The University of Liverpool is one of the major civic universities in the UK. It has an international reputation for the quality of its research and teaching.

Founded as University College, Liverpool, in 1881 (although its Medical School was founded almost 50 years earlier) the University of Liverpool is one of the leading research-led universities in the UK. It is a member of the Russell Group of Universities.

The University has been associated with eight Nobel Laureates, and can point to a notable list of achievements, particularly in the fields of medicine, health and social science. It was the first university to open departments of Architecture, Biochemistry and Civic Design, and the first in Britain to appoint Chairs in Dentistry, Oceanography, Orthopaedic Surgery, Social Anthropology and Spanish. Today it is one of the leaders in the UK in the dynamic and emerging world of e-learning.

It is research-intensive. More than 800 academic staff were returned in the most recent Research Assessment Exercise and almost all departments received grades of 4, 5 or 5*. It also has an outstanding reputation for the quality of its teaching, and was awarded "excellent" scores by the Quality Assurance Agency in its last 10 subject reviews.

It offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses across a comprehensive range of disciplines, and is one of only two universities in the UK offering Medicine, Dentistry, Veterinary Science and Tropical Medicine.

There are currently around 11,200 undergraduate students following 180 first degree programmes, and 2,300 postgraduate students of whom about 1,000 are registered for research degrees leading to MPhil, PhD or MD, and about 1,300 are registered for taught postgraduate programmes at Certificate, Diploma or Masters level.

In addition there are more than 11,000 students on professional development programmes and almost 4,000 on continuing education programmes.

New developments in 2002 include a £26 million Biosciences Centre with a biotechnology incubation unit for start-up businesses, and a £10 million Management School which will focus strongly on e-business, e-learning and entrepreneurship. These are both examples of how the University has been refocusing some of its activity in order to contribute to regional and national strategies and also to address the national skills agenda.

website: http://www.liv.ac.uk/pro/