Hello again - and thanks for your patience, Lyonesse.
Here's a list of closures, as you requested, with some information
about London universities/colleges which should be relevant to your
niece's project. Please feel free to ask if you would like me to
clarify or expand on anything.
Over the last thirty years, British higher education has gone through
quite a series of changes. As almost all universities in the UK are
public and depend on public funding, much change is a response to
government policy. The main college closures in London happened in the
context of government cuts in spending on higher education, especially
in the 1980s.
In the 1990s, spending was focussed on upgrading existing
colleges/polytechnics to the status of universities and so there were
several new universities created in London.
Alongside the other changes, there was restructuring of medical
education and London hospitals, leading to the closure/amalgamation of
medical schools.
Until the 1990s, most university-level education in London was linked
to the University of London. This is easiest to understand as a
federal system with each college having considerable independence, but
depending on the University for the right to award degrees. If the
college you attended was part of the "federation", perhaps described
as a "constituent college", this may give it more "longevity" value
than if it had been entirely independent.
I'll start by answering your original request about closures since
1970, and then give you some current information to help you and your
niece look into the situation now.
==========================
COLLEGES CLOSED SINCE 1970
==========================
The first four colleges on my list all closed in or around 1985.
Although in many ways they acted independently, they were also part of
the "federal" University of London.
The university and its colleges had to embark on some major
restructuring in the early eighties as a response to the government's
cuts in funds available for higher education.
At the time the word used was "merger", though nearly twenty years on
this looks like "closure". In some cases college names were included
in a new "merged" title, but later dropped again. The buildings were
assigned to new purposes, not necessarily anything to do with the
"merger".
Financial savings came from "rationalising" and combining departments
which were performing similar functions. Furthermore, some of the
buildings were in prime central London locations and could be sold for
a high price.
WESTFIELD COLLEGE
Westfield College was merged with Queen Mary College. It happened in
stages, with the science departments being transferred in 1985, and
the Faculty of Arts in 1987. Legal merger was in 1989.
King's College took over some of the buildings and others were sold
for redevelopment.
Although at first Queen Mary's was re-named "Queen Mary and Westfield
College", in 2000 it became "Queen Mary, University of London".
BEDFORD COLLEGE
Bedford merged with Royal Holloway College in 1985, after they had
signed a partnership agreement in 1982. There was a ceremony in 1986
where the "Royal Holloway and Bedford New College" was inaugurated by
the Queen. In 1992 the College decided to use the name "Royal
Holloway, University of London", although legally Bedford is still
included in its title.
The old Bedford College, in its wonderful location in Regent's Park,
has become Regent's College, which is largely given over to American
university programs.
QUEEN ELIZABETH COLLEGE
&
CHELSEA COLLEGE
Both Queen Elizabeth and Chelsea Colleges merged with King's College
in 1985. Their names were abandoned. King's used their buildings at
first, but the future was clear when in 1989 "development on land that
was released by the merger" was mentioned in the UK parliament.
The former Queen Elizabeth College building and part of the old
Chelsea College are now both sites for prestigious and expensive
residential redevelopment.
* * * *
From now on, the names of colleges which have closed or merged will be
those of medical schools, art colleges, teacher training institutions
and two of the newly-created universities which have already run into
trouble.
RICHMOND COLLEGE
This was a small Methodist college which closed in 1972, as part of a
reorganisation of teacher training.(see below) The buildings were
taken over by the Richmond American International University .
SOUTHLANDS COLLEGE
Originally a teacher training institution and constituent college of
the University of London, this has now been absorbed into the
University of Surrey.
MEDICAL SCHOOLS
St. Mary's Hospital Medical School became part of Imperial College in
1988.
After a government report on medical education in 1981, medical
schools were restructured at length throughout the 1980s and 1990s,
detailed in the excerpts below.
TEACHER EDUCATION COLLEGES
Teacher education was reorganised in the 1970s and 80s, in an attempt
to pool the resources of the smaller institutions.
St. Gabriel's College 1977
Rachel McMillan College 1977
These two Colleges were "given" to Goldsmith's College which later
became part of the University of London.
Avery Hill College 1985
Avery Hill clung onto its independence but ultimately merged with
Thames Polytechnic, later to become Thames University
Garnett College 1986
Included in Thames University, like Avery Hill.
Sidney Webb College closed 1980
ART COLLEGES
In 1989 the Central School of Art and Design merged with St. Martin's
School of Art to form the Central St. Martins College of Art and
Design.
