Editing University of London (section)

===21st century===
{{see also|London Student}}
In 2002, [[Imperial College]] and [[University College London|UCL]] mooted the possibility of a merger, raising the question of the future of the University of London and the smaller colleges within it. Subsequently, considerable opposition from academic staff of both UCL and Imperial led to a rejection of the merger.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Guardian|date=18 November 2002|first=Donald |last=MacLeod|url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2002/nov/18/highereducation.universitymergers |title=Opposition ends Imperial and UCL merger dream}}</ref>

Despite this failure, the trend of decentralising power continued. A significant development in this process was the closing down of the [[Convocation]] of all the university's alumni in October 2003; this recognised that individual college alumni associations were now increasingly the centre of focus for alumni.<ref name="london">{{cite web|url=http://www.london.ac.uk/52.html|publisher=london.ac.uk|title=University of London: Convocation|access-date=13 January 2017}}</ref> However, the university continued to grow even as it moved to a looser federation, and, in 2005, admitted the [[Central School of Speech and Drama]].

On 9 December 2005, Imperial College became the second constituent body (after Regent's Park College) to make a formal decision to leave the university. Its council announced that it was beginning negotiations to withdraw from the university in time for its own centenary celebrations, and in order to be able to award its own degrees. On 5 October 2006, the University of London accepted Imperial's formal request to withdraw from it.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_5-10-2006-13-17-17?newsid=2736|title=News_5-10-2006-13-17-17|author=CBLAIR|work=imperial.ac.uk|date=5 October 2006 }}</ref> Imperial became fully independent on 9 July 2007, as part of the celebrations of the college's centenary.

The ''[[Times Higher Education Supplement]]'' announced in February 2007 that the London School of Economics, University College London and King's College London all planned to start awarding their own degrees, rather than degrees from the federal University of London as they had done previously, from the start of the academic year starting in Autumn 2007. Although this plan to award their own degrees did not amount to a decision to leave the University of London, the ''THES'' suggested that this "rais[ed] new doubts about the future of the federal University of London".<ref name="THES">{{cite web|last1=Attwood|first1=Rebecca|title=London trio to award their own degrees|url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/london-trio-to-award-their-own-degrees/207945.article|website=Times Higher Education Magazine|date=23 February 2007 |access-date=11 March 2018}}</ref>

The [[School of Pharmacy, University of London]], merged with UCL on 1 January 2012, becoming the UCL School of Pharmacy within the Faculty of Life Sciences.<ref>[http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/1112/111223-school-of-pharmacy-merged School of Pharmacy merges with UCL]. Ucl.ac.uk (1 January 2012). Retrieved 17 July 2013.</ref> This was followed on 2 December 2014 by the [[Institute of Education]] also merging with UCL, becoming the UCL Institute of Education.<ref name="ucl">{{cite web|url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/1114/251114-ucl-ioe-confirm-merger|publisher=ucl.ac.uk|title=UCL and the Institute of Education confirm merger|date=25 November 2014 |access-date=13 January 2017}}</ref>

Since 2010, the university has been outsourcing support services such as cleaning and portering. This has prompted industrial action by the largely [[Latin American]] workforce under the "3Cosas" campaign (the 3Cosas – ''3 things'' – being [[sick pay]], [[holiday pay]], and pensions for outsourced workers on parity with staff employed directly by the university). The 3Cosas campaigners were members of the [[UNISON]] trade union. However, documents leaked in 2014 revealed that UNISON representatives tried to counter the 3Cosas campaign in meetings with university management.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/mar/24/cost-private-contracts-universities-documents-services-workers|title=The true cost of private contracts in universities|first=Aditya|last=Chakrabortty|date=24 March 2014|work=The Guardian}}</ref> The 3Cosas workers subsequently transferred to the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain.

