The University of Westminster is a public research university based in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1838 as the Royal Polytechnic Institution, it was the first polytechnic to open in London.[3] The Polytechnic formally received a Royal charter in August 1839, and became the University of Westminster in 1992.
Westminster has its main campus in Regent Street in central London, with additional campuses in Fitzrovia, Marylebone and Harrow. It also operates the Westminster International University in Tashkent in Uzbekistan. The university is organised into three colleges and 12 schools, within which there are around 65 departments and centres, including the Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI) and the Centre for the Study of Democracy. It also has its Policy Studies Institute, Business School and Law School. Westminster had an income of £205.1 million for 2017–2018, of which £22 million was from funding grants, research grants and contracts. The university is a member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the Association of MBAs, EFMD, EQUIS, and the European University Association.
Westminster’s alumni include a Nobel laureate in Medicine, the inventor of cordite, heads of state, politicians and mayors, Olympians, scientists, BAFTA– and Oscar-winning filmmakers, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, Grammy Award-winning musicians, journalists, and poets.
Westminster offers Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctoral degrees as well as certificates and diplomas at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. More than two thirds of Westminster’s programmes are recognised by the appropriate professional bodies such as the BCS, BPS, CIOB, CABE, ICE, RICS, HPC etc. in recognition of the high standards of relevance to the professions.
The university has numerous centres of research excellence and was ranked sixth in the UK and 40th globally for Media and Communications by QS World University Rankings 2018.[30] The university was also ranked 15th for Art and Design in the UK, and 18th in the UK for Architecture. The Times Higher Education Young University Rankings 2019, which lists the world’s best under 50-year-old universities out of 351 universities, ranked Westminster 151–200 in the world.
The university achieved world leading and internationally excellent status for most of their work, ranking second for Communications, Cultural and Media Studies research,[34][35] 6th for Art and Design research, in addition to the university performing strongly in Architecture and the Built Environment, and Geography and Environmental studies.[38] In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, almost 80 per cent of Westminster’s submitted research across 20 subject areas was judged to be of international quality. In 2013, Westminster was ranked joint second in the UK by the Architects’ Journal in their “AJ Top 100” special issue.