Established in 1823 as the London Mechanics' Institute by its founder Joseph Clinton Robertson and its supporters Sir George Birkbeck, Jeremy Bentham, J. C. Hobhouse and Henry Brougham, Birkbeck is one of the few universities to specialise in evening higher education in the United Kingdom.
Birkbeck's main building is based in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden in Central London. Birkbeck offers over 200 undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Birkbeck's academic activities are organised into five constituent faculties which are subdivided into nineteen departments. The university is a member of academic organisations such as the Association of Commonwealth Universities and the European University Association. The university is also a member of the Screen Studies Group, London. The university's Centre for Brain Function and Development was awarded The Queen's Anniversary Prize for its brain research in 2005.
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Former names
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Birkbeck College |
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| Type | Public research university |
| Established | 1823 |
| Affiliation | ACU European University Association Royal Academy of Dramatic Art Universities UK |
| Endowment | £10.2 million (2022) |
| Chancellor | The Princess Royal (University of London) |
| President | Baroness Bakewell |
| Students | 10,200 (2022/23) |
| Location | London, England, United Kingdom |
| Colors | Black and Burgundy |
| Website | bbk.ac |
In 1823, Sir George Birkbeck, a physician and graduate of the University of Edinburgh and an early pioneer of adult education, founded the then "London Mechanics' Institute" at a meeting at the Crown and Anchor Tavern on the Strand. More than two thousand people attended. However the idea was not universally popular and some accused Birkbeck of "scattering the seeds of evil."
In 1825, two years later, the institute moved to the Southampton Buildings on Chancery Lane. In 1830, the first female students were admitted. In 1858, changes to the University of London's structure resulted in opening up access to the examinations for its degree. The Institute became the main provider of part-time university education.
In 1866, the Institute changed its name to the Birkbeck Literary and Scientific Institution.
We are a leading non-state higher education institute approved by the Ministry of Education and the University Grants Commission (UGC). Additionally, we are members of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and the International Association of Universities (IAU). Our Civil and Mechanical engineering degrees are recognized by IESL, Sri Lanka. SLIIT is the first Sri Lankan institute to be accredited by the Institution of Engineering & Technology, UK. We've been ranked 8th in Sri Lanka and emerged as the number 1 non-state higher education institution in Sri Lanka.
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