Universities in the United Kingdom have been instituted by royal charter, papal bull, Act of Parliament, or an instrument of government under the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 or the Higher Education and Research Act 2017. Degree awarding powers and the'university' title are protected by law, although the precise arrangements for gaining these vary between the constituent countries of the United Kingdom. Institutions that hold degree awarding powers are termed recognised bodies, this list includes all universities, university colleges and colleges of the University of London, some higher education colleges, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Degree courses may be provided at listed bodies, leading to degrees validated by a recognised body. Undergraduate applications to all UK universities are managed by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service. While legally,'university' refers to an institution, granted the right to use the title, in common usage it now includes colleges of the University of London, including in official documents such as the Dearing Report.

The representative bodies for higher education providers in the United Kingdom are Universities UK and GuildHE. Universities in Britain date back to the dawn of mediaeval studium generale, with Oxford and Cambridge taking their place among the world's oldest universities. No other universities were founded in England during this period. Medical schools in London, though not universities in their own right, were among the first to provide medical teachings in England. In Scotland, St Andrew's, Glasgow and King's College, Aberdeen were founded by papal bull. Post-Reformation, these were joined by Edinburgh, Marischal College and the short-lived Fraserburgh University. In England, Henry VIII's plan to found a university in Durham came to nothing and a attempt to found a university at Durham during the Commonwealth was opposed by Oxford and Cambridge. Gresham College was, established in London in the late 16th century, despite concerns expressed by Cambridge. In Ireland, Trinity College Dublin was founded as "the mother of a University" by a royal charter from Queen Elizabeth.

The 18th century saw the establishment of medical schools at Edinburgh and Glasgow universities and at hospitals in London. A number of dissenting academies were established, but the next attempt to found a university did not come until the Andersonian Institute was established in Glasgow in 1798. The French Revolution and the ensuing Napoleonic wars led to over 40% of universities in Europe closing. From 153 universities in 1789, numbers fell to only 83 in 1815; the next quarter century saw a rebound, with 15 new universities founded, bringing numbers back to 98 by 1840. In England, the late 18th and early 19th centuries saw the arrival of Catholic seminaries driven from the continent by the French Revolution and the establishment of the St Bees Theological College to train Anglican priests in 1816; the first Anglican college to move beyond specialist training to provide a more general university education in Arts was in Wales: St David's College, Lampeter was founded in 1822, opened in 1827, gained a royal charter in 1828.

By the higher education revolution was well under way. Between 1824 and 1834 ten medical schools were established in provincial cities; this would, have required government support. The opinion of Robert Peel – cabinet minister and MP for Oxford University – was sought, he advised against proceeding; this period saw the establishment of Mechanics Institutes in a number of cities. The first of these, established in Edinburgh in 1821, would become Heriot-Watt University, while the London Mechanics Institute, established in 1823, developed into Birkbeck, University of London. Many others would become polytechnics and in 1992, universities; the Polytechnic Institution opened at 309 Regent Street, London, in August 1838, to provide "practical knowledge of the various arts and branches of science connected with manufacturers, mining operations and rural economy". Soon after news of the York scheme broke, Thomas Campbell wrote to The Times proposing a university be founded in London; this would become UCL, founded in 1826 as a joint stock company under the name of London University.

Due to its lack of theology teaching, its willingness to grant degrees to non-Anglicans, its unauthorised assumption of the title of "university", this inspired calls in 1827 for the foundation of a'true and genuine "London University"' by royal charter, to be known as "The College of King George IV in London". This became King's College London, granted a royal charter in 1829 – but as a college rather than a university. UCL was revolutionary not just in admitting non-Anglicans. Neither of the colleges was residential – a break from the two ancient Engl

Gary Wayne Zimmerman is a former American football offensive tackle in the National Football League. Zimmerman played for the Minnesota Vikings from 1986 to 1992 and for the Denver Broncos from 1993 to 1997, he won Super Bowl XXXII with the Broncos against the Green Bay Packers. He was an All-Pro selection eight times, he attended Walnut High School and the University of Oregon whereby he was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 2002. In 1984, Zimmerman was drafted in the second round by the Los Angeles Express in the 1984 USFL Draft, he subsequently signed with the Express on February 13, 1984 and went on to play in 17 games that season, starting all 17 at left tackle. His Express teammate was future Pro Football Hall of QB Steve Young; the Express lost in the USFL Semi-Finals to the Arizona Wranglers to end a 10-8 regular season. In 1985, Zimmerman suited up again with the Express, playing in 18 games with a 3-15 club that ended up out of the USFL playoff picture. After the USFL folded in August 1986, Zimmerman joined the Minnesota Vikings after they obtained his rights from the New York Giants who drafted him in the 1984 NFL Supplemental Draft of USFL and CFL Players.

