The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a British red brick university located in the city of Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School (1825) and Mason Science College (1875). Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus university status. It is a member of the Russell Group of research universities and a founding member of Universitas 21. Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) data (2011) placed Birmingham in the 12 institutions in England with highest entry requirements.
The student population includes around 18,000 undergraduate and 8,000 postgraduate students, making it the largest university in the West Midlands region, and the 11th largest in the UK. As of 2011 it is the seventh most popular English university by number of applications. In 2010 Birmingham was ranked as the 10th most popular British university by graduate employers. The annual income of the institution for 2010-11 was £470.7 million, with an expenditure of £443.7 million. Birmingham has the ninth largest financial endowment of any British university at approximately £85 million in 2009.
Birmingham is ranked nationally between 10th (The Times HES) and 23rd (The Independent) and internationally 99th (ARWU) in the 2010 rankings. The 2011 QS World University Rankings places Birmingham University at 67th in the world. The Sunday Times' composite ranking placed the university 19th from 1998 to 2007. Birmingham was ranked 12th in the UK in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise with 16 percent of the university's research regarded as 'world-leading' and a further 41 percent as 'internationally excellent', with particular strengths in the fields of music, physics, biosciences, computer science, mechanical engineering, political science, international relations and law. Birmingham consistently achieves high satisfaction rates in the National Student Survey. Course satisfaction was at 85% in 2011 which grew to 88% in 2012.
The University is home to the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, housing works by Van Gogh, Picasso and Monet, the Lapworth Museum of Geology, and the Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower, which is a prominent landmark visible from many parts of the city, and the tallest free-standing clock tower in the world. Birmingham's sport activities have been consistently ranked within the top three in British Universities competitions for the past 15 years. Alumni include former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and eight Nobel laureates.
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“It is well known, that the best productions of the best human intellects, are generally regarded by those intellects as mere immature freshman exercises, wholly worthless in themselves, except as initiatives for entering the great University of God after death.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
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