The University of London is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree-awarding examination board for students holding certificates from University College London, King's College London and "other such institutions, corporate or unincorporated, as shall be established for the purpose of Education, whether within the Metropolis or elsewhere within our United Kingdom". It is one of three institutions to have advertised themselves as the third-oldest university in England. It moved to a federal structure with constituent colleges in 1900. It is now incorporated by its fourth (1863) royal charter and governed by the University of London Act 2018.
General Examination for Women certificate from 1878. These were issued 1869–1878, before women were admitted to degrees of the university.
Somerset House in 1836. The university had its offices here from 1837 to 1870.
King William IV, who granted the University of London its original royal charter in 1836
An illustration of 6 Burlington Gardens, home to the university administration from 1870 to 1900
A collegiate university is a university in which functions are divided between a central administration and a number of constituent colleges. Historically, the first collegiate university was the University of Paris and its first college was the Collège des Dix-Huit. The two principal forms are residential college universities, where the central university is responsible for teaching and colleges may deliver some teaching but are primarily residential communities, and federal universities where the central university has an administrative role and the colleges may be residential but are primarily teaching institutions. The larger colleges or campuses of federal universities, such as University College London and University of California, Berkeley, may be effectively universities in their own right and often have their own student unions.
Buildings of St John's College, Cambridge
King's College London
University College London
A building of the University of Mumbai