energy Research Centre was also established in 2004 and opened its headquarters at Imperial. In 2008, the Tanaka Business School was renamed the Imperial College Business School.
In November 2005 the Faculties of Life Sciences and Physical Sciences merged to become the Faculty of Natural Sciences. On 9 December 2005, Imperial announced that it would commence negotiations to secede from the University of London. Imperial became fully independent of the University of London in July 2007. In July 2008 the Centre for Advanced Structural Ceramics was opened in the Materials department.
In April 2011, Imperial and King's College London joined the UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation (UKCMRI) as partners with a commitment of £40 million each to the project. The centre was later renamed the Francis Crick Institute and opened on 9 November 2016. It the largest single biomedical laboratory in Europe. In 2014 the Dyson School of Design Engineering was opened following a £12m donation by the James Dyson Foundation, along with courses such as the MEng in Design Engineering.
Maps Imperial College London
Campuses
South Kensington
The South Kensington campus is the college's main campus, where most teaching and research takes place. The campus dates back to 1871, and constitutes the land and buildings owned by the colleges originally merged to form Imperial College, the Royal College of Science, the Royal School of Mines, and the City and Guilds College. It is also the original site of the Imperial Institute, whose Queen's Tower still stands at the heart of the campus. As part of a cultural centre known as Albertopolis (based on the vision of Prince Albert) the campus is surrounded by many of London's most popular attractions, including the Royal Albert Hall and Kensington Palace, museums including the Natural History Museum, Science Museum, and Victoria and Albert Museum, and institutions such as the Royal College of Art, the Royal College of Music, and the National Art Library.
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 the college union, which runs student pubs and a cinema on site. To the north lie and Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, which are within easy walking distance from the college, and provide green spaces and sports facilities which many of the student clubs take advantage of.
White City
A second major campus is under construction in the White City area of London, providing an innovation hub for the college. This will start housing some of the college's research departments over the next few years and space for commercialisation and spin-off companies, as well as post-graduate student accommodation.
Silwood Park
Silwood Park is a postgraduate campus of Imperial located in the village of Sunninghill near Ascot in Berkshire. The Silwood Park campus includes a centre for research and teaching in ecology, evolution, and conservation set in 100 ha of parkland where ecological field experiments are conducted, and contains student halls for students studying for a degree on the site.
Hospitals
Imperial has teaching hospitals across London which are used by the School of Medicine for undergraduate clinical teaching.
Charing Cross Campus, Hammersmith
A medical teaching and research campus based around Charing Cross Hospital. Facilities include a campus library, cafe and fitness gym.
Chelsea and Westminster Campus
A medical teaching and research campus based around Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. Facilities include a campus library.
Hammersmith Campus, East Acton
A medical teaching and research campus based around Hammersmith Hospital. Facilities include a campus library, catering outlets and sports facilities.
Royal Brompton Campus, Chelsea
A medical teaching and research campus based around the Royal Brompton Hospital. Facilities include a campus library.
St Mary's Campus, Paddington
A medical teaching and research campus based around St. Mary's Hospital. Facilities include a campus library and sports facilities, and is nearby the Wilson House hall of residence, which was original connected to St Mary's Hospital Medical School.
Organisation and administration
Faculties and departments
Imperial is organised through a network of faculties and departments:
Global institutes
Imperial hosts global centres to promote inter-disciplinary work:
- Energy Futures Laboratory
- Gandhi Centre for Inclusive Innovation
- Grantham Institute for Climate Change
- Institute for Security Science & Technology
- Centre for Health Economics & Policy Innovation
- Brevan Howard Centre for Financial Analysis & Technology
- Global Entrepreneurship & Development Index
- Data Science Institute
- Institute for Molecular Science and Engineering
- Francis Crick Institute
Governance
The highest academic official of Imperial College London is the President, formerly known as the Rector. The President is the chief executive, elected by the Council of the college and Chairman of the Senate. The position has been held by Alice Gast, an American chemical engineer, since September 2014.
In 2012, the additional post of Provost was created. James Stirling became the first Provost of Imperial College London in August 2013. He was succeeded as Provost by Ian Walmsley in September 2018.
The council is the governing body of Imperial, it consists of 23 members including the Chairman, the President, the Provost, the President of the Imperial College Union, 4 members of senior staff, and between 9 and 13 lay members who are not employees of Imperial. The current Chair is Sir Philip Dilley.
