Information about Imperial College London

Imperial College London
Motto	Scientia imperii decus et tutamen Knowledge is the adornment and protection of the State
Established	8 July 1907[1]
Type	Public
Endowment	£47 million[2]
Rector	Sir Richard Sykes
Visitor	The Lord President of the Council ex officio
Staff	approx. 8,000 (2006/7)
Students	12,665[3]
Undergraduates	8,095<ref name="HESA" />
Postgraduates	4,570<ref name="HESA" />
Location	London, UK
Campus	Urban
Colours
Affiliations	Russell Group Association of MBAs IDEA League Association of Commonwealth Universities 'Golden Triangle' Oak Ridge Associated Universities
Nobel laureates	14
Website	[1]

Imperial College London (officially Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a British university in London. Imperial's teaching and research have traditionally focused on science, engineering and medicine, although more recently its faculties in these areas have been complemented by the Tanaka Business School and a humanities department. In the latest THES - QS World University Rankings of universities world-wide, Imperial was placed 9th overall in the world.^[4] It was also ranked fourth in the world for engineering and technology and for biomedicine by the THES in 2006. Imperial's main campus is located in South Kensington in central London, on the boundary between the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the City of Westminster, with its front entrance on Exhibition Road. Formerly a constituent college of the University of London, Imperial became independent of the university on 8 July 2007, the 100th anniversary of its founding.^[5]

History

Imperial College was founded in 1907, with the merger of the City and Guilds College, the Royal School of Mines and the Royal College of Science (all of which had been founded between 1845 and 1878) with these entities continuing to exist as "constituent colleges". The College was granted a Royal Charter by Edward VII in July 1907 and was integrated into the University of London.

In later years, St Mary's Hospital Medical school (1988), the National Heart and Lung institute (1995), and the Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School (1997) merged into the Imperial College School of Medicine, the fourth constituent college. The size of the Medical School was increased in 1997 with the merger with the Royal Postgraduate Medical School and the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and again in 2000 with a merger with the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology.

Also in 2000, Imperial merged with Wye College, the University of London's agricultural college in Wye, Kent. It has been claimed that the merger might have been motivated by Imperial's interest in acquiring land owned by Wye College, rather than for academic reasons; Wye College accepted the merger because it was in financial difficulties. In December 2005, the college announced a science park programme at the Wye campus;^[6] however, this was abandoned in September 2006 following local environmental complaints that this program would have a negative impact on the surrounding countryside. Wye College will now be run by the University of Kent from September 2007 in association with Imperial College London and Wye College, graduates will receive a degree from the University of Kent and an Imperial Associateship of Wye College.^[7]

In 2002, the constituent colleges were abolished in favour of a new faculty structure. A merger with University College London was proposed in October that year, but was called off a month later after protests from staff and students of both colleges.

In 2003, the College was granted degree-awarding powers in its own right by the Privy Council. Exercising this power would be incompatible with remaining in the federal University of London, and on 9 December 2005 Imperial announced that it was beginning negotiations to withdraw from the University.^[8] The college became independent in July 2007^[9] and the first students to register for an Imperial College degree will be postgraduates beginning their course in October 2007, with the first undergraduates enrolling for an Imperial degree in October 2008. The first group of students to be awarded the Imperial College degree by default will commence their studies in 2008, but all non-final current students were offered the option of choosing to be awarded a London degree or an Imperial degree.

Imperial College is a member of the Russell Group of Universities, AMBA, and the IDEA League. It is also considered a member of the "Golden Triangle". The College's official title is Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, which it used in public relations up to 2002.

Campus

Imperial College's activity is centred on its South Kensington campus, situated in an area with a high concentration of cultural and academic institutions known as the Albertopolis; the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Royal College of Music, the Royal College of Art and the Royal Albert Hall are all nearby. Imperial College has two other major campuses – at Silwood Park (near Ascot in Berkshire) and at Wye (near Ashford in Kent). It also has medical campuses associated with various hospitals in Greater London, including St. Mary's Hospital, Charing Cross Hospital, Northwick Park & St. Mark's Hospital and Hammersmith Hospital. The expansion of the South Kensington campus in the 1960s absorbed the site of the former Imperial Institute, designed by Thomas Colcutt, of which only the 287-foot (85-metre) high Queen's Tower remains among the more modern buildings.

