History
The university's origins can be traced to 1896 with the opening of the Royal Technical Institute, Salford, a merger of Salford Working Men's College founded in 1858 and Pendleton Mechanics' Institute founded in 1850. The Royal Technical Institute, Salford received royal letters, after the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George V and Queen Mary) officiated at its opening ceremony, an event commemorated in the university's Redbrick Peel Building and which allowed 'Royal' to be appended to name of the institute.
At the start of the 20th century, mechanical engineering, chemical works, textiles and construction dominated the industrial scene in Salford. This heavily influenced the choice of subjects offered in the nine departments initially opened. These were Engineering, Electrical Engineering & Applied Physics, Mathematics, Chemistry, Building, Dyeing, Spinning & Weaving, Domestic, and Art. Some 1,240 students registered for the first session in these departments. There were originally 19 members of staff.
In 1921 the Institute was renamed the Royal Technical College, Salford. In 1958 the institution split into two organisations, one remaining as the Royal Technical College, and a break away college, the Peel Park Technical College which changed its name first in 1961 to the Salford Technical Institute, before becoming the Salford College of Technology in 1970, and finally the University College Salford in 1992.
In 1956 the Royal Technical College became a CAT, known as the Royal College of Advanced Technology. In 1963, the government completed an inquiry into the state of higher education in the United Kingdom and produced the Robbins Report which paved the way for the Royal College of Advanced Technology (and other Colleges of Advanced Technology) to assume university status by Royal Charter.
The Royal College of Advanced Technology, became the University of Salford on 10 February 1967 when Her Majesty The Queen handed over the institution's Royal Charter. The first Vice-Chancellor was Clifford Whitworth, after whom the university's main library is named. The first chancellor was HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who remained the university's chancellor until 1991. Prince Philip took a keen interest in the university whilst in office which has continued since and he visited the university's award winning acoustics laboratories in 2008.
In 1996, the break-away University College Salford merged with the University of Salford to form a single institution.
Read more about this topic: University Of Salford
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“... in America ... children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)
“It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I believe that in the history of art and of thought there has always been at every living moment of culture a “will to renewal.” This is not the prerogative of the last decade only. All history is nothing but a succession of “crises”Mof rupture, repudiation and resistance.... When there is no “crisis,” there is stagnation, petrification and death. All thought, all art is aggressive.”
—Eugène Ionesco (b. 1912)