Finances and endowment
In 2016/17, Imperial had a total income of £991.2 million. It has the eighth largest endowment of any university in the United Kingdom, and the second largest of the universities in London. 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 in Imperial Innovations and other restricted equity holdings.
Affiliations and partnerships
Imperial is a member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, European University Association, Global Alliance of Technological Universities, League of European Research Universities and the Russell Group. It is a founding member of the Imperial College academic health sciences centre, the Francis Crick Institute and MedCity.
Academic profile
Rankings
World & Europe
Imperial is ranked 8th worldwide overall by the 2018 Times Higher Education ranking, as well as 3rd in Europe and in the UK after Oxford and Cambridge, 1st in London. Within the same ranking, Imperial is 4th worldwide in medicine, 9th in natural sciences and mathematics, 9th in computing, 10th in engineering and technology as well as 10th in life sciences.
The college is ranked 8th worldwide by the 2019 QS Top Universities Ranking overall, as well as 4th in Europe, 3rd in the UK and 1st in London. By the same ranking in 2018, Imperial is 6th worldwide in engineering and technology (including 3rd worldwide in civil engineering, 5th in electrical and electronic engineering, 7th in chemical engineering, 8th in mechanical and aeronautical engineering as well as 12th in computing), 10th in natural sciences (including 9th worldwide in environmental sciences, 10th in mathematics, 11th in materials science, 11th in physics and astronomy, 13th in chemistry and 23rd in Earth sciences), 11th in life sciences and medicine (including 11th worldwide in medicine, 17th in pharmacology and 19th in biological sciences), and 16th worldwide for the MBA (6th in Europe).
The World's Most Innovative Universities Rankings by Reuters, Bloomberg Businessweek, and the Financial Times ranked Imperial 1st in innovation and entrepreneurship in Europe.
National
Imperial consistently scores strongly in the UK university rankings and is ranked 4th in the 2016 Times Higher Education "Table of Tables" which combines the results of the 3 main domestic league tables. In the 2016 Complete University Guide, all 14 of the subjects offered by Imperial were ranked top 10 nationally meaning it was one of only two mainstream universities (along with the University of Cambridge) in the UK to have all subjects ranked in the top 10.
Imperial ranked 1st in London and 3rd in the UK in the US News & World Report Global Rankings.
In 2017, Imperial has been awarded the Gold Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), judging that Imperial "delivers consistently outstanding teaching, learning and outcomes for its students" and that it "is of the highest quality found in the UK".
Career
According to both the 2016 Guardian University Guide and the Complete University Guide, students were ranked as having the top employment prospects among UK universities. As of 2014 the average starting salary of a graduate was the highest of any UK university. The New York Times ranked Imperial College as one of the top 10 most-welcomed universities by the global job market.
Research
Imperial submitted a total of 1,257 staff across 14 units of assessment to the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) assessment. This found that 91% of Imperial's research is "world-leading" (46% achieved the highest possible 4* score) or "internationally excellent" (44% achieved 3*), giving an overall GPA of 3.36. In rankings produced by Times Higher Education based upon the REF results Imperial was ranked 2nd overall.
Imperial actively encourages its staff to commercialise their research and as a result has given rise to a large number of spin-out companies based on academic research. Imperial has a dedicated technology transfer company, Imperial Innovations.
Imperial College London has a long term partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In January 2018, the mathematics department of Imperial and the French National Center for Scientific Research launched a joint research laboratory of mathematics - UMI Abraham de Moivre -aiming to tackle the most challenging problems still unsolved and to build a bridge between the British and French scientific knowledges, based on the South Kensington campus of Imperial. The Fields medallists Cédric Villani and Martin Hairer hosted the launch presentation.
For its research on Parkinson's disease and Multiple Sclerosis, Imperial hosts the largest brain bank in the world consisting of 296 brains.
Admissions
For 2016 entry, the acceptance rate was 13.0% for undergraduates and 16.2% for postgraduates. At undergraduate level, there is roughly 1 place for 8 candidates. For 2016 entry, the domain with the lowest acceptance rate was Mechanical Engineering (11.5:1 ratio). The highest was Bioengineering (3.7:1). By way of example, acceptance ratio in Mathematics was of 9.3:1, in Medicine 8.6:1, in Chemical Engineering 8.3:1 and in Physics 6.7:1.
In the 2019 table by The Complete University Guide, Imperial applicants had the 2nd highest average entry scores in the UK, after Cambridge, with new entrants having an average UCAS tariff of 219.