Currently there are extensive renovations being performed on many College buildings, particularly in time for the centenary celebrations in 2007. A £27m financial contribution to the college from alumnus Gary A. Tanaka in 2000 allowed the construction of a new building for the management school (now renamed the Tanaka Business School). The business school building provides the college with an official and imposing "Main Entrance" and was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 2004 .

In late 2005 the Southside hall of residence on Prince's Gardens was demolished to make way for a new, more modern, building which will be more in keeping with the surrounding buildings. This is part of an ongoing redevelopment of Prince's Gardens which will see other halls of residence on the square replaced and the gardens redeveloped.

In January 2006 the College's new sports centre, called Ethos, was opened for use by students and staff. The state-of-the-art centre was built at a cost of £17.5m and is currently free for all students to use the gym and pool facilities. A number of IC Union clubs contributed financially to ensure its success: as much as 60% of some club's budgets was given over to build Ethos.

The College Library has locations across all campuses and gives students and staff access to a vast amount of information much of which is supplied through a large number of electronic resources, including databases and e-books. The Central Library, on the South Kensington Campus, has recently embarked on phase one of a major refurbishment project to upgrade the quality of the study environment and create spaces fit for 21st century library use.

Medical School & North West Thames Foundation School

The 3 main London teaching hospitals associated with the medical school are:

• Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, 665 beds
• St Mary's Hospital - Paddington, 700 beds
• Charing Cross Hospital, 627 beds

Also attached to the faculty are six more district general hospitals:

• Central Middlesex Hospital, 243 beds
• Ealing Hospital - Southall, Beds: 400
• Hillingdon Hospital - Hillingdon
• Northwick Park Hospital, Beds: 558
• West Middlesex Hospital, 394 beds
• Ashford & St Peter's Hospitals

Admissions

Imperial College London is one of the most selective universities in the United Kingdom and around the world. From 1999 to 2006 (dates of all the online available records), the overall acceptance rate of Imperial College programs has been consistently below 20%.^[10] In 2006, the acceptance rate of the college for undergraduates was 17.5 per cent.^[11] The acceptance rate for postgraduate courses was 18.87 per cent. To apply to Imperial, like all other UK universities, one must apply through the UCAS system.

Academic structure

Imperial offers both undergraduate and postgraduate education, with its research and teaching organised into three faculties, each headed by a principal: engineering, medicine and natural sciences. In addition to the three faculties, a business school exists as well as a humanities department. However, the humanities department's main purpose is to provide elective subjects and language courses outside the field of science for students in the other faculties and departments. Students are encouraged to take these classes either for credit or in their own time. Courses exist in a wide range of topics including philosophy; ethics in science and technology; history; modern literature and drama; art in the twentieth century; film studies. Language courses are available in French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, Arabic, Dutch, Mandarin Chinese and Urdu. The humanities department also runs a full-time course in scientific translation.

For the 2005-06 academic year, Imperial College had a total full-time student body of more than 11,000. This comprised roughly 8,000 undergraduate students and 3,400 postgraduates. In addition there were over 900 part-time students, all postgraduates. 27% of students come from outside the European Union.^[12]

Imperial's male:female ratio for undergraduate students is uneven at approximately 65:35 overall and 4:1 in some engineering courses.

A full list of undergraduate courses offered can be found here.^[13] Information on postgraduate courses offered can be found here.^[14]

Research

Imperial's research income is among the largest in the UK – £204.8 million for 2005/06.^[15] This includes Research Council grants, grants from charities and a larger sum from industry than any other British university. It also received the highest amount of total research income out of all the UK universities in 2003, at £153 million.

In the December 2001 Research Assessment Exercise, 75 per cent of staff achieved a 5* rating, the highest proportion in any UK university. The College was second in the country with an overall score of 6.68 out of 7.

