St Mary’s University, Twickenham is a public university in Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, in South West London committed to the mission of the Catholic Church in higher education. Originally founded in 1850, and initially a college for training Catholic schoolmasters, it became a constituent college of the University of London Institute of Education in 1949. This affiliation ended in 1976 and its degree courses were then validated by the University of Surrey. Formerly called St Mary’s University College, it was granted full university title by the Privy Council on 23 January 2014. Since July 2019, the university has hosted the Mater Ecclesiae College, whose Ecclesiastical faculties enshrined since 2013 in the “Bellarmine Institute” was brought in after the closure of Heythrop College, University of London earlier in 2019.
St Mary’s University, Twickenham is known for its highly rated (Ofsted outstanding)[31] teacher training programmes and range of sport and health degrees. The university is made up one Academic Faculty and three Institutes:
- Faculty of Sport, Allied Health and Performance Sciences
- Institute of Business, Law and Society
- Institute of Education
- Institute of Theology and Liberal Arts
Staff from across the university are engaged in both national and international research, which was described as “world-leading in terms of originality, significance and rigour” in the most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF) St Mary’s is home to over 10 research centres, including the Benedict XVI Centre for Religion and Society which officially opened on the 5 May 2016.
The university also runs a range of short courses and CPD sessions on weekends and during the evenings, including sport, health, nutrition and exercise. These are run by their Centre for Short Courses & CPD.