University of Birmingham Edgbaston Campus (Birmingham)

 university, campus

The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It is a member of the prestigious Russell Group of research universities and a founding member of Universitas 21. It received its charter in 1900 as a successor to Mason Science College and the 1825 Birmingham Medical School. Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain an official royal charter.

The student population includes around 16,500 undergraduate and 8,000 postgraduate students, making it the largest university in the West Midlands region, and the 11th largest in the UK. As of 2006-07 it is the fourth most popular English university by number of applications. The annual income of the institution for 2007-08 was £411.6 million, with an expenditure of £393.2 million. Birmingham has the ninth largest financial endowment of any British university at approximately £85 million in 2009.

Described as "Large, prestigious and rather grand" by The Guardian newspaper, the university is ranked nationally between 10th (The Times HES) and 23rd (The Independent]), and internationally between 59th (QS; The Times HES) and 99th (ARWU) in the latest respective rankings. The Sunday Times' composite ranking placed the university 19th from 1998 to 2007. Birmingham was ranked 12th in the UK in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, the best result in the West Midlands region, with 16 per cent of the university's research regarded as 'world-leading' and a further 41 per cent as 'internationally excellent', and particular strengths in the fields of music, physics, biosciences, computer science, mechanical engineering, political science, international relations and law. Birmingham's sport activities have been consistently ranked within the top three in British Universities competitions for the past 15 years. In 2010 Birmingham was ranked as the 10th most targeted British university by graduate employers.

The University is home to the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, housing works by Van Gogh, Picasso and Monet, the Lapworth Museum of Geology, and the Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower, which is a prominent landmark visible from many parts of the city, and the tallest free-standing clock tower in the world. Alumni include former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and 8 Nobel laureates.