United Kingdom Leeds

Summary

The University of Leeds is a Russell Group university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, established in 1831. Originally named the Yorkshire College of Science and later simply the Yorkshire College, it incorporated the Leeds School of Medicine and became part of the federal Victoria University alongside Owens College (which became the University of Manchester) and University College Liverpool (which became the University of Liverpool). In 1904, a royal charter, created in 1903, was granted to the University of Leeds by King Edward VII.

The university is a founding member of the prestigious Russell Group - the leading research-intensive universities in the UK, the N8 Group for research collaboration,  the Worldwide Universities Network, the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the European University Association, the White Rose University Consortium, the Santander Network and CDIO and is also affiliated to the Universities UK. The Leeds University Business School hold the 'Triple Crown' accreditations from AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS, placing them in the top 1% of business schools globally.

For 2017-18, Leeds is ranked nationally between 10th (Times and Sunday Times) and 14th (The Guardian; The Complete University Guide). Internationally, the university is ranked as the 32nd best in Europe and globally ranked 93rd in the 2016-17 QS World University Rankings. Leeds was ranked top three in the UK and top 20 in the world for graduate employability (QS Graduate Employability Rankings 2016), also ranked as the 5th most targeted British university by the UK's top graduate employers in 2016-17. Leeds was ranked 10th in the UK for research power in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework,  the best result in the Yorkshire and the Humber region. The university was named the 2017 Sunday Times University of the Year, having been runner-up in 2016.

The university has 31,790 students, the seventh largest university in the UK (out of 166). From 2006 to present, the university has consistently been ranked within the top 5 (alongside Manchester University, Manchester Metropolitan University, Nottingham University and Edinburgh University) in the United Kingdom for the number of applications received. Leeds had a consolidated income of £634.9 million in 2015/16, of which £128.3 million was from research grants and contracts. The university has financial endowments of £67.7 million (2015–16), ranking outside the top ten British universities by financial endowment.

Notable alumni include former Secretary of State Jack Straw, former co-chairman of the Conservative Party Sayeeda Warsi, Piers Sellers (NASA astronaut) and six Nobel laureates.