Imperial College has a dedicated technology transfer company known as Imperial Innovations. Imperial actively encourages its staff to commercialise its research and as a result has given rise to a proportionally large number of spin-out companies based on academic research.

Academic reputation

Imperial has been ranked 9th in the world by the THES - QS World University Rankings league tables,[2] and is consistently ranked in the top 3 within the UK.^[16] Recent tables show that - despite being science-based - it is maintaining this position, whilst topping most of the engineering and medicine tables. The Sunday Times and The Guardian both placed Imperial 3rd in the UK in 2005. Imperial remains the only university, other than Oxford and Cambridge, to have held one of the top two positions in a major British university league table, coming second to Cambridge in 2000's Sunday Times table, pushing Oxford to third place for the first (and only) time.

The Financial Times placed Imperial College's Business School within the top 10 in Europe.^[17] The Department of Computing (DoC) was rated Number 1 for Computer Science and IT in the Guardian University Guide until the new listings were posted on 1 May 2007 - when the department did not rank.^[18] In both 2004 and 2006 two students from the DoC were awarded the SET Student of the Year award.^[19]

According to ARWU, Imperial is ranked 23rd in the world overall and 3rd in Europe.^[20] For Medicine Imperial College is ranked 25th in the world, only three UK medical schools rank higher (Oxford 13th, Cambridge 15th and UCL 17th).^[21] Imperial is ranked 27th in the world for Engineering and IT.^[22] It is also ranked 27th in the world for the natural sciences.^[23]

Academic and research staff number around 3,000. Of these, 53 are Fellows of the Royal Society, 57 are Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering and one Fields Medallist. Distinguished past members of the College include 14 Nobel Laureates and one Fields Medallist.

Teams from Imperial College won University Challenge in both 1996 and 2001.

Accommodation

Imperial College owns and manages over thirty halls of residence in Central London, Ealing, Ascot and Wye. Additionally, students are eligible for places in eight University of London Intercollegiate Halls situated in Central London. Over three thousand rooms are available, guaranteeing first year undergraduates a place in College residences.

The majority of halls offer self-catered single or twin accommodation with some rooms having en suite facilities. Study bedrooms are provided with basic furniture and with access to shared kitchens and bathrooms.

Most students in college or university accommodation are first-year undergraduates. The majority of older students and postgraduates find accommodation in the private sector, help for which is provided by the College private housing office.

A full list of halls of residence for Imperial students can be found here.^[24]

Imperial College Union

Main articles: Imperial College Union and ARWU Top 100 world universities in Natural Sciences and Mathematics, 2007

The students' union is run by five full-time sabbatical officers elected from the student body for a tenure of one year, as well as many permanent members of staff. The Union is given a large subvention by the College, much of which is spent maintaining clubs and societies.

The Imperial College School of Medicine Students' Union, which was formed from the merger of St Mary's Hospital (London) Medical School and Charing Cross & Westminster Medical School, looks after the social, academic and welfare needs of the 2000 medical students within the faculty.

Clubs & Societies at Imperial

Imperial College Union has around 300 clubs and societies,^[25] the largest number of any students' union in the United Kingdom.

Student Media

Imperial College Radio

Imperial College Radio (or ICRadio) was founded in November 1975 with the intention of broadcasting to the student halls of residence from a studio under Southside, actually commencing broadcasts in late 1976. It now broadcasts from the West Basement of Beit Quad over the internet www.icradio.com^[26] and, since 2004, on 1134AM in Wye. The radio station has a library of over 51,000 tracks, which are searchable on their website.

In 2006 IC Radio received two nominations in the Student Radio Awards: Best Entertainment Show for Liquid Lunch^[27] and Best Male Presenter for Martin Archer.^[28]

Popular shows on IC Radio in recent years (2006/2007) include: Rocktopia, School Daze' (pop), 'Instru(Mental)' (dance), 'VPT'^[29] (Entertainment/Shambles), 'Moon Unit'^[30] and 'The Cornerstone'^[31] (both of which play rock and alternative) and 'Album - A Discourse in Musical History'^[32] (devoted to seminal albums).

stoic TV

stoic tv (Student Television of Imperial College) is Imperial College Union's TV station. In 2006 it was named Best Broadcaster at NaSTA and also won awards for Best On-Screen Male and Best On-Screen Female . It broadcasts from studios in the specially built media centre in the Student Union to the Junior Common Room and occasionally DaVinci's Bar. Programmes are also available to watch on their website.^[33]

There is also a non-student Imperial College organisation called Media Services, whose main activity is producing videos of College events.

