Subjects A-B

Subjects C-E

Subjects F-G

Subjects H-M

Subjects N-T

Subjects U-Z

Subjects A-C

Subjects D-G

Subjects H-P

Subjects Q-Z

90 years of excellence

The University of Reading celebrated the 90th anniversary of its Royal Charter in 2016. The focus of the celebrations took place on Thursday 17 March 2016, which marked 90 years since the Royal Charter was granted on the same date in 1926.

Over the decades we have become innovators and pioneers, pushing academic boundaries and leading social change.

Receiving our Charter – 1926

Founded in the 19th century as an extension College of the University of Oxford, Reading was the only University to be awarded a charter between the two world wars.

Upon the granting of the Charter, Dr W. M. Childs became the University’s first Vice-Chancellor and students carried him through the grounds in celebration.

Watch our video

Timeline

See a historic timeline of the University from our origins to the present day.

Our campuses

These include Whiteknights, Greenlands, London Road, and our new campus in Malaysia.

The historic University campuses are a testimony to its heritage. The London Road site in central Reading was donated in 1904 by the Palmer family of Reading biscuit manufacturers Huntley & Palmer. London Road is now the new home of the Institute of Education.

Our main campus, Whiteknights, was purchased in 1947 and is the former home of the Marquis of Blandford. It is a beautiful 130 hectare country estate with conservation meadows, a lake and a collection of rare trees. The campus features several listed buildings. One of the most attractive is Foxhill House, built in 1869 by architect Alfred Waterhouse: designer of the Natural History Museum.

Greenlands, the beautiful Thameside campus and former country residence of W. H. Smith, became the University’s latest campus following the merger with Henley Management College in 2008. The merger created Henley Business School, one of the largest full-service business schools in Europe. It is now consistently ranked among the world’s top 50 business schools.

After successfully educating international students for more than a century, the University of Reading is now establishing its first overseas campus in Malaysia. This signifies an important milestone in our ongoing expansion and is a natural extension of the particularly close ties we have enjoyed with Malaysia over the years.

Find out more about the history of our award winning campuses

Early to mid 20th century black and white photograph of four female rowers and their cox, carrying their oars.

Photographic history

Explore the University's history through a series of photographs

The University today

The University of Reading is now recognised as one of the top 200 Universities in the world, and is home to 17,000 students from over 150 countries.

We offer a wide range of programmes from the pure and applied sciences to languages, humanities, social sciences, business and arts. New research and the latest thinking continually feed into our teaching, with our academic staff working at the forefront of their fields of expertise, and we remain one of the most popular higher education choices in the UK.

Research

In 1972, Reading was the first British university to integrate an industrial Research and Development Group on its campus.

Reading is now one of the foremost research-led universities in the UK.

The University features more than 50 research centres, many of which are recognised as international centres of excellence in areas including agriculture, biological and physical sciences, European histories and cultures, and meteorology.

Our five research themes

Our research is structured around five themes:

Our five research themes are completely open-ended and overlapping. They identify core areas of research strength at Reading.

The distinct approach we use crosses traditional boundaries, and enables us to grow innovation and deliver both impactful and curiosity-driven research. It enables our academics to address those global challenges facing society, business and the environment that require knowledge and skills from across the Arts, Humanities, Social, Physical and Natural Sciences to be drawn together.

Our five research themes

awards

The University is now a four-time winner of the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher Education, winning in 1998, 2006, 2009 and 2012.

In 1989 the University of Reading became the first university to win the Queen’s Award for Export Achievement.