Editing University of Manchester (section)

==History==

===Origins (1824 to 2004)===
{{Main|UMIST|Victoria University of Manchester}}
[[File:Old Quadrangle, Manchester 1.jpg|thumb|right|The Old Quadrangle at the University of Manchester's main campus on [[Wilmslow Road|Oxford Road]]]]
The University of Manchester traces its roots to the formation of the [[Mechanics' Institute, Manchester|Mechanics' Institute]] (later [[UMIST]]) in 1824, and its heritage is linked to Manchester's pride in being the world's first industrial city.<ref name="Our History">{{cite web |url=http://www.eps.manchester.ac.uk/about-us/history/ |title=Our History |publisher=The University of Manchester |access-date=6 November 2014 |archive-date=7 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141107084307/http://www.eps.manchester.ac.uk/about-us/history/ |url-status=dead}}</ref> The English chemist [[John Dalton]], together with Manchester businessmen and industrialists, established the Mechanics' Institute to ensure that workers could learn the basic principles of science.

[[John Owens (merchant)|John Owens]], a textile merchant, left a bequest of £96,942 in 1846 (around £5.6 million in 2005 prices)<ref name="National Archives Currency Converter">{{cite web |title=National Archives Currency Converter ~ 1850 |url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency/results.asp#mid |access-date=29 April 2012 |archive-date=3 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081203175803/http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency/results.asp#mid |url-status=live }}</ref> to found a college to educate men on non-sectarian lines. His [[trustee]]s established [[Owens College]] in 1851 in a house on the corner of [[Quay Street]] and Byrom Street which had been the home of the philanthropist [[Richard Cobden]], and subsequently housed [[County Court, Manchester|Manchester County Court]]. The locomotive designer [[Charles Beyer]] became a governor of the college and was the largest single donor to the college extension fund, which raised the money to move to a new site and construct the main building now known as the John Owens building. He also campaigned and helped fund the engineering chair, the first applied science department in the north of England. He left the college the equivalent of £10 million in his will in 1876, at a time when it was in great financial difficulty. Beyer funded the total cost of construction of the [[Beyer Building]] to house the biology and geology departments. His will also funded Engineering chairs and the [[Beyer Professor of Applied Mathematics|Beyer Professor of Applied mathematics]].

The university has a rich German heritage. The Owens College Extension Movement formed their plans after a tour of mainly German universities and polytechnics.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/owenscollegeitsf00thomuoft#page/300/mode/2up/search/german+universities |title=The Owens College: Its Foundation And Growth: |date=1886 |last=Thompson |first=Joseph |publisher=J.E. Cornish |location=Manchester}}</ref> A Manchester mill owner, Thomas Ashton, chairman of the extension movement, had studied at [[Heidelberg University]]. Sir [[Henry Enfield Roscoe|Henry Roscoe]] also studied at Heidelberg under Robert Bunsen and they collaborated for many years on research projects. Roscoe promoted the German style of research-led teaching that became the role model for the red-brick universities. Charles Beyer studied at Dresden Academy Polytechnic. There were many Germans on the staff, including [[Carl Schorlemmer]], Britain's first chair in organic chemistry, and [[Arthur Schuster]], professor of physics.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Portrait of a University |last=Charlton |first=H B |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=1951}}</ref> There was even a German chapel on the campus.

In 1873, Owens College moved to new premises on [[Oxford Road, Manchester|Oxford Road]], [[Chorlton-on-Medlock]], and from 1880 it was a constituent college of the [[Victoria University (United Kingdom)|federal Victoria University]]. This university was established and granted a [[royal charter]] in 1880, becoming England's first civic university; following [[University of Liverpool|Liverpool]] and [[University of Leeds|Leeds]] becoming independent, it was renamed the [[Victoria University of Manchester]] in 1903 and absorbed Owens College the following year.<ref>{{cite book |author=Charlton, H. B. |title=Portrait of a university, 1851–1951 |year=1951 |publisher=Manchester University Press |location=Manchester, England |pages=x, 185}}</ref>

By 1905, the two institutions were large and active forces. The Municipal College of Technology, forerunner of UMIST, was the Victoria University of Manchester's Faculty of Technology while continuing in parallel as a technical college offering advanced courses of study. Although UMIST achieved independent university status in 1955, the universities continued to work together.<ref name="History and Origins">{{cite web |url=http://www.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/facts/history/ |title=History and Origins |publisher=The University of Manchester |access-date=17 August 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728042524/http://www.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/facts/history/ |archive-date=28 July 2011}}</ref> However, in the late-20th century, formal connections between the university and UMIST diminished and in 1994 most of the remaining institutional ties were severed as new legislation allowed UMIST to become an autonomous university with powers to award its own degrees. A decade later the development was reversed.<ref name=heraldry/> The Victoria University of Manchester and the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology agreed to merge into a single institution in March 2003.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2003/mar/06/highereducation.administration |title=Manchester merger creates UK's largest university |access-date=28 February 2012 |work=The Guardian |date=6 March 2003 |location=London |archive-date=10 September 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140910201304/http://www.theguardian.com/education/2003/mar/06/highereducation.administration |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/mar/07/highereducation.administration |title=Super university for Manchester |access-date=28 February 2012 |work=The Guardian |date=7 March 2003 |first=Helen |last=Carter |location=London |archive-date=17 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150217092030/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/mar/07/highereducation.administration |url-status=live }}</ref>