Felix

Published weekly, Felix is the free student newspaper of Imperial College London. It aims to be independent of both the College itself and also the Student Union. The editor is elected annually from the student body; the editorship is a full-time, sabbatical position. There is also a non-student Imperial College newspaper called Reporter, and London Student distributes on campus.

In 2006, Felix won the Guardian Student Media Awards for Student newspaper of the year and Student journalist of the year.

Live!

Live!^[34] is an online student news source and forum run by the City and Guilds College Union.

Public transport

To the South Kensington Campus

By Train

The nearest London Underground stations to the main campus are South Kensington and Gloucester Road.

By Bus

Buses numbers 9, 10 and 52 alighting at Royal Albert Hall
Bus number 360 alighting at Prince Consort Rd
Buses numbers 14, 49, 70, 74, 345, 414 and C1 alighting at South Kensington

Student and Staff Alumni

Main articles: List of Imperial College London people and ARWU Top 100 world universities in Natural Sciences and Mathematics, 2007

Imperial alumni include physicist Abdus Salam, biologist T. H. Huxley and pharmacologist Alexander Fleming, alongside Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, author H. G. Wells, Queen guitarist Brian May and Elizabeth Hurley's new husband Arun Nayar.

External links

• Imperial College's website
• Imperial College Press

References

Bibliography

• Felix Online article on Imperial's new 'state-of-the-art' sports complex
• Figures on the composition of the student body for the 2004-05 academic year
• Independent site covering Imperial's controversial development plans for the Wye area

Coordinates:

•  • [ e] Russell Group of British research universities
Birmingham Bristol Cambridge Cardiff Edinburgh Glasgow Imperial College London King's College London Leeds Liverpool London School of Economics Manchester Newcastle Nottingham Oxford Queen's Sheffield Southampton University College London Warwick

•  • [ e] Universities in the United Kingdom
England	Anglia Ruskin University of the Arts Aston Bath Bath Spa Bedfordshire Birmingham UCE Birmingham (Birmingham Conservatoire) Bolton Bournemouth Bradford Brighton Bristol Brunel Buckingham Cambridge Canterbury Christ Church Central Lancashire Chester Chichester City Coventry Cranfield Cumbria De Montfort Derby Durham East Anglia East London Edge Hill Essex Exeter Gloucestershire Greenwich Hertfordshire Huddersfield Hull Imperial Kent Keele Kingston Lancaster Leeds Leeds Metropolitan Leicester Lincoln Liverpool Liverpool Hope Liverpool John Moores London (Birkbeck Central School of Speech and Drama Courtauld Institute of Art Goldsmiths Heythrop Institute of Cancer Research Institute of Education King's London Business School LSE LSHTM Queen Mary Royal Academy of Music Royal Holloway Royal Veterinary College St George's SOAS School of Pharmacy UCL) London Metropolitan London South Bank Loughborough Manchester Manchester Metropolitan Middlesex Newcastle Northampton Northumbria Nottingham Nottingham Trent Oxford Oxford Brookes Plymouth Portsmouth Reading Roehampton Royal College of Art Salford Sheffield Sheffield Hallam Southampton Southampton Solent Staffordshire Surrey Sunderland Sussex Teesside Thames Valley Warwick UWE Westminster Winchester Wolverhampton Worcester York York St John
Scotland	Aberdeen Abertay Dundee Edinburgh Glasgow Glasgow Caledonian Heriot-Watt Napier Paisley Queen Margaret Robert Gordon St Andrews Stirling Strathclyde
Wales	Aberystwyth Bangor Cardiff Glamorgan Lampeter Newport NEWI Swansea SIHE Trinity UWIC Wales
Northern Ireland	Queen's Ulster
Non−geographic	Open University