The Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, known by its trade names Imperial College London and Imperial, is a public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned South Kensington as a cultural district with museums, colleges, and the Royal Albert Hall. In 1907, two colleges – the Royal College of Science and the Royal School of Mines – merged to form Imperial College London, with City and Guilds College joining in 1910.
In 1988, Imperial merged with St Mary's Hospital Medical School and then with Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School to form the Imperial College School of Medicine. The Imperial Business School was established in 2003 and was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II. Formerly a constituent college of the University of London, Imperial became an independent university in 2007.
Imperial is organised into four faculties: engineering, medicine, natural sciences, and business. The university encourages innovation and enterprise across all its faculties by integrating business courses into science degrees and providing business students with a scientific education. The main campus is located in South Kensington with additional campuses in White City and other locations near South Kensington. The faculty of medicine also operates five teaching hospitals across London as well as the Pears Cumbria School of Medicine based in Carlisle in co-operation with the University of Cumbria.
Its graduates and academics include 14 Nobel Prize winners, three Fields Medal winners, 74 fellows of the Royal Society and 84 fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
History
19th century
The earliest college that led to the formation of Imperial was the Royal College of Chemistry, founded in 1845, with the support of Prince Albert and parliament. This was merged in 1853 into what became known as the Royal School of Mines. The medical school has roots in many different schools across London, the oldest of which being Charing Cross Hospital Medical School which can be traced back to 1823, followed by teaching starting at Westminster Hospital in 1834, and St Mary's Hospital in 1851.
In 1851, the Great Exhibition was organised as an exhibition of culture and industry by Henry Cole and by Prince Albert, husband of the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria. An enormously popular and financial success, proceeds from the Great Exhibition were designated to develop an area for cultural and scientific advancement in South Kensington. Within the next six years the Victoria and Albert Museum and Science Museum had opened, joined by new facilities in 1871 for the Royal College of Chemistry, and in 1881 the opening of the Royal School of Mines and Natural History Museum.
In 1881, the Normal School of Science was established in South Kensington under the leadership of Thomas Huxley, taking over responsibility for the teaching of the natural sciences and agriculture from the Royal School of Mines. The school was renamed the Royal College of Science by royal consent in 1890. The Central Institution of the City and Guilds of London Institute was opened as a technical education school on Exhibition Road by the Prince of Wales in 1884, with courses beginning in 1885.
20th century
At the start of the 20th century, there was a concern that Great Britain was falling behind Germany in scientific and technical education. A departmental committee was set up at the Board of Education in 1904, to look into the future of the Royal College of Science. A report released in 1906 called for the establishment of an institution unifying the Royal College of Science and the Royal School of Mines, as well as – if an agreement could be reached with the City and Guilds of London Institute – its Central Technical College.
On 8 July 1907, Edward VII granted a Royal Charter establishing the Imperial College of Science and Technology. This incorporated the Royal School of Mines and the Royal College of Science. It also made provisions for the City and Guilds College to join once conditions regarding its governance were met, as well as for Imperial to become a college of the University of London. The college joined the University of London on 22 July 1908, with the City and Guilds College joining in 1910. The main campus of Imperial College was constructed beside the buildings of the Imperial Institute, the new building for the Royal College of Science having opened across from it in 1906, and the foundation stone for the Royal School of Mines building being laid by King Edward VII in July 1909.
As students at Imperial had to study separately for London degrees, in January 1919, students and alumni voted for a petition to make Imperial a university with its own degree awarding powers, independent of the University of London. In response, the University of London changed its regulations in 1925 so that the courses taught only at Imperial would be examined by the university, enabling students to gain a Bachelor of Science. In October 1945, George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited Imperial to commemorate the centenary of the Royal College of Chemistry, which was the oldest of the institutions that united to form Imperial College. "Commemoration Day", named after this visit, is held every October as the university's main graduation ceremony. The college also acquired a biology field station at Silwood Park near Ascot, Berkshire in 1947
Following World War II, there was again concern that Britain was falling behind in science – this time to the United States. The Percy Report of 1945 and Barlow Committee in 1946 called for a "British MIT"-equivalent, backed by influential scientists as politicians of the time, including Lord Cherwell, Sir Lawrence Bragg and Sir Edward Appleton. The University Grants Committee strongly opposed however, and so a compromise was reached in 1953, where Imperial would remain within the university but double in size over the following ten years. The expansion led to a number of new buildings being erected. These included the Hill building in 1957 and the Physics building in 1960, and the completion of the East Quadrangle, built in four stages between 1959 and 1965. The building work also meant the demolition of the City and Guilds College building in 1962–63, and the Imperial Institute's building by 1967. Opposition from the Royal Fine Arts Commission and others meant that Queen's Tower was retained, with work carried out between 1966 and 1968 to make it free standing. New laboratories for biochemistry, established with the support of a £350,000 grant from the Wolfson Foundation, were opened by the Queen in 1965.