Following good results in the [[Research Excellence Framework]] in December 2014, [[City University London]] said that they were exploring the possibility of joining the University of London.<ref name="theguardian">{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jan/20/universities-research-excellence-framework-modern-languages|work=The Guardian|title=Universities worry about fallout from research ranking|first=Harriet |last=Swain |date=20 January 2015 |access-date=13 January 2017}}</ref> It was subsequently announced in July 2015 that City would join the University of London in August 2016.<ref name="Grove">{{cite web |last=Grove |first=Jack |date=16 July 2015 |title=City University London to join University of London |url=https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/city-university-london-join-university-london |access-date=16 July 2015 |website=Times Higher Education}}</ref> It will cease to be an independent university and become a college as "City, University of London".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://democracy.cityoflondon.gov.uk/documents/s53556/150723%2520City%2520University%2520London.pdf |title=Committee Report |website=democracy.cityoflondon.gov.uk |date=2015 |access-date=2019-08-30}}</ref>

{{anchor|University of London Act 2018}}
{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = University of London Act 2018
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of the United Kingdom
| long_title            = An Act to make new provision for the making of statutes for the University of London; and for related purposes.
| year                  = 2018
| citation              = [[List of acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 2018|2018]] c. iii
| introduced_commons    = 
| introduced_lords      = 
| territorial_extent    = 
| royal_assent          = 20 December 2018
| commencement          = 
| expiry_date           = 
| repeal_date           = 
| amends                = 
| replaces              = {{ubli|University of London Act 1994}}
| amendments            = 
| repealing_legislation = 
| related_legislation   = 
| status                = 
| legislation_history   = 
| theyworkforyou        = 
| millbankhansard       = 
| original_text         = https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2018/3/contents/enacted
| revised_text          = 
| use_new_UK-LEG        = 
| UK-LEG_title          = 
| collapsed             = yes
}}
In 2016 reforms were proposed that would see the colleges become member institutions and be allowed to legally become universities in their own right. A bill to amend the university's statutes was introduced into the House of Lords in late 2016. The bill was held up by procedural matters in the House of Commons, with MP [[Christopher Chope]] objecting to it receiving a second [[Reading (legislature)|reading]] without debate and no time having been scheduled for such debate. Twelve of the colleges, including UCL and King's, said that they would seek university status once the bill was passed.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/bill-paves-way-london-colleges-gain-university-status|title=Bill paves way for London colleges to gain university status|date=18 April 2018|first=John |last=Morgan|work=[[Times Higher Education]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://wonkhe.com/blogs/the-strange-tale-of-the-university-of-london-bill/|title=The strange tale of the University of London Bill|first=David |last=Kernohan|date=26 July 2018|publisher=WONKHE|access-date=30 September 2018}}</ref> The bill was debated and passed its second reading on 16 October 2018.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2018-10-16/debates/2F554391-4F2E-4550-8D4F-359E08169031/UniversityOfLondonBill(Lords)|date=16 October 2018|work=[[Hansard]]|access-date=17 November 2018|title=University of London Bill [Lords]}}</ref> It received royal assent on 20 December 2018, becoming the University of London Act 2018 (c. iii)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://services.parliament.uk/Bills/2017-19/universityoflondon/stages.html|title=Bill stages — University of London Act 2018|website=parliament.uk|access-date=26 December 2018}}</ref> The twelve colleges (namely, all except The Courtauld, ICR, LBS, RAM and RCSSD) subsequently applied for university status, although stating they did not intend to change their names, with notice being given in the [[London Gazette]] on 4 February 2019.<ref>{{cite periodical|url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/3202025|title=Other Notices|date=4 February 2019|magazine=London Gazette|page=1900|issue=62551}}</ref>

In 2018, [[Heythrop College]] became the first major British higher education institution to close since the medieval [[University of Northampton (13th century)|University of Northampton]] in 1265.<ref name="Heythrop">{{cite news |first=Jack |last=Grove |date=3 September 2018 |title=Heythrop College: innovation can't save first victim of £9K fees |work=[[Times Higher Education]] |url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/heythrop-college-innovation-cant-save-first-victim-ps9k-fees}}</ref> Its library of more than 250,000 volumes was moved to [[Senate House Library]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://heythrop.ac.uk/news/heythrop-library-relocating-senate-house|publisher=Heythrop College|title=Heythrop Library Relocating to Senate House|date=2 July 2018|access-date=29 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180930154518/http://heythrop.ac.uk/news/heythrop-library-relocating-senate-house|archive-date=30 September 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 2019, the [[University of London Press]], founded in 1910, was relaunched as a fully [[open access|open-access]] publisher specializing in "distinctive scholarship at the forefront of the [[Humanities]]".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://london.ac.uk/about-us/press|title=University of London Press|website=University of London}}</ref>