The **University of Liverpool** (abbreviated **UOL**) is a [public](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_university "Public university") [research university](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_university "Research university") in [Liverpool](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverpool "Liverpool"), England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, [Victoria University](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_University_(United_Kingdom) "Victoria University (United Kingdom)"), it received [Royal Charter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Charter "Royal Charter") by [King Edward VII](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_VII "Edward VII") in 1903 attaining the decree to award degrees independently. The university withholds and operates assets on the [National Heritage List](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Heritage_List_for_England "National Heritage List for England"), such as the [Liverpool Royal Infirmary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverpool_Royal_Infirmary "Liverpool Royal Infirmary") (origins in 1749), the [Ness Botanic Gardens](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ness_Botanic_Gardens "Ness Botanic Gardens"), and the [Victoria Gallery & Museum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Gallery_%26_Museum "Victoria Gallery & Museum"). Organised into three faculties divided by 35 schools and departments, the university offers more than 230 first degree courses across 103 subjects. It is a founding member of the [Russell Group](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Group "Russell Group"), and the research intensive association of universities in [Northern England](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_England "Northern England"), the [N8 Group](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N8_Group "N8 Group"). The phrase _"redbrick university"_ was inspired by the [Victoria Building](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Building,_University_of_Liverpool "Victoria Building, University of Liverpool"), thus, the university is recognised as the original [redbrick university](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_brick_university "Red brick university").\[_[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed "Wikipedia:Citation needed")_\] Liverpool was the first UK university to establish departments in [oceanography](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oceanography "Oceanography"), [civic design](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_of_Civic_Design "Master of Civic Design"), [architecture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture "Architecture"), and [biochemistry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochemistry "Biochemistry") (at the [Johnston Laboratories](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnston_Laboratories "Johnston Laboratories")), and also the first to establish an independent university campus in China, known as [Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi%27an_Jiaotong-Liverpool_University "Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University").[\[8\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Liverpool#cite_note-8)[\[9\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Liverpool#cite_note-russellgroup1-9)[\[10\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Liverpool#cite_note-autogeneratedliv-10)[\[11\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Liverpool#cite_note-autogenerated1-11) The university has the [ninth-largest endowment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_UK_universities_by_endowment "List of UK universities by endowment") of any university in the UK and in 2023/24, it had an income of £705.3 million, of which £123.3 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £515.8 million.[\[5\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Liverpool#cite_note-Liverpool_Financial_Statement_23/24-5) As of 2024, the university holds four academic fellows of the [Academy of Social Sciences](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fellow_of_the_Academy_of_Social_Sciences "Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences") and one of the [British Academy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Academy "British Academy").[\[12\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Liverpool#cite_note-12)[\[13\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Liverpool#cite_note-13) Ten [Nobel prize laureates](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates_by_university_affiliation "List of Nobel laureates by university affiliation") have been affiliated with Liverpool as alumni or academic staff, with notable alumni leading fields in medicine, law, business, engineering, arts, politics, and technology. Graduates of the university are styled with the [post-nominal letters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-nominal_letters "Post-nominal letters"), _Lpool_, to indicate the institution. History ------- \[[edit](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=University_of_Liverpool&action=edit&section=1 "Edit section: History")\] ### University College Liverpool \[[edit](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=University_of_Liverpool&action=edit&section=2 "Edit section: University College Liverpool")\] The university was established in 1881 as College Liverpool, admitting its first students in 1882.[\[3\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Liverpool#cite_note-UnivLiverpoolHistory-3) In 1884, it became part of the federal [Victoria University](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_University_(United_Kingdom) "Victoria University (United Kingdom)"). In 1894 [Oliver Lodge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Lodge "Oliver Lodge"), a professor at the university, made the world's first public [radio transmission](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless "Wireless") and two years later took the first surgical [X-ray](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray "X-ray") in the United Kingdom.[\[14\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Liverpool#cite_note-history.htm-14) The [Liverpool University Press](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverpool_University_Press "Liverpool University Press") was founded in 1899, making it the third-oldest [university press](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_press "University press") in England. Students in this period were awarded external degrees by the [University of London](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_London "University of London").