Outside body

The University of Leeds has its origins in the nineteenth century with the founding, first, of the Leeds School of Medicine in 1831 and then the Yorkshire College of Science in 1874. After the University’s Charter as an independent institution was granted by Edward VII in 1904, the number of students started to increase rapidly, and changes to state education meant that students were arriving with a better educational foundation. The ten years to the outbreak of war in 1914 were ones of growth and consolidation. Applied science and technology was still the largest faculty but the arts and humanities were soon strengthened. Most importantly, the new university started to develop a strong tradition of research.

At the time the University received its charter seven out of eight students came from Yorkshire. This remained the case until the end of the Second World War. Returning soldiers chose to make fresh starts studying in new towns while, for the first time, government grants gave young men and women the chance to study away from home. Now, the University of Leeds not only welcomes students from the city, but from all over the United Kingdom, the European Union and beyond - its reputation world wide makes it a truly multi-cultural and international institution.

It is one of the UK’s most popular universities, and one of the top ten institutions for research power, market share of research funding and numbers of applicants.

The University has over 7000 staff and is the city’s third largest employer.  It has over 26 000 full-time students and over 4 000 part-time students, and provides the widest range of courses in England – from traditional subjects such as Medicine, History, Mathematics and Law to the more unusual, including Aerospace Engineering, Colour Science, Russian Studies and Thai.

The role of the University Court as one of the governing bodies of the University is enshrined in the Charter and Statutes (the other governing bodies being the Council and the Senate).   The Court stands beyond and above the University’s main decision-making machinery, but plays an important and influential role on behalf of the institution’s stakeholders in seeing that the University is well managed, properly governed and responsive to public and local interests and concerns. In particular, the Court serves as a mechanism for - and a symbol of - the University’s accountability to the wider community and to diverse stakeholders. The Court has 88 members, the majority of whom are external or ‘lay’ members.