University of Leicester

The University of Leicester is a public research university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park. The university has established itself as a leading research-led university and has been named University of the Year of 2008 by the Times Higher Education.The University of Leicester is also the only university ever to have won a Times Higher Education award in seven consecutive years. In 2016, the university ranked 24th in the The Complete University Guide and 32nd in the The Guardian. Recent REF 2014, the University of Leicester ranked 49th among 126 universities.The 2012 QS World University Rankings also placed Leicester eighth in the UK for research citations. The university is most famous for the invention of genetic fingerprinting and for the discovery of the remains of King Richard III. The university was founded as Leicestershire and Rutland University College in 1921. The site for the university was donated by a local textile manufacturer, Thomas Fielding Johnson, in order to create a living memorial for those who lost their lives in First World War. This is reflected in the University’s motto Ut Vitam Habeant –”so that they may have life”. Students were first admitted to the college in 1921. In 1927, after it became University College, Leicester, students sat the examinations for external degrees of the University of London. In 1957 the college was granted its Royal Charter, and has since then had the status of a university with the right to award its own degrees. Leicester University won the first ever series of University Challenge, in 1963.