University of Buckingham

University of Buckingham

Motto	Alis Volans Propriis (Latin)
Motto in English	"Flying On Our Own Wings"
Type	Private
Established	1973 as university college 1983 as university
Chancellor	Tessa Keswick
Vice-Chancellor	Sir Anthony Seldon
Administrative staff	97 academic, 103 support
Students	2,400 (2015/16)
Undergraduates	1,210 (2015/16)
Postgraduates	1,190 (2015/16)
Location	Buckingham, England 51°59′45″N 0°59′31″W / 51.99583°N 0.99194°W / 51.99583; -0.99194Coordinates: 51°59′45″N 0°59′31″W / 51.99583°N 0.99194°W / 51.99583; -0.99194
Website	www.buckingham.ac.uk

The University of Buckingham (UB) is a non-profit, private university in the UK and the oldest of the country's five private universities. It is located in Buckingham, England, and was founded as the University College at Buckingham (UCB) in 1973, admitting its first students in 1976. It was granted university status by royal charter in 1983. The university was closely linked to Margaret Thatcher, who as Education Secretary oversaw the creation of the university college in 1973, and as Prime Minister was instrumental in elevating it to a university in 1983 – thus creating the first private university in the UK. When she retired from politics in 1992, Margaret Thatcher became the university's second chancellor, a post she held until 1998.

The university's finances for teaching operate entirely on direct student fees and endowments: it does not receive state funding (via HEFCE or otherwise). It has formal charity status as a not-for-profit institution dedicated to the ends of research and education.

Buckingham offers bachelor's degrees, master's degrees and doctoral degrees through five "schools" (or faculties) of study.

The university is a member of the Independent Universities Group, created in January 2015 by eight non-profit and for-profit institutions with degree-awarding powers and/or university title. The group's aim is to be “the Russell Group of the alternative sector” and to dissociate its members from more “dodgy” for-profit colleges. The university is one of the twenty-six English universities with a School of Medicine, i.e. it trains doctors at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Some of the founding academics migrated from the University of Oxford, disillusioned or wary of aspects of the late-1960s ethos. On 27 May 1967, The Times published a letter from J. W. Paulley, a physician, who wrote: