List of UK universities by date of foundation
This is a list of Universities in the United Kingdom by the date of their foundation as universities.
In many cases the supposed date of foundation as a university is open to debate, particularly for the ancient universities. For the modern (post 1800) universities, the date of achieving university status (by royal charter, act of parliament, order in council, or decision of Companies House) is given. Former universities with extant successor institutions in the UK are given in italics.
Until the nineteenth century there were only two successful university establishments in England and five in Scotland (including two in Aberdeen, see below).
No new universities were successfully founded in the United Kingdom after 1600 until the nineteenth century, although the eighteenth century saw the establishment of a number of dissenting academies, medical schools such as St George's (1733) and the London Hospital Medical College (1785), and the Royal Veterinary College (1791).
Note that the University of Wales and the Victoria University were founded as federal universities incorporating earlier colleges and the University of London was founded as an examination board (becoming a federal university in 1900). The cases of London and Wales are discussed further below.
Also note that the Andersonian Institute, a precursor of the University of Strathclyde, was established in 1796 and used the title Anderson's University between 1828 and 1887, but the University of Strathclyde did not receive a royal charter granting university status until 1964. Similarly, University College London used the title London University without being granted university status from 1826 to 1836. Both St Patrick's College, Maynooth (from 1896) and the Catholic University of Ireland (1854–1911) were universities by Papal Bull but were never recognised as such by the British state.
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