Logo of the Victoria University of Manchester, before it merged with UMIST.

The university began in 1851 as Owens College, named after John Owens), a textile merchant, who left a bequest of £96,942 for the purpose. It moved to its current location in 1873, in a building was designed by Alfred Waterhouse. It was granted its Royal Charter in 1880, becoming the first institution of the federal Victoria University. In 1884, University College Liverpool joined the University, followed in 1887 by the Yorkshire College in Leeds.

In 1903, the college in Liverpool left the Victoria University to become the independent University of Liverpool and Leeds followed in 1904 to become the University of Leeds. The remaining Manchester site was renamed Victoria University of Manchester.

It had over 18,000 full-time students (including 2500 international students from more than 120 countries) by the time it merged with UMIST. It was one of the top universities in the country, regularly getting top ratings for research.http://www.manchester.ac.uk/research/about/rae/

On March 5 2003 it was announced that the University was to merge with UMIST on October 1 2004, to form the largest conventional university in the UK, the The University of Manchester, both the Victoria University of Manchester and UMIST then ceasing to exist.

Many famous people worked and studied at the Victoria University of Manchester, see People associated with the University of Manchester.

Motto and arms

The motto of the university was "Arduus Ad Solem", meaning "striving towards the sun". It is a metaphor for aspiring to enlightenment. It is a quote from Virgil's Aeneid, and the archives do not record the reasons for its choice. The original quote refers to a serpent and the sun, both of which featured in the university coat of arms.

See also

• Victoria University
• The University of Manchester

External links

• The University of Manchester
• old website of The Victoria University of Manchester

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