Before the merger, Victoria University of Manchester and UMIST counted 23 Nobel Prize winners amongst their former staff and students, with two further Nobel laureates being subsequently added. Manchester has traditionally been strong in the sciences; it is where the nuclear nature of the atom was discovered by [[Ernest Rutherford]], and the world's [[Manchester Baby|first electronic stored-program computer]] was built at the university. Notable scientists associated with the university include [[physicist]]s [[Ernest Rutherford]], [[Osborne Reynolds]], [[Niels Bohr]], [[James Chadwick]], [[Arthur Schuster]], [[Hans Geiger]], [[Ernest Marsden]] and [[Balfour Stewart]]. Contributions in other fields such as mathematics were made by [[Paul Erdős]], [[Horace Lamb]] and [[Alan Turing]] and in philosophy by [[Samuel Alexander]], [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]] and [[Alasdair MacIntyre]]. The author [[Anthony Burgess]], [[Pritzker Prize]] and [[RIBA Stirling Prize]]-winning architect [[Norman Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank|Norman Foster]] and composer [[Peter Maxwell Davies]] all attended, or worked at, Manchester.

===Post-merger (2004 to present)===
[[File:UMIST Sackville Street Building.jpg|thumb|The [[Sackville Street Building]], formerly the [[University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology|UMIST]] Main Building]]
The current University of Manchester was officially launched on 1 October 2004 when [[Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom|Queen Elizabeth II]] bestowed its [[royal charter]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/3943855.stm |title=University gets royal approval |access-date=28 February 2012 |work=BBC News |date=22 October 2004 |archive-date=3 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230903215953/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/3943855.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> The university was named the [[Sunday Times University of the Year|''Sunday Times'' University of the Year]] in 2006 after winning the inaugural ''[[Times Higher Education|Times Higher Education Supplement]]'' [[Times Higher Education University of the Year|University of the Year]] prize in 2005.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.manchester.ac.uk/international/news/universityoftheyear/ |title=University of the Year |publisher=University of Manchester |access-date=25 April 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070410075916/http://www.manchester.ac.uk/international/news/universityoftheyear/ <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date=10 April 2007}}</ref>

The founding president and [[vice-chancellor (education)|vice-chancellor]] of the new university was [[Alan Gilbert (Australian academic)|Alan Gilbert]], former vice-chancellor of the [[University of Melbourne]], who retired at the end of the 2009–2010 academic year.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/news/display/?id=5362 |publisher=University of Manchester |year=2010 |access-date=16 January 2010 |title=President and Vice-Chancellor to retire |archive-date=29 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140429050740/http://www.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/news/display/?id=5362 |url-status=dead }}</ref> His successor was Dame [[Nancy Rothwell]],<ref name=rothswho>{{Who's Who |title=Rothwell, Dame Nancy (Jane) |id=U43057 |year=2024|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U43057 | edition = 176th |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|location=Oxford|isbn=9781399409452|oclc=1402257203|pages=2736|author=Anon}}</ref> who had held a chair in physiology at the university since 1994. Nancy served as Vice Chancellor from 2010 to 2024 before handing over to [[Duncan Ivison]]. The [[Nancy Rothwell Building]] was named in her honour. One of the university's aims stated in the ''Manchester 2015 Agenda'' is to be one of the top 25 universities in the world, following on from Alan Gilbert's aim to "establish it by 2015 among the 25 strongest research universities in the world on commonly accepted criteria of research excellence and performance".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/vision/ |title=Towards Vision |publisher=University of Manchester |access-date=10 August 2016 |archive-date=16 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160816192154/http://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/vision/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2011, four Nobel laureates were on its staff: [[Andre Geim]],<ref name="geims">{{Who's Who |title=Geim, Sir Andre (Konstantin) |id=U245770 |year=2024 |edition=176th|publisher= [[Oxford University Press]]|author=Anon|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U245770}}</ref> [[Konstantin Novoselov]],<ref name="novswho">{{Who's Who |title=Novoselov, Sir Konstantin S. |id=U256328 |year=2024 |edition=176th|publisher= [[Oxford University Press]]|author=Anon|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U256328}}</ref> Sir [[John Sulston]] and [[Joseph E. Stiglitz]].

