Editing University of Manchester (section)

===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.