Plymouth Marjon University, commonly referred to as Marjon, is the trading name of the University of St Mark and St John, a university based primarily on a single campus on the northern edge of Plymouth, Devon, United Kingdom. Formerly named University College Plymouth St Mark & St John, the institution was awarded full university status in 2013.
The Vice-Chancellor of the university is Rob Warner who joined in March 2017. The campus facilities are often host to a variety of charity, social and youth activities.
The university’s history dates back to the foundation by the National Society (now National Society for Promoting Religious Education) of the constituent London colleges of St John’s College in Battersea, London (1840) and St Mark’s College in Chelsea, London (1841).[3] The former chapel of St Mark’s College, designed by Edward Blore is on the Fulham Road, Chelsea, and is now a private residence.
St Mark’s College was founded upon the beliefs of The Reverend Derwent Coleridge, son of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, its first principal: that its primary purpose was to widen the educational horizons of its students. During the First World War, St Mark’s College was requisitioned by the War Office to create the 2nd London General Hospital, a facility for the Royal Army Medical Corps to treat military casualties.
St John’s College was established by Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth, together with Edward Carleton Tufnell, as a teacher training institution.
These colleges merged in 1923, establishing a single institution in Chelsea as the College of St Mark & St John. In 1973 came the move to Plymouth due to the college outgrowing the Chelsea campus.
In 1991 the college became affiliated to the University of Exeter, which accredited it to run undergraduate and postgraduate programmes leading to degree awards of the University of Exeter, and in 2007, gained University College status, as the University College Plymouth St Mark & St John. It was awarded full university status as Plymouth Marjon University in 2013.