Cardiff University
Cardiff University is a public research university in Cardiff, Wales. It was established in 1883 as the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire and became a founding college of the University of Wales in 1893. It was renamed University College, Cardiff in 1972 and merged with the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology in 1988 to become University of Wales College, Cardiff and then University of Wales, Cardiff in 1996. In 1997, it received degree-awarding powers, but held them in abeyance. It adopted the operating name of Cardiff University in 1999; this became its legal name in 2005, when it became an independent university awarding its own degrees.
Cardiff University is the only Welsh member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities. Academics and alumni of the university have included four heads of state or government and two Nobel laureates. the university's academics include 17 fellows of the Royal Society, 11 fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering, seven fellows of the British Academy, 21 fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences and 32 fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences.
History
University college
The foundation of the university college in Cardiff that was to become Cardiff University was part of the Welsh university movement of the second half of the 19th century, which also led to the foundation of the colleges at Aberystwyth and Bangor and the federal University of Wales. The movement began at a meeting in London in 1854 called by Hugh Owen, including leaders of Welsh theological colleges and members of parliament. This meeting discussed establishing university colleges in Wales along the same lines as the Queen's Colleges established the previous decade in Ireland, and produced a formal proposal, the "Outline of Constitution for Proposed Welsh Queen's Colleges".Discussions on the founding of a university college in South Wales were revived in 1879, when a group of Welsh and English MPs urged the government to consider the poor provision of higher and intermediate education in Wales and "the best means of assisting any local effort which may be made for supplying such deficiency."
In August 1880, William Ewart Gladstone's government appointed a departmental committee to conduct "an enquiry into the nature and extent of intermediate and higher education in Wales", chaired by the 1st Baron Aberdare and consisting of Viscount Emlyn, the Reverend Prebendary H. G. Robinson, Henry Richard, John Rhys and Lewis Morris. The Aberdare Report, as it came to be known, took evidence from a wide range of sources and over 250 witnesses and recommended a college each for North Wales and South Wales, the latter to be located in Glamorgan and the former to be the established University College of Wales in Aberystwyth. The committee cited the unique Welsh national identity and noted that many students in Wales could not afford to travel to University in England or Scotland. It advocated a national degree-awarding university for Wales, composed of regional colleges, which should be non-sectarian in nature and exclude the teaching of theology.
After the recommendation was published, Cardiff Corporation sought to secure the location of the college in Cardiff, and on 12 December 1881 formed a University College Committee to aid the matter. There was competition to be the site between Swansea and Cardiff. On 12 March 1883, after arbitration, a decision was made in Cardiff's favour. This was strengthened by the need to consider the interests of Monmouthshire, at that time not legally incorporated into Wales, and the greater sum received by Cardiff in support of the college, through a public appeal that raised £37,000 and a number of private donations, notably from the 3rd Marquess of Bute and Lord Windsor. In April, Lord Aberdare was appointed as the college's first president. The possible locations considered included Cardiff Arms Park, Cathedral Road, and Moira Terrace, Roath, before the site of the Old Royal Infirmary buildings on Newport Road was chosen.
The University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire opened on 24 October 1883 with courses in biology, chemistry, English, French, German, Greek, history, Latin, mathematics and astronomy, music, Welsh, logic and philosophy, and physics. It was incorporated by royal charter the following year; this was the first charter in Wales to allow the enrolment of women and to specifically forbid religious tests for entry. John Viriamu Jones was appointed as the college's first principal at the age of 27. As the college was not an independent university and could not award its own degrees, it prepared its students for the examinations of the University of London or for further study at Oxford or Cambridge.
In 1888 the university college at Cardiff and the University College of North Wales proposed to the University College Wales at Aberystwyth joint action to gain a university charter for Wales, modelled on that of the Victoria University, a federal university in northern England with colleges in Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool. This led to a charter being granted to the University of Wales in 1893, with the colleges becoming members of the new university. The position of operational head would rotate among heads of the colleges.