Imperial is the most international university in the United Kingdom, with 50% of students from the UK, 16% of students from the EU, and 34% of students from outside the UK or EU. The student body is 39% female and 61% male. 36.5% of Imperial's undergraduates are privately educated, the fourth highest proportion amongst mainstream British universities.
Medicine
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 six teaching 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 College Healthcare NHS Trust was formed on 1 October 2007 by the merger of Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust (Charing Cross Hospital, Hammersmith Hospital and Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital) and St Mary's NHS Trust (St. Mary's Hospital and Western Eye Hospital) with Imperial College London Faculty of Medicine. It is an academic health science centre and manages five hospitals: Charing Cross Hospital, Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital, Hammersmith Hospital, St Mary's Hospital, and Western Eye Hospital. The Trust is currently one of the largest in the UK and in 2012/13 had a turnover of £971.3 million, employed approximately 9,770 people and treated almost 1.2 million patients.
Other (non-academic health science centres) hospitals affiliated with Imperial College include Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, Royal Brompton Hospital, West Middlesex University Hospital, Hillingdon Hospital, Mount Vernon Hospital, Harefield Hospital, Ealing Hospital, Central Middlesex Hospital, Northwick Park Hospital, St. Mark's Hospital, St Charles' Hospital and St Peter's Hospital.
Controversies
Accusations of bullying
In 2003, it was reported that one third of female academics "believe that discrimination or bullying by managers has held back their careers". Imperial has since won the Athena SWAN Award which recognizes employment practices that are supportive of the careers of women in science, technology, engineering and maths. In 2007, concerns were raised about the methods that were being used to fire people in the Faculty of Medicine. However, in 2014, Stefan Grimm, of the Department of Medicine, was found dead after being threatened with dismissal for failure to raise enough grant money. His last email before his passing accused his employers of bullying by demanding that he should get grants worth at least £200,000 per year. The College announced an internal inquiry into Stefan Grimm's death, and found that the performance metrics for his position were unreasonable, with new metrics for performance being needed.
Student life
Student body
For the 2016/17 academic year, Imperial had a total full-time student body of 17,690, consisting of 9,520 undergraduate students and 8,170 postgraduates. 50.7% of the student body is from outside of the UK. 32% of all full-time students came from outside the European Union in 2013-14, and around 13% of the International students had Chinese nationality in 2007-08.
Imperial's male-female ratio for undergraduate students is uneven at approximately 64:36 overall and 5:1 or higher in some engineering courses. However, medicine has an approximate 1:1 ratio with biology degrees tending to be higher.
Imperial College Union
Imperial College Union is the students' union and is run by five full-time sabbatical officers elected from the student body for a tenure of one year, and a number of permanent members of staff. The Union is given a large subvention by the university, much of which is spent on maintaining around 300 clubs, projects and societies. Examples of notable student groups and projects are Project Nepal which sends Imperial College students to work on educational development programmes in rural Nepal and the El Salvador Project, a construction based project in Central America. The Union also hosts sports-related clubs such as Imperial College Boat Club and Imperial College Gliding Club.
The Union operates on two sites; Beit Hall, South Kensington and Reynold's, Hammersmith.
Facilities
Sports facilities at Imperial's London campuses include four gyms, two swimming pools and two sports halls. 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.
There are two student bars on the South Kensington campus, one at the Imperial College Union and one at Eastside. 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. The Pewter tankard collection at Imperial College Union is the largest in Europe, with the majority of clubs and societies having tankards associated with their clubs.
The central library is open all hours, except between Friday at 23:00 and Saturday at 10:00. Imperial College London began refurbishment works for two floors of the central library in 2017 to improve the cooling and ventilation systems.
Student media
Imperial College Radio
Imperial College Radio (or ICRadio) was founded in November 1975 with the intention of broadcasting to the student halls of residence from a studio under Southside, actually commencing broadcasts in late 1976. It now broadcasts from the West Basement of Beit Quad over the internet.
Imperial College TV
Imperial College TV (ICTV) is Imperial College Union's TV station, founded in 1969 and operated from a small TV studio in the Electrical Engineering block. The department had bought an early AMPEX Type 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. Besides the news, early productions included a film of the Queen opening what was then called College Block.
Felix Newspaper
Felix is weekly student newspaper, first released on 9 December 1949. In addition to news, Felix also carries comic strips, features, opinions, puzzles and reviews, plus reports of trips and Imperial College sporting events.
