History of the University of Hull
BEGINNINGS
University College Hull was founded in 1927 through the support
of local benefactors, such as Thomas Robinson Ferens (who gave the
land and £250,000), G F Grant and the City Council.
The foundation stone was laid by the Duke of York (later George VI)
in 1928, and the College opened in October with 39 students and 14
‘one-man' departments. The milestone of 100 students was reached in
1931.
Located on Cottingham Road in Hull, with just one building (now
the Venn Building), the new University College Hull was an outpost
of the University of London and offered courses in the arts and
pure sciences.
During its early years, the College faced the changing economic
trends of the 1930s and then the outbreak of war, which led to
falling student numbers, buildings being commandeered and books
being evacuated for safe-keeping.
ROYAL CHARTER
The first Principal, Arthur Morgan, was succeeded in 1935 by
John Nicholson (‘Nicky'), who led the campaign to achieve the
College's independence, which eventuated on 13 May 1954. A Royal
Charter was granted and the University of Hull became a separate
institution with the right to award its own degrees - it was
Yorkshire's third university and England's 14th.
The number of applications doubled within a year, and in 1956,
the student population topped 1,000 for the first time.
EXPANSION
A new library (later named after Sir Brynmor Jones, once the
University's Vice-Chancellor) was opened by the Queen Mother in
1960. The Larkin and Wilberforce buildings, were guided by the
Martin Plan of 1967, which envisaged a landscaped pedestrian centre
for the campus and ‘cascaded' buildings diminishing in height
towards the perimeter. The library tower extension opened in
1970.
No new academic buildings were built from 1974 to 1996. Student
numbers more than doubled during that time, and Hull became a more
efficient user of space than other British universities.
The next big development was the University's merger with
University College Scarborough in 2000. The college (originally a
teacher training institution) became the University of Hull's
Scarborough Campus. This now represented a significant extension of
the University's geographical reach and academic portfolio.
Scarborough offers specialist undergraduate and postgraduate
programmes in the arts, business, coastal studies, education and
internet computing.
The biggest-ever single expansion occurred in September 2003
with the acquisition of the University of Lincoln's Hull campus
(next door tothe main campus on Cottingham Road), increasing the
size of the Hull campus by more than a third.
The site houses the recently-established Hull York Medical School,
a pioneering joint initiative involving the Universities of Hull
and York, and the rapidly-growing Business School.
DEVELOPMENTS IN RESEARCH
Research excellence has developed alongside teaching from the
University's earliest days, particularly in the physical sciences.
In 1979, the School of Chemistry received the Queen's Award for
Industry for Professor George Gray's work in the development of
liquid crystals (which now have applications in everything from
scientific equipment to LCD displays on mobile phones).
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the University's Research
Centre in Surface Engineering pioneered the development of a new
discipline of crucial importance to the manufacturing industry. The
University has also developed expertise in the field of robotics
and virtual reality systems.
Research expertise is not confined to pure science - History, Law,
English, Geography, Asian Studies, Politics and Music were all
awarded a Grade 5 ('internationally excellent') in the last
national Research Assessment Exercise.
A UNIVERSITY FOR THE 21st CENTURY
The University of Hull is providing a cutting-edge educational
experience for over 18,000 students a year. The academic portfolio
contains 50 disciplines across the arts and humanities, business,
education, health, the sciences and the social sciences.
As one of the major players in the regeneration of Hull and
Scarborough, the University also has a significant impact on local
economic and social growth.
UNIVERSITY MACE AND ARMS
The mace is the most visible link between the university and the
city of Hull, having been commissioned and presented by Hull City
Council in 1956 to acknowledge the institution's new status as a
university.
The design in silver and gilt, by Peter Inchbald, of Walker and
Hall Ltd, Sheffield, features two globes enclosed in a cage of
reeded wires at top and bottom. At the head of the mace is a ducal
coronet, and it is decorated with sprays of roses. The tail is
finished with a fleur-de-lys.
The heraldic elements incorporated into the mace come from the
university's original coat of arms, designed by Sir Algernon
Tudor-Craig in 1928, and have since been applied to the corporate
identity and logo. They are:
- the torch for learning
- the rose for Yorkshire
- the ducal coronet from the arms of the city of Hull
- the fleur-de-lys for Lincolnshire
- the dove symbolising peace