Red Brick Universities

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The civic universities

The English civic university movement developed out of various 19th century private research and education institutes in industrial cities. The 1824 Manchester Mechanics' Institute formed the basis of the Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), and thus lead towards The University of Manchester proper. The University of Birmingham has origins dating back to the 1825 Birmingham Medical School. The University of Leeds also owes its foundations to a medical school; the 1831 Leeds School of Medicine. The University of Bristol began with the 1876 Bristol University College, the University of Liverpool with a University College in 1881, and the University of Sheffield with a University college in 1897.

The University of Birmingham was the first to receive official university status on the 24th May 1900.

The six civic universities were:

University of Birmingham; Royal Charter granted in 1900.

University of Bristol; Royal Charter granted in 1909.

University of Leeds; Royal Charter granted in 1904.

University of Liverpool; Royal Charter granted in 1903.

University of Manchester; formed in 2004 by the dissolution of the Victoria University of Manchester and UMIST.

University of Sheffield; Royal charter granted in 1905.

These universities were distinguished by being non-collegiate institutions that admitted men without reference to religion or background and concentrated on imparting to their students "real-world" skills, often linked to engineering. In this sense, they owed their heritage to University College London and to the Humboldt University of Berlin, both of which emphasised practical knowledge over the academic sort. This focus on the practical also distinguished the "Red Brick" universities from the ancient English universities of Oxford and Cambridge and from the newer (although still pre-Victorian) University of Durham, collegiate institutions which concentrated on divinity, the liberal arts and imposed religious tests (e.g. assent to the Thirty-Nine Articles) on staff and students. Scotland's ancient universities (St Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh), usually grouped with Dundee (which was originally part of St Andrews - see below), were founded on a different basis.

Origins of the term

The term "Red Brick" or "Redbrick" was first coined by a professor of Spanish (Edgar Allison Peers) at the University of Liverpool to describe these civic universities (under the pseudonym "Bruce Truscot" in his 1943 book Redbrick University). His reference was inspired by the fact that The Victoria Building at the University of Liverpool (which was designed by Alfred Waterhouse and completed in 1892) is built from a distinctive red pressed brick, with terracotta decorative dressings. On this basis the University of Liverpool, which was itself originally part of the aforementioned Victoria University (together with Owens College in Manchester), can be argued to be architecturally the "original" red brick university.

The term, however, has since become more nebulous. The civic University of Reading, founded in the late 19th century as an extension college of Oxford, received its charter in 1926 and is often classed as "RedBrick". So too is Queen's University Belfast, which became a civic university in 1908, having previously been established in 1845 as a university college of the Queen's University of Ireland (which was later renamed as Royal University of Ireland).

Some institutions with origins dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries which later achieved university status prior to 1963 are also occasionally described as RedBrick. These may negate the architectural and pre-World War definition but are no less 'civic'. This broader designation includes institutions such as:

University of Exeter (originally an extension college of Cambridge);

University of Hull;*University of Leicester;*University of Newcastle (originally two extension colleges of the University of Durham)

University of Nottingham; and

University of Southampton (until the 1950s, all except Newcastle, which was linked with Durham, were colleges with degrees being awarded by the University of London).

Certain consituant colleges of the University of London, such as Royal Holloway, share the hallmarks of traditional Redbrick institutions, being literally Victorian 'Red Brick' in architecure and having achieved official university status before the second world war.

The University of Dundee, formerly "University College Dundee", was founded in the late 19th century and then spent many years as a constituent college of the University of St Andrews until it received its own charter. It shares features of both "Redbrick" and ancient Scottish institutions.

The term "Redbrick" is also used to cover most of the original constituent institutions of the University of Wales, those being; Aberystwyth, Bangor, Swansea and Cardiff. The exception to these being the St David's College, Lampeter, which predates all 'Redbrick' universities by being founded in 1822.

Keble College, Oxford is notable for being both an architecturally Redbrick built college within the University of Oxford and a "Redbrick"-style institution which places a similarly strong emphasis on engineering and sciences. It is also chronologically of the redbrick era, having been founded in 1870.

In 1963, the Robbins Report recommended expansion of the British university system - the universities established after this report are often known as the "plate glass universities".