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University of Bradford

The University of Bradford is a public research university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. A plate glass university, it received its royal charter in 1966, making it the 40th university to be created in Britain, but can trace its origins back to the establishment of the industrial West Yorkshire town's Mechanics Institute in 1832.

"Bradford University" redirects here. Not to be confused with Bradford College (disambiguation).

Former names

Bradford Institute of Technology

Give invention light (from Shakespeare's Sonnet 38)

1832 – Mechanics Institute
1882 – Bradford Technical College
1957 – Bradford Institute of Technology
1966 – gained university status by royal charter

£1.02 million (2022)[1]

£145.1 million (2021–22)[1]

615[3]

1,205[3]

9,770 (2019/20)[4]

7,480 (2019/20)[4]

2,290 (2019/20)[4]

The student population includes 7,480 undergraduate and 2,290 postgraduate students.[3] Mature students make up around a third of the undergraduate community. A total of 22% of students are foreign and come from over 110 countries. There were 14,406 applications to the university through UCAS in 2010, of which 3,421 were accepted.[5]


It was the first British university to establish a Department of Peace Studies in 1973, which is currently the world's largest university centre for the study of peace and conflict.[6]

Campus[edit]

Facilities[edit]

In 2005, a project to become an 'Ecoversity' was initiated, along with an £84 million redevelopment of the campus.[16][17] The university aimed to reduce its environmental footprint by reducing waste and using sustainable materials. As part of this, Bradford became a Fairtrade University in December 2006.


As of 2008, several of the redevelopment projects have been completed. The Richmond Building has been partially re-clad with extra insulation and a new atrium; designed by local Saltaire-based architects Rance Booth & Smith; opened in December 2006, the roof of which uses ETFE – the same material used in the Eden Project.[18] The university's cancer therapeutics research centre was moved from a separate site on All Saint's Road onto the main campus, into a new building which also provides conference facilities; the buildings on the old site were demolished in February 2008.


Redevelopment of the sports facilities was completed in summer 2009,[19] and a new student village called "The Green" was constructed[20] which opened in September 2011. The Green has the highest ever BREEAM rating for any building.[21] Of the existing halls owned by the university, those on the Laisteridge Lane site were sold to Corporate Residential Management in 2005, and Shearbridge Green Halls were demolished in December 2006. Longside Lane halls and Kirkstone Halls were demolished during the first half of 2009.


The university has a "leading-edge 100-seat PC cluster" for teaching, learning and computer-based assessment, and there is an art gallery, theatre and music centre. The £84 million investment in the campus included a major refurbishment of the laboratories in the school of life sciences, creation of a new MBA suite and library at the school of management, refurbishment of the student union building, Student Central.


The university has won its campus the award for 'Outstanding Contribution to Sustainable Development' in The Times Higher Education Awards two years running.[22]


In 2021, university campus buildings underwent a £3.5 million facelift, working on improving energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions. Upgrades to the campus were performed on the Richmond Building and Horton Building.[23] Additionally, in 2022 the university was donated £2 million by former Intel CTO and Bradford alumni, Dr. Venkata "Murthy" Renduchintala, to develop the "Murthy-Renduchintala Centre for Space AI" and announced plans to launch a prototype PocketQube satellite by 2024.[24][25]

(1966–85) (served as the prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1964 to 1970 and again from 1974 to 1976; later became the Lord Wilson of Rievaulx)

Harold Wilson

(1986–91)

John Harvey-Jones

(1992–98)

Trevor Holdsworth

(1998–2005)

Baroness Lockwood

(2005–2014) (prime minister of Pakistan from 2018 to 2022)

Imran Khan

(2015–2022)

Kate Swann

(2023–Present)

Anita Rani

National rankings

109=

80

531=

501–600

Academic profile[edit]

Motto[edit]

The motto which appears on most current University of Bradford publications is Making Knowledge Work, which relates to the institution's focus on courses that lead to employment. The university announced in June 2007 it was to use this phrase as a trademark.[44]


However, the motto inscribed beneath the official coat of arms is Give Invention Light, which is taken from Shakespeare's Sonnet 38.[45][46] The university has also used the slogans Be Inspired and Confronting Inequality, Celebrating Diversity in recent promotional material.

