Victoria University (United Kingdom)

Victoria University was an English federal university established by Royal Charter on 20 April 1880 at Manchester: a university for the North of England open to affiliation by colleges such as Owens College, which immediately did so. University College Liverpool joined the university in 1884, followed by Yorkshire College, Leeds, in 1887. The university and the colleges were distinct corporate bodies until Owens College merged with the university in 1904. A supplemental charter of 1883 enabled the granting of degrees in medicine and surgery.

The aspirations of Manchester and Liverpool to become independent city universities meant that the Victoria University was short-lived. Liverpool left the university in 1903 to become the University of Liverpool; Leeds was granted its own royal charter in 1904 and became the University of Leeds; Manchester, the only remaining site, was granted a new Royal Charter as the Victoria University of Manchester.^[1][2]

The armorial bearings of the Victoria University showed charges representative of the three colleges Per pale argent and gules, a rose counterchanged, in dexter chief a terrestrial globe semée of bees Or, in sinister chief a fleece Or, in point a liverbird rising argent, beaked and membered gules holding in the beak a fish argent with the motto Olim armis nunc studiis ("Formerly by weapons, now by studies"). The globe and bees is for Manchester, the liver bird for Liverpool, the fleece for Yorkshire and the rose for the counties of Lancaster (red rose) and York (white rose). The arms fell into abeyance in 1904 when those of Owens College were adopted for the Victoria University of Manchester.^[3]

There was also a proposal that York be included: in 1903, F. J. Munby and others (including the Yorkshire Philosophical Society) proposed a "Victoria University of Yorkshire".^[4] See University of York.

The Christie Cup is an inter-university competition between Liverpool, Leeds and Manchester in numerous sports since 1886. After the Oxford and Cambridge rivalry, the Christie's Championships is the oldest Inter–University competition on the English sporting calendar. The cup was a benefaction of Richard Copley Christie, a professor at Owens College.

Vice-Chancellors

• 1880–1887: Joseph Gouge Greenwood (also Principal of Owens College 1857–1889)
• 1887–1891: Adolphus William Ward (also Principal of Owens College 1889–1897)
• 1891–1895: Gerald Henry Rendall (University College, Liverpool)
• 1895–1897: Adolphus William Ward (second term)
• 1897–1901: Nathan Bodington (Yorkshire College, Leeds)
• 1901–1903: Alfred Hopkinson (also Principal of Owens College 1898–1904; afterwards Vice-Chancellor of the Victoria University of Manchester until 1913)^[5]

Chancellors

• 1880–1891: William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire^[6]
• 1892–1904: Charles Spencer, 6th Earl Spencer,^[7] afterwards Chancellor of the Victoria University of Manchester.^[8]

See also

• Red brick university

References

Defunct universities and colleges in the United Kingdom
Bedford College Bedford College of Higher Education Bell College Bulmershe College of Higher Education Crewe and Alsager College of Higher Education Garnett College Hereford College of Education Queen's University of Ireland Royal University of Ireland Kent Institute of Art & Design London Guildhall University Royal Manchester College of Music University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology National Heart and Lung Institute Northern School of Music University of North London University of Northampton (1261–65) Royal College of Science La Sainte Union College of Higher Education University College Salford University College Scarborough St Martin's College Federal University of Surrey Surrey Institute of Art & Design, University College New University of Ulster Ulster Polytechnic Victoria University Victoria University of Manchester University of Wales College of Medicine University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology Westfield College Wye College