[\[15\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Liverpool#cite_note-15) ### University status \[[edit](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=University_of_Liverpool&action=edit&section=3 "Edit section: University status")\] [](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Victoria_Building,_University_of_Liverpool_2019.jpg) The centrepiece of the university estate, the [Victoria Building](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Building,_University_of_Liverpool "Victoria Building, University of Liverpool"), opened in 1892 as the first purpose built facility for the university. The building was the inspiration for the term "red brick university" which was coined by [Professor Edgar Allison Peers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Allison_Peers "Edgar Allison Peers"). [](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Quadrangle,_University_of_Liverpool_(2).jpg) The Quadrangle, University of Liverpool Following a [royal charter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_charter "Royal charter") and [act of Parliament](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_of_Parliament "Act of Parliament") in 1903, it became an independent university (the University of Liverpool) with the right to confer its own degrees. The next few years saw major developments at the university, including Sir [Charles Sherrington](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Sherrington "Charles Sherrington")'s discovery of the [synapse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synapse "Synapse") and William Blair-Bell's work on [chemotherapy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemotherapy "Chemotherapy") in the treatment of cancer. In the 1930s to 1940s Sir [James Chadwick](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Chadwick "James Chadwick") and Sir [Joseph Rotblat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Rotblat "Joseph Rotblat") made major contributions to the development of the [atomic bomb](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bomb "Atomic bomb").[\[14\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Liverpool#cite_note-history.htm-14) From 1943 to 1966 [Allan Downie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Watt_Downie "Allan Watt Downie"), Professor of Bacteriology, was involved in the eradication of [smallpox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox "Smallpox"). In 1994, the university was a founding member of the [Russell Group](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Group "Russell Group"), a collaboration of twenty leading research-intensive universities, as well as a founding member of the [N8 Group](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N8_Group "N8 Group") in 2004. In the 21st century physicists, engineers and technicians from the University of Liverpool were involved in the construction of the [Large Hadron Collider](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider "Large Hadron Collider") at [CERN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CERN "CERN"), working on two of the four detectors in the LHC.[\[16\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Liverpool#cite_note-16) In 2004, Sylvan Learning, later known as Laureate International Universities, became the worldwide partner for University of Liverpool online.[\[17\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Liverpool#cite_note-17) In 2019, it was announced that Kaplan Open Learning, part of [Kaplan, Inc](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaplan,_Inc "Kaplan, Inc"), would be the new partner for the University of Liverpool's online programmes.[\[18\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Liverpool#cite_note-news.liverpool.ac.uk-18) Laureate continued to provide some teaching provision for existing students until 2021.[\[19\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Liverpool#cite_note-19) The university has produced ten Nobel Prize winners, from the fields of science, medicine, economics and [peace](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace "Peace"). The Nobel laureates include the physician [Sir Ronald Ross](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Ronald_Ross "Sir Ronald Ross"), physicist [Charles Barkla](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor_Charles_Barkla "Professor Charles Barkla"), physicist [Martin Lewis Perl](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Lewis_Perl "Martin Lewis Perl"), the physiologist [Sir Charles Sherrington](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Charles_Sherrington "Sir Charles Sherrington"), physicist [Sir James Chadwick](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_James_Chadwick "Sir James Chadwick"), chemist [Sir Robert Robinson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Robinson_(organic_chemist) "Robert Robinson (organic chemist)"), chemist [Har Gobind Khorana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor_Har_Gobind_Khorana "Professor Har Gobind Khorana"), physiologist [Rodney Porter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor_Rodney_Porter "Professor Rodney Porter"), economist [Ronald Coase](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Coase "Ronald Coase") and physicist [Joseph Rotblat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor_Joseph_Rotblat "Professor Joseph Rotblat"). [Sir Ronald Ross](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Ronald_Ross "Sir Ronald Ross") was also the first British Nobel laureate in 1902. The university is also associated with Professors [Ronald Finn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Finn "Ronald Finn") and Sir [Cyril Clarke](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyril_Clarke "Cyril Clarke") who jointly won the [Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lasker%E2%80%93DeBakey_Clinical_Medical_Research_Award "Lasker–DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award") in 1980 and Sir [David Weatherall](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Weatherall "David Weatherall") who won the [Lasker-Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lasker-Koshland_Special_Achievement_Award_in_Medical_Science "Lasker-Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science") in 2010. These [Lasker Awards](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lasker_Award "Lasker Award") are popularly known as America's [Nobels](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize "Nobel Prize").[\[20\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Liverpool#cite_note-20) Over the 2013/2014 academic year, members of staff took part in numerous strikes after staff were offered a pay rise of 1% which [unions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_union "Trade union") equated to a 13% pay cut since 2008. The strikes were supported by both the university's Guild of Students and the [National Union of Students](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Union_of_Students_(United_Kingdom) "National Union of Students (United Kingdom)").[\[21\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Liverpool#cite_note-21) Some students at the university supported the strike, occupying buildings on campus.[\[22\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Liverpool#cite_note-22)