The [[Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council]] (EPSRC) announced in February 2012 the formation of the [[National Graphene Institute]]. The University of Manchester is the "single supplier invited to submit a proposal for funding the new £45m institute, £38m of which will be provided by the government" – (EPSRC & [[Technology Strategy Board]]).<ref>{{cite web |title=EPSRC Press Release |url=http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/newsevents/news/2012/Pages/graphenehub.aspx |access-date=3 February 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205035919/http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/newsevents/news/2012/Pages/graphenehub.aspx |archive-date=5 February 2012}}</ref> In 2013, an additional £23 million of funding from European Regional Development Fund was awarded to the institute taking investment to £61 million.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/news/display/?id=9694 |title=Huge funding boost for graphene Institute |access-date=31 May 2015 |archive-date=29 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140429061809/http://www.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/news/display/?id=9694 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

In August 2012, it was announced that the university's Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences had been chosen to be the "hub" location for a new BP International Centre for Advanced Materials, as part of a $100 million initiative to create industry-changing materials.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/9457340/BP-invests-in-UK-research-to-help-it-drill-deeper.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/9457340/BP-invests-in-UK-research-to-help-it-drill-deeper.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=BP invests in UK research to help it drill deeper |access-date=14 August 2012 |work=The Telegraph |date=7 August 2012 |first=Emily |last=Gosden |location=London}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.theengineer.co.uk/sectors/energy-and-environment/news/research-facility-will-explore-materials-use-in-energy-sector/1013432.article |title=Research facility will explore materials use in energy sector |access-date=14 August 2012 |work=The Engineer |date=7 August 2012 |archive-date=17 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150217063330/http://www.theengineer.co.uk/sectors/energy-and-environment/news/research-facility-will-explore-materials-use-in-energy-sector/1013432.article |url-status=dead}}</ref> The centre will be aimed at advancing fundamental understanding and use of materials across a variety of oil and gas industrial applications and will be modelled on a hub and spoke structure, with the hub located at Manchester, and the spokes based at the [[University of Cambridge]], [[Imperial College London]], and the [[University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign]].<ref name="BP Pledges $100 Million to UK-Led Universities to Create Industry-Changing Materials">{{cite web |title=BP Pledges $100 Million to UK-Led Universities to Create Industry-Changing Materials |url=http://www.bp.com/extendedgenericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&contentId=7076693 |access-date=24 September 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120815043421/http://www.bp.com/extendedgenericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&contentId=7076693 |archive-date=15 August 2012}}</ref>

In 2020 the university saw a [[2020 University of Manchester protests|series of student rent strikes and protests]] in opposition to the university's handling of the [[COVID-19 pandemic]], rent levels and living conditions in the university's halls of residence. The protests ended with a negotiated rent reduction.

In 2023, [[2023 University of Manchester protests|a second rent strike and student protest]] in opposition to the university's rent price and living conditions in the halls of residence started. The protests included occupations, marches and student's withholding their rent in University accommodation.<ref>{{Cite news |date=9 February 2023 |title=Manchester University students occupy three campus buildings in row over high rent |work=[[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] |url=https://www.itv.com/news/granada/2023-02-09/students-barricade-themselves-inside-university-buildings-in-rent-row |access-date=1 March 2023 |archive-date=1 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230301125425/https://www.itv.com/news/granada/2023-02-09/students-barricade-themselves-inside-university-buildings-in-rent-row |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Reynolds |first=Ciara |date=6 March 2023 |title=University of Manchester students in rent strike demo |url=https://thenorthernquota.org/university-of-manchester-students-march-amidst-rent-strike/ |access-date=16 March 2023 |website=The Northern Quota |language=en |archive-date=24 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324130737/https://thenorthernquota.org/university-of-manchester-students-march-amidst-rent-strike/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Hall |first=Rachel |date=9 January 2023 |title=Students at University of Manchester join rent strike over cost of living crisis |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jan/09/students-at-university-of-manchester-on-rent-strike-over-cost-of-living-crisis |access-date=2 March 2023 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> The university's response to the protests included using bailiffs to evict occupiers and taking disciplinary action against some occupiers.<ref>{{Cite news |date=22 March 2023 |title=University of Manchester: Rent strike students evicted by bailiffs |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-65037590 |access-date=22 March 2023 |archive-date=22 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230322141638/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-65037590 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Vinter |first=Robyn |date=4 June 2023 |title=Manchester University students face expulsion over rent strike protest |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jun/04/manchester-university-students-face-expulsion-over-rent-strike-protest |access-date=5 June 2023 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Despite outcry from the students - which included a referendum where 97% of students voted for the university to reduce rent prices, the following year the university continued to increase rent prices for its students.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://manchesterstudentsunion.com/news/article/results-of-the-rent-strike-and-cost-of-living-referendum#:~:text=24th%20March%202023&text=A%20staggering%2011%2C196%20students%20took,cost-of-living%20demands |title=University of Manchester Students' Union |access-date=9 February 2024 |archive-date=24 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324135048/https://manchesterstudentsunion.com/news/article/results-of-the-rent-strike-and-cost-of-living-referendum#:~:text=24th%20March%202023&text=A%20staggering%2011%2C196%20students%20took,cost-of-living%20demands |url-status=live }}</ref> Some of the university-owned accommodation increased by up to 10% in rent price, compared to the previous year.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.manchester.ac.uk/study/experience/accommodation/student-accommodation/ |title=Student accommodation at the University of Manchester |access-date=9 February 2024 |archive-date=17 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240117135245/https://www.manchester.ac.uk/study/experience/accommodation/student-accommodation/ |url-status=live }}</ref>