During his time in the NFL, Zimmerman was famous for his refusal to interact with the media. This disdain for the sports press came about due to an early incident in his NFL career, after comments made by Zimmerman condemning the Vikings offensive players for a loss were made public by the media. Zimmerman claimed. Zimmerman left the Vikings for the Broncos in 1993, stayed with the team from 1993-1997, he would be part of the team's first Super Bowl-winning squad, winning the game in 1997 and was "in spirit" for the 1998 season. Arriving as the veteran player in 1993 to an offense, made up of rookies, Zimmerman became the de facto leader of the Broncos offensive line on and off the field. Zimmerman started the Denver offensive line tradition of not speaking to the media, it became a long running tradition that would continue on a full decade after his retirement in 1997. In 2007 the NFL created “The Broncos O-line rule" in response, requiring all players to talk to the media, he played in 184 NFL games.

On February 2, 2008, he was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Zimmerman joins Reggie White, Steve Young, Jim Kelly, Marv Levy, George Allen, Bill Polian, Sid Gillman as former USFL/AFL league members who are enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Gary Zimmerman at the Pro Football Hall of Fame

Betty Knox was an American dancer and journalist. Her early career was in American vaudeville and British variety as the original ‘Betty’ of Wilson and Betty – a dance trio who performed slick comedy routines in Egyptian dress, including the Sand Dance and the Dance of the Seven Veils; when she retired from dancing she became a journalist for the London Evening Standard and was subsequently a war correspondent in Normandy and a reporter at the Nuremberg trials. Knox was born Alice Elizabeth Peden in Salina, Kansas, on 10 May 1906, the daughter of Charley E. Peden and Elizabeth Jane; as a teenager she ran away from home twice. Aged 16 she fled to Louisiana. Less than a year she eloped with boyfriend Donald Knox to obtain a marriage licence in Omaha, Nebraska, their daughter Patsy was born in December 1923. After several years working as a chorus girl in vaudeville, Knox met Liverpudlian Jack Wilson and Irishman Joe Keppel, a clog dancing double act, she joined the act in 1928 and the trio became known as Wilson and Betty.

Over the next couple of years they tried out various new routines, before coming up with the idea of wearing Egyptian costumes and performing eccentric dancing in a comic imitation of hieroglyphic wall paintings. This propelled them to the top of their profession and the trio moved to the UK in 1932, making their British début at the London Palladium. Knox left her daughter Patsy behind in America bringing her to the UK in late 1937, in Knox's own words,'so that she could see the war.' In addition to helping to devise new routines for Wilson and Betty, Knox scripted sketches and lyrics for several other variety acts Tessie O'Shea, for whom she wrote one of her most successful wartime songs, International Rhythm. In 1941 Knox became a journalist on the London Evening Standard. Although she was untrained in the profession, editor Frank Owen was impressed by her extensive knowledge of Britain and the British, gained by her natural curiosity and her non-stop touring lifestyle, her daughter Patsy subsequently became the new'Betty' in the dance trio.

In 1943 Michael Foot gave Knox her own thrice-weekly column which she entitled Over Here, celebrating the contrasting cultures of the British and the prevalent American GI. Her first column featured an interview with novelist John Steinbeck, who had returned from Capri where he was war correspondent with the United States Navy, her columns were peppered with humorous anecdotes and American slang, poked fun at the inability of the British to make a proper cup of coffee. In July 1944 Knox filed her first story from Normandy, as a US war correspondent working for the London Evening Standard. In common with most female war correspondents she was expected to cover the war from a woman’s angle – with on-the-spot reports from military hospitals and articles on food shortages. However, she bent the rules, on one occasion hitched a ride with the French Resistance and went Nazi hunting. During this period she worked with fellow war correspondent Erika Mann and the couple were romantically involved. After the war Knox stayed in Germany reporting from the Nuremberg trials.

In 1935, with Wilson and Keppel, she had danced at the Berlin Wintergarten theatre before an audience that included Hermann Göring, commander of the Luftwaffe. The act was condemned by Joseph Goebbels as indecent; as a journalist in Nuremberg she covered Göring’s trial, but her reputation suffered after she chose to ignore a tip-off that Göring had committed suicide in his cell. The following year, in July 1947, an article Knox wrote for the London Evening Standard, claiming that escaped Nazi war criminal Martin Bormann was alive and living in Russia, provoked interest from MI5. Freda Utley’s book The High Cost of Vengeance was critical of the conduct of the Nuremberg trials the subsequent trials of those further down the chain of command. Utley spoke to Knox, who had transcribed the last words of three prisoners and witnessed their executions. According to Utley, neither Knox nor Thompson "were likely to forget their terrible experience". By the early 1950s Knox was running an international press club in Bonn.

She wrote articles for various Canadian newspapers. In her final years she lived in Düsseldorf with her daughter Patsy, she died in hospital in Düsseldorf on 25 January 1963, aged 56, from emphysema and pulmonary trouble