Birmingham City University

The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a British red brick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. Founded in Edgbaston in 1900 as a successor to Mason Science College, and with origins dating back to the 1825 Birmingham Medical School,it was the first of the so-called 'red brick' universities to receive a Royal Charter (and thus official university status.

The university is a member of the Russell Group of research universities and a founding member of Universitas 21. It currently has over 18,000 undergraduate and 11,000 postgraduate students,making it larger than the other two universities in the city; Aston University and Birmingham City University. In 2006-07, it was the fourth most popular English university by number of applications. In the same year the annual income of the university was £389m, with an expenditure of £372m.

The Times Higher Education Supplement placed the University 65th in the 2007 world university rankings table. It is ranked 11th in the UK and 30th in Europe in the Academic Ranking of World Universities compiled by Shanghai Jiao Tong University. It is rated fifth in the UK for research quality in the most recent Research Assessment Exercise (2001), with 32 departments holding a 5 or 5* rating. The Guardian University Guide describes it as "Large, prestigious, and rather grand".


Reputation

The university ranked 26th out of 113 higher education institutions in The Times 2008 Good University Guide, and came 18th in The Guardian's 2008 rankings. It was ranked fifth nationally for Research Excellence in the 2001, with its language departments particularly excelling.

In October 2007, the University was also ranked equal 65th best in the world by The Times Higher Education Supplement. It is rated equal 92nd best university in the world in the Institute of Higher Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University (IHE-SJTU) Academic Ranking of World Universities 2007.

Since the appointment of Professor Michael Sterling as Vice-Chancellor Birmingham has consistently slipped down most independent (mainly newspaper) national rankings. Indeed in 2006 it was ranked only 33rd out of 109 universities according to the much respected Times Good University Guide, but climbed back up to 26th by 2008. It still remains one of only eleven British universities ranked in the world's top 100.

Due to Birmingham's role as a centre of light engineering, the university traditionally had a special focus on science, engineering and commerce, as well as coal mining. It now teaches a full range of academic subjects and has five-star rating for teaching and research in several departments; additionally, it is widely regarded as making a prominent contribution to cancer studies.

The university is particularly known for its research, with two thirds of its departments ranked nationally or internationally outstanding in the last Research Assessment Exercise in 2001. Languages, mathematics, biological sciences, physiotherapy, sociology and electrical and electronic engineering all recorded maximum points. The Department of Political Science and International Studies (POLSIS) is ranked 4th in the UK and 22nd in the world in the Hix rankings of political science departments. The sociology department is also ranked 4th by the Guardian University guide.