– founder & CEO of Comodo Group

Melih Abdulhayoglu

– former PM of Mongolia

Rinchinnyamyn Amarjargal

Bishop of Bradford, Bishop of Leeds and broadcaster[61]

Nick Baines

Evolutionary genetics notable for his work on ancient DNA

Ian Barnes

– Conservative MEP

Amjad Bashir

Channel Islands politician

John Beaman

– executive vice president and chairman of Sun Microsystems

Crawford W. Beveridge

– Labour MP

Roland Boyes

– journalist[62]

Alex Brummer

– bass guitarist in The Stranglers[63]

Jean-Jacques Burnel

– Labour MP

David Chaytor

– Malawian pro-democracy activist, trade unionist and Second Vice President of Malawi

Chakufwa Chihana

– Labour MP

Michael Clapham

– former speaker of the Assembly of Kosovo

Nexhat Daci

– CEO of Eircom Group

Paul Donovan

– chief of the PLO Steering and Monitoring Committee

Saeb Erakat

– former vice-chancellor of Keele University

Dame Janet Finch

NBC News Middle East correspondent[62]

Martin Fletcher

Chief Minister of Sierra Leone

David J. Francis

– archeological geophysicist, Time Team presenter

John Gater

– serial killer[64]

Stephen Shaun Griffiths

BBC weather forecaster

Tori Good

– performance poet[65]

John Hegley

– Labour MP

Stephen Hesford

– Labour MP

David Hinchliffe

– actress, supermodel, Miss International Indonesia 2016 and Puteri Indonesia 2016 winner

Felicia Hwang Yi Xin

– entrepreneur

Mo Ibrahim

– Labour MP

Frederick William Jowett

– Labour MP

Clive Lewis

– Professor of Linguistics[66]

Jeannette Littlemore

– comic book artist[67]

Tula Lotay

– former vice-president of the SPLM South Sudanese government. Head of the South Sudan rebel movement. 2013–

Riek Machar

– global president of Quiksilver

Bernard Mariette

– Labour MP

Steve McCabe

– writer

Jon McGregor

– former Liberal MP

Michael Meadowcroft

– Iranian refugee who lived in CDG airport

Mehran Karimi Nasseri

Central Bank of Nigeria governor

Paul Ogwuma

– Nigerian businesswoman in pharmaceuticals

Stella Chinyelu Okoli

– former footballer

Iffy Onuora

– Chairman Independent News & Media Group, former CEO H.J. Heinz Company

Tony O'Reilly

BBC journalist

John Pienaar

– vice-chancellor of Leeds Metropolitan University

Susan Price

– Labour MP

Bell Ribeiro-Addy

– former Labour MP

Linda Riordan

– Labour MP

Lloyd Russell-Moyle

– CNN multimedia producer

Aisha Salaudeen

Hugo Award-winning science fiction writer.

Charles Stross

– CEO of WH Smith

Kate Swann

– author

Robert Swindells

– former Minister of State for International Defence and Security

Ann Taylor

– composer (honorary doctorate)

Benson Taylor

– Professor of archaeology at Manchester University and author of Understanding The Neolithic

Julian Thomas

– professor

Hassan Ugail

– CEO of the Post Office

Paula Vennells

– former Liberal Democrat MP for Bradford East

David Ward

– former UK Secretary of State for Education and former Secretary of State for Defence

Gavin Williamson

– Iranian professor, writer and political analyst

Sadegh Zibakalam

Vice President-elect of Indonesia, Mayor of Surakarta, Indonesia

Gibran Rakabuming

– Deputy Minister for Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning of Indonesia

Raja Juli Antoni

Armorial of UK universities

Bradford Sabres

College of advanced technology (United Kingdom)

List of universities in the United Kingdom

Plate glass university

Media related to University of Bradford at Wikimedia Commons

Official website

University of Bradford Union

Bradford Scholars – the University of Bradford research repository