In 1885, Aberdare Hall opened as the first hall of residence, allowing women access to the college. This moved to its current site in 1895, but remains a single-sex hall. In 1904 the college appointed the first female associate professor in the UK, Millicent Mackenzie, who in 1910 became the first female full professor at a fully chartered UK university.
In 1901, John Viriamu Jones persuaded Cardiff Corporation to give the college a five-acre site in Cathays Park. Soon after, in 1905, work on a new building commenced under the architect W. D. Caröe. Money ran short for the project, however, and although the side-wings were completed in the 1960s the planned
great hall was never built. Caroe sought to combine the charm and elegance of his alma mater with the picturesque balance of many Oxford colleges. On 14 October 1909 the "New College" building in Cathays Park and the "Drapers' Library" was opened in a ceremony involving a procession from the "Old College" in Newport Road.
In 1931, the medical school, founded as part of the college in 1893 along with the departments of anatomy, physiology, pathology and pharmacology, was split off to form the Welsh National School of Medicine, renamed the University of Wales College of Medicine in 1984.
The University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire was renamed University College, Cardiff in 1972.
1988 merger
In 1988, University College Cardiff ran into financial difficulties and a declaration of insolvency was considered. This led to a merger with the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology to form the University of Wales College of Cardiff. The principal of the new institution was Sir Aubrey Trotman-Dickenson, who had been the principal of UWIST. After changes to the constitution in 1996, its name was changed to the University of Wales, Cardiff.In the early 1990s, the university's computer systems served as the home for The Internet Movie Database.
Independence and 2004 merger
The college was granted degree-awarding powers by the Privy Council in 1997 although, as a member of the University of Wales, it did not use them at that time. In 1999, the public name of the university was changed to Cardiff University.In 2002, ideas were floated to re-merge Cardiff with the University of Wales College of Medicine, after the publication of the Welsh Assembly Government's review of higher education in Wales. This set in train a series of constitutional reforms. On 1 August 2004, Cardiff University ceased to be a member of the University of Wales and became an independent "link institution" affiliated to the federal university. The process of the merger with UWCM was completed on 1 December 2004, when the Act of Parliament transferring UWCM's assets to Cardiff University received royal assent. On 17 December it was announced that the Privy Council had given approval to a new supplemental charter for the keys institution. This was sealed on 11 March 2005, granting university status to Cardiff and legally changing the name of the institution to Cardiff University. Cardiff awarded University of Wales degrees to students admitted before 2005, but has subsequently awarded its own degrees.
In 2005, Wales College of Medicine, as part of the university, launched the North Wales Clinical School in Wrexham, in collaboration with the North East Wales Institute of Higher Education in Wrexham, the University of Wales, Bangor, and the National Health Service in Wales. This received funds of £12.5 million from the Welsh Assembly and trebled the number of trainee doctors in clinical training in Wales over a four-year period.
The university also has a Centre for Lifelong Learning, which has been teaching a wide range of courses for over 125 years. However, in July 2009, the university announced it was ending over 250 humanities courses at the centre, making over 100 staff redundant. The university has since reintroduced a number of humanities courses for a trial period beginning in 2010.
In June 2010, the university launched three new research institutes, each offering a new approach to a major modern research issue. The Neurosciences and Mental Health Research Institute and the Cancer Stem Cell Research Institute are housed in the purpose-built Hadyn Ellis Building and in the Sustainable Places Research Institute. Another part of the Science and Development Campus, the Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre, opened in June 2016 for neuroimaging research.
Workload controversy
On 19 February 2018, Malcolm Anderson, a university lecturer committed suicide at age 48 by jumping off a university building. The inquiry determined that Anderson's suicide was the result of a high-pressure workload.In 2020, Grace Krause, a PhD student employed at Cardiff University started experiencing headaches and back pain after lengthy work at a computer. She tweeted that "Staff are marking hundreds of essays in an impossibly short time. It is exhausting. Everyone is in crisis mode. Stressed, moody, morose, everyone feels like they’re drowning." Soon after, an email from the university was sent to all PhD students asking for these comments to be deleted, in order to avoid negative media attention, which sparked a debate about freedom of speech between employers and employees.