Situated just south of Leicester city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park, the University of Leicester is a public research university with a history stretching back to the early twentieth century. Its predecessor institution, University College, Leicester, was founded in the years following the First World War before gaining full university status in 1957. Today the university reported an income of £395.0 million for 2024/25, with £84.9 million of that coming from research grants, against an expenditure of £407.3 million.
Origins and Early History
The push for a university in Leicester began with the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society, whose co-presidents in the late nineteenth century – the Reverend James Went, headmaster of Wyggeston Boys’ School, and J. D. Paul – regularly called for the creation of a university college. Their efforts drew inspiration from the success of Owens College in Manchester and the establishment of the University of Birmingham in 1900, as well as Nottingham University College. Progress stalled due to a lack of private donations and the Corporation of Leicester’s focus on funding the School of Art and the Technical School. The cause was revived in 1912 by Dr Astley V. Clarke (1870-1945), a Leicester-born physician educated at Wyggeston Grammar School and the University of Cambridge, who had also trained at Guy’s Hospital. The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 halted plans again, though by 1917 the Leicester Daily Post was urging that something more lasting than memorials be created in memory of the war dead. After the war ended, both the Post and its rival the Leicester Mail encouraged public donations toward founding the college. A proposal to create a federal university of the East Midlands, joining Leicester with Nottingham, Sutton Bonington, and Loughborough, was considered but ultimately came to nothing. The old asylum building, later used as a hospital for the wounded, was identified as a suitable site, and Clarke pushed the city’s citizens and local authorities to acquire it.
Research and Notable Achievements
The University of Leicester is widely associated with two significant scientific and historical milestones. The invention of genetic fingerprinting took place at the university, a development that transformed forensic science and medical research worldwide. The university also partly funded the discovery and subsequent DNA identification of the remains of King Richard III, found beneath a Leicester car park – a project that drew international attention to the city.