About the University:
Queen Mary University of London (QMUL, or informally QM, and previously Queen Mary and Westfield College) is a public research university in Mile End, East London, England. It is a member institution of the federal University of London. Teaching in Mile End began as a philanthropic endeavour under the auspices of the East London College in the 1880s. Renamed Queen Mary College, after Mary of Teck, the College was admitted to the University of London in 1915. In 1989 the College merged with Westfield College, a college of the University of London, to form Queen Mary and Westfield College.
In 1995 Queen Mary and Westfield College merged with St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College and The London Hospital Medical College to form the School of Medicine and Dentistry (informally known as Barts). Medical students had been informally educated at St Bartholomew’s since its foundation as a priory and hospital in 1123, while The London Hospital Medical College had as England’s first medical school, formally trained doctors since its inception in 1785. Taken together, these two historic institutions form the present university’s earliest foundations.
In 2000, Queen Mary and Westfield College rebranded as Queen Mary University of London, and in 2008 the Privy Council granted Queen Mary the authority to award university degrees in its own name; previously degrees had been awarded through the University of London. In 2012 Queen Mary joined the Russell Group of leading British research universities. The following year, the university legally changed its name from Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London to Queen Mary University of London.
Today, Queen Mary has five campuses across East and Central London in Mile End, Whitechapel, Charterhouse Square, Lincoln’s Inn Fields and West Smithfield, as well as an international presence in China, France, Greece and Malta. The Mile End campus is the largest self-contained campus of any London-based university. In 2018/19 the university had around 26,000 students. Queen Mary is organised into three faculties – the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Faculty of Science and Engineering, and Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry.
Queen Mary is a member of the Russell Group of British research universities, the Association of Commonwealth Universities and Universities UK. Queen Mary is a major centre for medical teaching and research and is part of UCLPartners, the world’s largest academic health science centre. Queen Mary runs programmes at the University of London Institute in Paris, taking over the functions provided by Royal Holloway. Queen Mary also collaborates with University of London to offer its Global MBA program. For 2021–22, Queen Mary had a turnover of £625.7 million including £122.9 million from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £623.4 million.
Queen Mary has produced many notable alumni in various fields of work and study around the world with several alumni having become notable leaders in their respective fields including politics, as heads of state, science, academia, law, history, business, technology, and diplomacy. There are nine Nobel Laureates amongst Queen Mary’s alumni, current and former staff. Notable alumni include Ronald Ross, who discovered the origin and cure for malaria, Davidson Nicol, who discovered the breakdown of insulin in the human body, British politician Peter Hain, and Professor Andrew Pollard, the chief investigator of the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine
Academic Profile:
Around 32,000 students study at the 21 academic schools and institutes, with over 40 percent coming from overseas, representing over 170 different nationalities. Queen Mary awarded over £2 million in studentships to prospective postgraduate students for the 2011/12 academic year
Rankings:
Queen Mary ranks eighth in the UK in the CWTS Leiden Ranking 2016. Queen Mary ranks 13th in the U.S. News & World Report Best Global Universities in the United Kingdom, and fifth in London. In Times Higher Education Best universities in the UK 2017, it has been ranked 15th. The Guardian ranks Queen Mary in the University league tables 2017 first for Media & Film Studies, second for Medicine in the UK, third in the UK for Dentistry, ninth for History in the UK, fifth for Law in the UK. The Complete University Guide 2019 ranks Queen Mary 38th overall.
In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF), which assesses the quality of research in UK higher education institutions, Queen Mary is ranked 19th by GPA and 21st for research power (the grade point average score of a university, multiplied by the full-time equivalent number of researchers submitted).
Queen Mary students feature in the top 10 in the UK for graduate starting salaries, according to The Times and Sunday Times University League Table 2016.
International:
U.S. News & World Report 2022-23 ranked Queen Mary as 100th in the world. Similarly, QS World University Rankings 2022 ranked Queen Mary as 117th in the world. Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2021 ranked Queen Mary 110th in the world. Academic Ranking of World Universities 2020 ranks Queen Mary between 201 and 300 in the world. The university was ranked 51st in the world in the CWTS Leiden Ranking 2018.
Queen Mary was ranked 11th in Europe in the CWTS Leiden Ranking 2016. The university was ranked 47th in the 2017 U.S. News & World Report Best Global Universities in Europe. 2017 Times Higher Education ranked Queen Mary equal 46th among European universities.
Subject specific:
In 2019, QS World Universities ranked both the schools of Law and English Literature and Language 2nd in the world, with the schools of Geography, History, Linguistics and Medicine all making top 100. In 2020, Law at Queen Mary University of London was ranked 30th in the world and seventh in the UK.
The Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry has been ranked as the 15th best medical school in the UK by The Guardian and, globally, is ranked ninth by the QS World University Rankings.
According to Times Good University Guide 2020 strong subject areas for Queen Mary University are Dentistry (5), Medicine (8), Materials Technology (11) and Drama, Dance and Cinematics (17).
The Guardian in 2018 ranked the School of Law as third best in the UK.
Student Life:
Queen Mary Students’ Union (QMSU) unites the various clubs and societies of Queen Mary. The union is based at the recently refurbished Students’ Hub. The elected representatives within the union are made up of a president and five vice-presidents. The union mascot is a leopard called Mary. The union has a sub-division to represent students studying at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, called Barts and The London Students’ Association.
SU facilities and publications
- Qmotion (Gym/Fitness Centre)
- Drapers Bar
- Ground
- The Learning Cafe
- Infusion Shop
- The Print (newspaper)
- CUB (magazine)
- Quest (radio)
- Queen Mary Theatre Company
- QMTV (television)
- Students’ Union Hub
The Students’ Union Hub replaces the previous office called the Blomley Centre. It is named after a former president and VP Education, Laura Blomeley, who completed her term in office with terminal cancer. In remembrance of her commitment to QMSU, two key rooms in the new Students’ Union Hub have been named after her.