In 1988, Imperial merged with St Mary's Hospital Medical School under the Imperial College Act 1988. Amendments to the royal charter changed the formal name of the institution to The Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine and made St Mary's a constituent college. This was followed by mergers with the National Heart and Lung Institute in 1995 and the Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, Royal Postgraduate Medical School and the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in 1997, with the Imperial College Act 1997 formally establishing the Imperial College School of Medicine.
21st century
In 2003, Imperial was granted degree-awarding powers in its own right by the Privy Council. In 2004, the Imperial Business School and a new main college entrance on Exhibition Road were opened. The UK Energy Research Centre was also established in 2004 and opened its headquarters at Imperial. On 9 December 2005, Imperial announced that it would commence negotiations to secede from the University of London. Imperial became fully independent of the University of London in July 2007.
In April 2011, Imperial and King's College London joined the UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation as partners with a commitment of £40 million each to the project. The centre was later renamed the Francis Crick Institute and opened on 9 November 2016. It is the largest single biomedical laboratory in Europe. The college began moving into the new White City campus in 2016, with the launching of the Innovation Hub. This was followed by the opening of the Molecular Sciences Research Hub for the Department of Chemistry, officially opened by Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan in 2019.
In 2014, Stefan Grimm, of the Department of Medicine, was found dead after being told that he was "struggling to fulfil the metrics" of his professorial post. The college announced an internal inquiry into his death and found that the performance metrics for his position were unreasonable, but new metrics would be needed to replace them.
Campuses
South Kensington
The South Kensington campus is the college's main campus, where most teaching and research takes place. It is home to many notable buildings, such as the Business School, Royal School of Mines, and Royal College of Science. It is also the original site of the Imperial Institute, whose Queen's Tower stands at the heart of the campus overlooking Queen's Lawn. As part of a cultural centre known as Albertopolis the campus is surrounded by many of London's most popular attractions, including the Royal Albert Hall and Kensington Palace, museums including the Natural History Museum, Science Museum, and Victoria and Albert Museum, and institutions such as the Royal College of Art, the Royal College of Music, and the National Art Library.
The campus has many restaurants and cafés run by the college, and contains much of the college's student accommodation, including the Prince's Garden Halls, and Beit Hall, home to the college union, which runs student pubs, a nightclub, and a cinema on site. To the north, within easy walking distance of the college, are Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, with green spaces and sports facilities used by many of the student clubs.
White City
Imperial has a new second major campus in White City providing a platform for innovation and entrepreneurship. This campus was built on land previously owned by BBC.
The hub houses research facilities, postgraduate accommodation, as well as a commercialisation space called I-HUB. This houses the London hub of the British government’s Defence and Security Accelerator and a United States Air Force, Army and Navy joint international research office. Saab and Airbus also have a presence on the campus.
The campus is home to the Scale Space and incubator, Invention Rooms, a college hackerspace and community outreach centre.
The White City campus also includes a biomedical centre funded by a donation from alumnus Sir Michael Uren.
Imperial revealed plans in 2025 to build an AI campus at White City, centred on a new 12-storey building designed by Allies and Morrison, to be constructed between 2028 and 2029.
Silwood Park
Silwood Park is a postgraduate campus of Imperial in the village of Sunninghill near Ascot in Berkshire. The Silwood Park campus remains a centre for research and teaching in ecology, evolution, and conservation. It is set in 100 hectares of parkland used for ecological field experiments.
Hospitals
Imperial has teaching hospitals across London which are used by the School of Medicine for undergraduate clinical teaching and medical research. All are based around college-affiliated hospitals, and also provide catering and sport facilities. College libraries are located on each campus, including the Fleming library at St Mary's.