In 1999 the Drama Centre London was included in Central St. Martins
NEW UNIVERSITIES
London Guildhall University and the University of North London, two of
the new universities created in the 1990s, have already merged to form
a new institution:
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,9830,766972,00.html
===================================================
Excerpts and references
-----------------------
"In the early 1980s it became obvious that Westfield would be unable
to continue as an independent institution"
http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search2?coll_id=3044&inst_id=39
Westfield College
http://www.qmul.ac.uk/alumni/west_legacy.shtml
http://www.qmul.ac.uk/alumni/west_trust.shtml
"The College decided in July 2000 to change its working name from
Queen Mary and Westfield College to Queen Mary, University of London.
[..]
This development does not affect the legal name of the College, which
remains Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London, as
incorporated by Act of Parliament."
http://www.qmul.ac.uk/alumni/west_newname.shtml
"In the mid-1980s the departments of Westfield's Faculty of Science
were transferred to other colleges of the University of London. Some
staff [...]moved to the then Queen Mary College [...] In 1987
agreement was reached for a merger of Westfield's strong Faculty of
Arts, complementary to QMC's science, engineering and laws base, with
Queen Mary College.
The two Colleges worked together to achieve legal merger in 1989
[...]
After the merger, in 1992, King's College London took over a large
part of the Westfield site for student residences [...] and the
remanining part was sold for development.
http://www.qmul.ac.uk/alumni/west_history.shtml
"When Chelsea College and Queen Elizabeth College were taken over by
King's, they disappeared totally; no trace is left of Bedford College,
swallowed up by Royal Holloway; but the Westfield name and tradition
are alive and well in Queen Mary. The working name of the college is
being shortened, but the full legal title is unchanged."
part of letter written to the press by
Alan Deyermond Vice-Principal, Westfield College, 1986-89; Research
Professor, Queen Mary, University of London
http://www.qmw.ac.uk/alumni/west_deyermond.shtml
* * * *
"Royal Holloway first admitted male students in 1965, and merged with
another female College (Bedford College) in 1985 to form Royal
Holloway and Bedford New College. [...]
In 1992, the College's Council decided that the College should be
re-named Royal Holloway, University of London.
http://www.su.rhul.ac.uk/welfare/pages/education/education.asp
The 1982 partnership Agreement between the two colleges, signed as a
result of severe cuts in government spending on higher education,
paved the way for the merger in 1985. The newly merged Royal Holloway
and Bedford New College was inaugurated in 1986 by Her Majesty The
Queen as a ceremony in the College Chapel.
[...]
The adoption of Royal Holloway, University of London as the College's
everyday title does not, however, mean that we have lost sight of the
unique contribution made to education by Bedford College, and the
Bedford heritage is commemorated in many ways, including the Bedford
Library and the Bedford Centre for the History of Women.
http://www.rhul.ac.uk/College-Profile/briefhistory.html
"Bedford College" now:
http://www.regents.ac.uk/
http://www.bacl.ac.uk/
* * * *
1985 Queen Elizabeth College and Chelsea College merge with King's.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/college/history.html
"Following the merger in 1985 with King's College London and Queen
Elizabeth College, the personnel functions of all three colleges were
integrated "
http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search2?coll_id=841&inst_id=6
"Lightfoot Hall of Residence is on campus." [once part of Chelsea
College]
http://physig.ph.kcl.ac.uk/ipg/kcl_moreinfo.html
Parliamentary debate on taxation in 1989:
"London university said that the future development on land that was
released by the merger of King's college, Chelsea college and Queen
Elizabeth college would have been put at risk. That would have been
detrimental to the restructuring and to the greater efficiency and
responsiveness of the university sector, which is part of the
Government's higher education strategy."
http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm198889/cmhansrd/1989-07-12/Debate-10.html
"Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw [...]their recent £32 million acquisition of
Lightfoot Hall, Chelsea"
http://lexisnexis.butterworths.co.uk/law/news/firmnews.htm
"The Phillimores (Queen Elizabeth College) in Kensington, W8.
The construction and marketing of one of London's finest new
residential
schemes will commence immediately."
http://moneyam.uk-wire.com/cgi-bin/articles/200201111536048636P.html
Phillimores
http://www.hamptons.co.uk/london_developments/developments/show_development.asp?development_id=92
* * * *
Richmond College now:
http://www.richmond.ac.uk/
* * * *
"In 1948 Southlands was made a constituent college of the University
of London Institute of Education.
[...]the BEd degree in 1965 (validated by the University of London).
Male students were admitted in 1965.
[...]
