University History
In the beginning...
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.
Duke of
York (George VI) laid the foundation stone in 1928 and the College
opened in October with 39 students and 14 ‘one-man’ departments.
There were 100 students in 1931.
The Duke of York laying the foundation stone
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.
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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.
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Expansion
A new library (later named after Sir Brynmor Jones, once the
University’s Vice-Chancellor) was opened by the Queen Mother in
1960.
Part of the inside of the University library, June
1954
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.
Needler Hall including first extension, August
1952
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.
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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.
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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.
Selection of
historical images
^ Top banner image: Venn building under construction and
now.
The Duke and Duchess of York,
the Archbishop of York, the President
(Mr Ferens) and the Principal, 1928
Aerial view of the University, May 1954
Old chemistry labs, 1954
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Page last updated by Matthew Ho on
4/3/2012