Student housing
Imperial College owns and manages ten halls of residence in Inner London, Acton and Ascot, Berkshire. Over three thousand rooms are available, with first year undergraduates guaranteed a place in one of the six main college residences (subject to certain requirements). The majority of halls offer single or twin accommodation with some rooms having en suite facilities. Bedrooms are provided with basic furniture and with access to shared kitchens and bathrooms. All rooms come with internet access and access to the Imperial network.
Most students in college or university accommodation are first-year undergraduates. The majority of older students and postgraduates find accommodation in the private sector, help for which is provided by the college private housing office. However a handful of students may continue to live in halls in later years if they take the position of a "hall senior", and places are available for a small number of returning students in three small halls. The accommodation in Ascot is only for postgraduate students based at the Silwood Park site.
Organisation and administration
Faculties and departments
Imperial is organised into four faculties: the Faculty of Engineering, the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Natural Sciences, and the Imperial Business School. As of 2024, the academic departments are:
Interdisciplinary centres
Imperial hosts centres to promote inter-disciplinary work under the titles of Global Challenge institutes, Imperial Centres of Excellence and Imperial Networks of Excellence. It also participates as a partner in a number of national institutes.
Academic centres
The Centre for Languages, Culture and Communication operates as Imperial College London's adult education centre, offering evening class courses in the arts, humanities, languages and sciences. The university also houses two academic centres offering teaching to undergraduate and postgraduate students in subjects outside of science, technology and medicine. The academic centres are the:
Centre for Academic English
Centre for Languages, Culture and Communication
Governance
The council is the governing body of Imperial. The council consists of between 19 and 27 members, with an independent chair and ex officio members being the president, the provost, the chief operating officer, the president of Imperial College Union, and four senior staff members. There are also up to four further staff members (comprising one member elected by the academic staff, one further appointed member of academic staff and two members of the professional services staff), up to one further representative of Imperial College Union, and between nine and 13 other independent members, with the proviso that the independent members (including the chair) must comprise the majority. The president is the highest academic official and chief executive of Imperial College London. The position has been held by Hugh Brady, since August 2022. As of 2024, the provost is Ian Walmsley and the chair is Vindi Banga.
Finances and endowment
The college's endowment is sub-divided into three distinct portfolios:
Unitised Scheme – a unit trust vehicle for the college, Faculties and Departments to invest endowments and unfettered income to produce returns for the long term
Non-Core Property – a portfolio containing around 120 operational and developmental properties which the college has determined are not core to the academic mission
Strategic Asset Investments – containing the college's shareholding in Imperial Innovations and other restricted equity holdings.
In the financial year ending 31 July 2024, Imperial had a total income of £1.309 billion (2022/23 – £1.256 billion) and total expenditure of £1.051 billion (2022/23 – £1.235 billion). Key sources of income included £507.5 million from tuition fees and education contracts (2022/23 – £452.1 million), £165.4 million from funding body grants (2022/23 – £183.3 million), £396.2 million from research grants and contracts (2022/23 – £383.1 million), £28.8 million from investment income (2022/23 – £24.1 million) and £35.5 million from donations and endowments (2022/23 – £51.5 million).
At year end, Imperial had endowments of £235.2 million (2022/23 – £220.1 million) and total net assets of £2.082 billion (2022/23 – £1.792 billion). It holds the eighth-largest endowment of any university in the UK.
Affiliations and partnerships
Imperial is a member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, European University Association, Global Alliance of Technological Universities, League of European Research Universities and the Russell Group. It is a founding member of the Imperial College academic health sciences centre, the Francis Crick Institute and MedCity. Imperial is a long-term partner of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with the first formal large-scale collaboration agreement dating back to 1944 as part of World War II scientific effort. The partnership between the two institutions continues with exchange programs for students and academic staff.
Academic profile
Research
In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework, Imperial's research profile was assessed as 66 per cent world class (4*) 30 per cent internationally important (3*) and 3 per cent internationally recognised (2*), with insignificant quantities of research in lower categories. This led to Imperial being ranked first in the UK on GPA and ninth for research power by Times Higher Education, with a GPA of 3.63 and research power 47.3 per cent of the top-ranked University of Oxford.
The college promotes research commercialisation, partly through its dedicated technology transfer company, Imperial Innovations, which has given rise to a large number of spin-out companies based on academic research. Imperial researcher Narinder Singh Kapany made critical contributions to the invention of fibre optics.