Plans to form a union of the four voluntary teacher-training colleges
in the south-west of London began to take shape in the early 1970s,
with the four acting as an academic unity to offer BA, BSc and B
Humanities degrees, validated by the University of London, from 1974."
http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search2?coll_id=5486&inst_id=50
* * * *
"The annual intake of students continued to increase throughout the
1960s and 1970s. In 1982 the medical schools of Guy's and St Thomas's
Hospitals reunited as the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's
and St Thomas' Hospitals (UMDS). The new institution was then enlarged
by the amalgamation of the Royal Dental Hospital of London School of
Dental Surgery with Guy's Dental School on 1 August 1983 and the
addition on the Institute of Dermatology on 1 August 1985. In 1990
King's College London began discussions with the United Schools and,
following formal agreement to merge in 1992 and the King's College
London Act 1997, the formal merger with UMDS took place on 1 August
1998. The merger created three new schools: the Guy's, King's and St
Thomas' Schools of Medicine, of Dentistry and of Biomedical Sciences,
and reconfigured part of the former School of Life, Basic Medical &
Health Sciences as the new School of Health & Life Sciences."
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/about/history/history.html
===================================================
================
PRESENT & FUTURE
================
If your niece is concerned about choosing a university which is
unlikely to close, I would suggest looking at the league tables
published by the Times and Guardian newspapers. The Times tables are
strongly influential in the UK.
Whatever government policy may do to the university sytem, it is hard
to imagine it will threaten the colleges/universities higher up the
rankings.
Times rankings - page 1 - click links on right for next pages
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3501-408136,00.html
Guardian rankings
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/unitable/0,,-4668575,00.html
It is more difficult to speculate about the American
colleges/universities which have sprouted up in London since you
studied there. Only one of these, Richmond American University, is
"validated" to award British degrees as well as US degrees. The others
depend on their American accreditation to attract students. They
operate separately from the British university system and are private
companies. You can find a certain amount of information about them
through their registration with Companies House:
Companies House search
http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/info/
I don't think you're concerned with this kind of "American"
university, but just in case:
http://education.guardian.co.uk/administration/story/0,9860,1037913,00.html
These two maps with lists will help you identify London Colleges and
Universities. Don't forget to note which are central and which mean a
long journey in from the suburbs!
Central London (scroll down for the map)
http://www.hero.ac.uk/universities_and_colleges/england/uc_london_central.cfm
Greater London
http://www.hero.ac.uk/universities_and_colleges/england/uc_london.cfm
This page shows which colleges are actually part of the University of
London:
http://www.lon.ac.uk/Colleges_Institutes/home.asp?theDir=^Colleges%5FInstitutes^&level=0&id=533
Any college or other institution appearing to offer a BA or BSc cannot
be offering a British degree unless it is "validated" by an official
"validating university". Since I suspect you may be more interested in
US accreditation, I won't go into more detail now, but just ask if I
can help further with this.
After you have had time to read this answer and the webpages it links
to, you may have a follow-up query. Please don't hesitate to use the
'clarification' button to ask for further assistance. Although I
myself was at an English university, around the same time as you, I
have had a little experience of US education. I know the two
university systems are quite different and would like to be sure I
have given you the information you requested and a bit of general
background too.
Good luck to your niece as she looks into this opportunity.
I hope she will enjoy and learn from whatever she decides to do - and
I'm sure she will appreciate her aunt's researches on her behalf!
Best Wishes - Leli
Search strategy:
I found the best website for initial research on the history of London
colleges to be the AIM25 site:
"AIM25 [has] descriptions of the archives and manuscript collections
of the principal colleges and schools of the University of London
[and] of other universities and colleges in London and the surrounding
area"
http://www.aim25.ac.uk/intro.stm
I combed through search results there using the words closed, merged
etc. For instance:
site:www.aim25.ac.uk "university of london" merger OR merged OR merge
://www.google.co.uk/search?q=site%3Awww.aim25.ac.uk+%22university+of+london%22+merger+OR+merged+OR+merge&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&meta=
site:www.aim25.ac.uk "university of london" closed OR shut
://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%0D%0Asite%3Awww.aim25.ac.uk+%22university+of+london%22++closed+OR+shut&btnG=Google+Search&meta=
site:www.aim25.ac.uk -"university of london" college merge OR merged
OR merger
://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=++site%3Awww.aim25.ac.uk+college++-%22university+of+london%22++merge+OR+merged+OR+merger&btnG=Google+Search&meta=cr%3DcountryUK%7CcountryGB
Then I used Google searches with the names of colleges involved to
find more information.
Some of the answer is based on my knowledge of British universities,
which helped me find lists like the Times league tables, using Google
searches. |
