Red brick university

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The Aston Webb building, University of Birmingham

Red Brick (or "redbrick") is an informal term used to refer to six particular British universities founded in the major industrial cities of England^[1], all of which achieved university status before World War I and were initially established as civic science and/or engineering colleges.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} Whilst the term was originally coined as these institutions were new and thus regarded by the ancient universities as arriviste,^[8] the description has since ceased to be derogatory with the proliferation of 1960s universities and the reclassification of various polytechnics in 1992. Officially, the six institutions are members of the Russell Group (which receives two-thirds of all research grant funding in the United Kingdom).^[9]

[edit] The civic university movement

The six Red Bricks are:

The Wills Memorial building at Bristol University, Neo Gothic rather than Victorian red brick, was completed in 1925

• The University of Birmingham - royal charter granted in 1900.
• The University of Liverpool - royal charter granted in 1903.
• The University of Leeds - royal charter granted in 1904.
• The University of Sheffield - royal charter granted in 1905.
• The University of Bristol - royal charter granted in 1909.
• The University of Manchester - formed in 2004 with the merger of Victoria University (1880) and UMIST (1956).

The English civic university movement developed out of various 19th century private research and education institutes in industrial cities. The 1824 Manchester Mechanics' Institute formed the basis of the Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), and thus led towards the University of Manchester proper.^[6] The University of Birmingham has origins dating back to the 1825 Birmingham Medical School.^[2] The University of Leeds also owes its foundations to a medical school: the 1831 Leeds School of Medicine. The University of Bristol began with the 1876 University College, Bristol^[3], the University of Liverpool with a University College in 1881 ^[5], and the University of Sheffield with a university college in 1897.^[7]

These universities were distinguished by being non-collegiate institutions that admitted men without reference to religion or background and concentrated on imparting to their students "real-world" skills, often linked to engineering. In this sense they owed their structural heritage to the Humboldt University of Berlin, which emphasised practical knowledge over the academic sort.^[10] This focus on the practical also distinguished the red brick universities from the ancient English universities of Oxford and Cambridge and from the newer (although still pre-Victorian) University of Durham, collegiate institutions which concentrated on divinity, the liberal arts and imposed religious tests (e.g. assent to the Thirty-Nine Articles) on staff and students. Scotland's ancient universities (St Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh), usually grouped with Dundee, were founded on a different basis.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Origins of the term

Victoria Building tower, Liverpool

The term "red brick" or "redbrick" was first coined by a professor of Spanish (Edgar Allison Peers) at the University of Liverpool to describe these civic universities (under the pseudonym "Bruce Truscot" in his 1943 book Redbrick University).^[8][11] His reference was inspired by the fact that The Victoria Building at the University of Liverpool (which was designed by Alfred Waterhouse and completed in 1892) is built from a distinctive red pressed brick, with terracotta decorative dressings.

On this basis the University of Liverpool considers itself to be the original Red Brick institution.^[12] The University of Birmingham states, however, that it was the first to gain official university status, and that the popularity of the term owes to its own domed Accrington brick buildings.^[13]

[edit] Other institutions

Founder's Building, Royal Holloway College

The term 'Red Brick' has often found more liberal usage. Indeed, many institutions share similar characteristics to the original six civic universities. The University of Reading, founded in the late 19th century as an extension college of Oxford, was the only university to receive its charter between the two world wars^[14] and is therefore often described as a Red Brick^{[citation needed]}. So too is Queen's University Belfast,^{[citation needed]} which became a civic university in 1908, having previously been established in 1845 as a college of the Queen's University of Ireland (now Royal University of Ireland). Many of the original constituent institutions of the University of Wales bear the Red Brick hallmarks: Aberystwyth; Bangor; Swansea; Cardiff. Certain constituent colleges of the University of London, such as Royal Holloway, Queen Mary and Goldsmiths College are also literally Victorian red brick in style. Keble College, Oxford, founded in 1870, is an architecturally red brick college located within the University of Oxford which places a strong emphasis on engineering and sciences.

In 1963, the Robbins Report recommended expansion of the British university system. The universities established after this report are often known as the 'Plate Glass' universities.

[edit] See also

• British universities
• List of universities in the United Kingdom
• List of UK universities by date of foundation
• List of UK universities by size
• Third oldest university in England debate
• Russell Group
• 1994 Group
• Plate glass university
• New Universities

[edit] References