Student societies
Imperial College Boat Club
The Imperial College Boat Club is the rowing club of Imperial and was founded on 12 December 1919. The club has a number of notable accolades, such as three alumni of the college in the gold medal winning GB 8+ at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, along with their coach Martin McElroy. The club has been highly successful, with many wins at Henley Royal Regatta.
Exploration Club
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.
Dramatic Society
The Imperial College Dramatic Society (ICDS or DramSoc) is one of two major theatrical arts societies, with the other being the Musical Theatre Society, and it was founded in 1912. The society puts on three major plays each year, in addition to several smaller fringe productions. It is additionally one the London-based dramatic societies to participate in the London Student Drama Festival, and regularly attends the Edinburgh Fringe. ICDS is responsible for the day-to-day maintenance of the Union's theatrical space, the Union Concert Hall.
Student housing
Imperial College owns and manages twenty one halls of residence in Inner London, Ealing, Ascot and Wye. Over three thousand rooms are available, guaranteeing first year undergraduates a place in College residences.
The majority of halls offer single or twin accommodation with some rooms having en suite facilities. Study bedrooms are provided with basic furniture and with access to shared kitchens and bathrooms. The majority of rooms come with internet access and access to the Imperial network. Most of them are considered among the newest student halls at London universities.
Most students in college or university accommodation are first-year undergraduates, since they are granted a room once they have selected Imperial as their firm offer with UCAS. 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 the Evelyn Garden halls. Some students also live in International Students House, London.
List of Halls of Residence:
Notable alumni, faculty and staff
Nobel laureates: (medicine) Sir Alexander Fleming, Sir Ernst Boris Chain, Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins, Sir Andrew Fielding Huxley, Rodney Robert Porter, (physics) Abdus Salam, Sir George Paget Thomson, Patrick Blackett, Baron Blackett, Dennis Gabor, Peter Higgs, (chemistry) Sir Norman Haworth, Sir Cyril Norman Hinshelwood, Sir Derek Barton, Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson, Sir George Porter.
Fields medalists: Klaus Friedrich Roth, Sir Simon Donaldson, Martin Hairer.
Academic affiliations include: Sir Tom Kibble, co-discoverer of Higgs Boson; Sir Tejinder Virdee, experimental particle physicist; Sir John Pendry, theoretical solid state physicist; Sir Christopher Kelk Ingold, physical organic chemistry pioneer; Sir William Henry Perkin, discoverer of the first synthetic organic chemical dye mauveine; Sir Edward Frankland, originator of the theory of chemical valency; Sir William Crookes, discoverer of thallium; Sir Alan Fersht, chemist; David Phillips, chemist; Harold Hopkins, contributed to the theory and design of optical instruments; Alfred North Whitehead, mathematician and philosopher; Steven Cowley, physicist and president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford; and Sir John Ambrose Fleming, inventor of the vacuum tube.
In biology and medicine; Thomas Huxley, advocate of the theory of evolution; Wendy Barclay, virologist; Dame Sally Davies, the Chief Medical Officer for England; David Livingstone, medical missionary. In engineering; Dame Julia Higgins, polymer scientist; Dame Judith Hackitt, former Chair of the Health and Safety Executive; Dudley Maurice Newitt, scientific director of the Special Operations Executive; Julia King, Baroness Brown of Cambridge, engineer and Member of the House of Lords.
Non-academic affiliations include: H. G. Wells, author; Nicholas Tombazis, chief car designer at McLaren and Ferrari; Ralph Robins, CEO of Rolls-Royce; Brian May, guitarist of rock band Queen; Chew Choon Seng, CEO of Singapore Airlines; Sir Julius Vogel, former Prime Minister of New Zealand; Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India; Teo Chee Hean, Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore; Huw Thomas, Physician to the Queen; Sir Roger Bannister, ran the first four-minute mile; Andreas Mogensen, first Danish astronaut; David Pearson, software engineer; Winston Wong, entrepreneur; Alan Howard, hedge fund manager and philanthropist; Cyrus Pallonji Mistry, former chairman of the Tata Group; Michael Birch, entrepreneur; Henry Charles Stephens, politician; Sir Michael Uren, businessman and philanthropist; Ian Read, CEO of Pfizer.
Notes
References
External links
- Official website
- Imperial College Press
Source of article : Wikipedia
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