Types of Universities

You may hear a lot of words used to describe universities that you have never heard of before like red brick or Russell Group which can make things feel overwhelming, so we have created this guide!

Universities are generally categorised by their age:

Ancient Universities- Pre 1800s

Ancient universities are the oldest group of unis, all being founded before the 1800s.

Ancient universities: Aberdeen, Cambridge, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Oxford and St. Andrews.

Red brick Universities- 1800-1960

These are the next set of universities and were all established as universities between 1800- 1960. Many were teaching institutions before this, but they gained their university status during this time. Before being renamed, these schools specialised in skills, training and knowledge that were in high demand at the time like engineering and medicine. The term red brick comes from the style of brickwork that was popular at the time.

The list of red brick universities is sometimes disagreed on, but all those who have been included at any point are listed below.

Red Brick Universities: Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Hull, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Reading and Sheffield.

Plate glass Universities- 1960-1992

The second most recent set of universities, the plate glass universities were created to bring higher education to areas where there weren't any universities already. The name plate glass again reflects the architecture popular at the time which included a lot of big windows.

Plate glass universities: Aston, Bath, Bradford, Brunell, Buckingham, City, Dundee, East Anglia, Essex, Heriot-watt, Keele, Kent, Lancaster, Loughborough, Newcastle, Salford, Stirling, Strathclyde, Surrey, Sussex, Ulster, Warwick, York.

Post-92 Universities- 1992-Present

The rest of the universities are post-92 universities, those founded or gaining university status after 1992. 1992 is the year the Further & Higher Education Act was enacted, so this is

the starting point for the final set of universities. There are 78 universities in this group so we won’t list all of these ones.

There are some universities that don’t fit into the above categories either because they only teach online or only teach postgraduate courses. In addition to the types of universities mentioned above which are sorted by the date they were established, there are other groups or terms which refer to different subsections of universities.

Oxbridge

Oxbridge is a play on words combining Oxford and Cambridge into one term. This is a term commonly used in statistics.

University of London

The University of London is a group of 17 institutions that have joined together. If a student enrols at one of the universities in this group, they automatically become a student under the University of London as well. Being a University of London student comes with additional benefits on top of those you get from your specific university. Benefits include access to events, additional clubs and societies, Senate House (including its library), as well as the option to stay in one of their intercollegiate accommodations. These are different to housing options hosted by your uni as you will find students from different universities here, not just your own.

Russell Group Universities

“The Russell Group represents 24 leading UK universities which are committed to maintaining the very best research.”

You don’t get any additional benefits by joining a Russell Group like you do when joining a, institution under the University of London umbrella, but it is one of the most recognised groups. Some employers do place a higher value on a degree from a Russell Group institution than others, however this doesn’t mean it isn’t worth going to any other university. Use our Choosing a University Guide to find out what other factors you need to consider before making your choice.

Russell Group: Birmingham, Belfast, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Durham, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Imperial, Kings, Leeds, Liverpool, London School of Economics and Political Science, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Oxford, Queen Mary, Sheffield, Southampton, University College London, Warwick and York.

Campus vs City

Campus universities generally have all of their facilities in one place so students spend the majority of their time there. This includes accommodation, class spaces, eateries, social spaces and libraries.

City universities tend to have a large cluster of buildings but others may be spread around the city that they are located in. This means that students may have to travel into uni from their accommodation or travel from one lesson to another.

For example, when I was a student, I had a 9am lecture in the building next to my accommodation, but then had my next lesson at 1pm in a building 30 minutes away where I had to access the equipment we would be using for the module