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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brickbeck,__University_of_London
Birkbeck, University of London (formerly Birkbeck College, informally BBK), is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom, which specialises in evening higher education, and a constituent college of the federal University of London.
It offers many Master's and Bachelor's degree programmes that can be studied either part-time or full-time, though nearly all teaching is in the evening. It also admits full-time (as well as part-time) students for PhDs. Its staff members have excellent research reputations in subjects such as English, Economics, Statistics, History, History of Art, Philosophy, Psychology, Spanish and Science. It also offers many continuing education courses leading to certificates and diplomas, foundation degrees as well as other short courses.
Birkbeck counts four Nobel prize winners and a British Prime Minister among its former students and faculty.
In 1823, George Birkbeck, a physician and graduate of the University of Edinburgh Medical School and an early pioneer of adult education, founded the then "London Mechanics' Institute" at a meeting at the Crown and Anchor Tavern on the Strand. Over two thousand people attended.[4] However the idea was not universally popular and some accused Birkbeck of "scattering the seeds of evil."
Two years later, the institute moved to the Southampton Buildings on Chancery Lane. In 1830, the first female students were admitted. In 1858, changes to the University of London's structure resulting in an opening up of access to the examinations for its degree. The Institute became the main provider of part-time university education.
The Institute changed its name to the "Birkbeck Literary and Scientific Institution" in 1866 and in 1885 it moved to the Breams Building, on Fetter Lane, where it would remain for the next sixty-seven years.
Birkbeck College
The early twentieth century saw further developments, with Birkbeck Students' Union being established in 1904, and in 1907 the institute's name changed once more, to "Birkbeck College". In 1913, a review of the University of London (which had been restructured in 1900) successfully recommended that Birkbeck become a constituent college, although the outbreak of the First World War delayed this until 1920. The Royal Charter for the college was granted in 1926.[4] The college's first female professor, Dame Helen Gwynne-Vaughan began teaching botany in 1921. Among the other distinguished faculty in the of the inter-war years were Nikolaus Pevsner, J. D. Bernal and Cyril Joad.
During the Second World War, Birkbeck was the only central University of London college not to relocate out of the capital. In 1941, the library suffered a direct hit during The Blitz but teaching continued. During the war the College organised lunch time extra-mural lectures for the public given by, among others, Joad, Pevsner and Harold Nicolson.
In 1952, the college moved to its present location in Malet Street.
Current status
In 2002, the college was renamed, becoming simply Birkbeck, University of London; the term Birkbeck College is still in use, and survives on the façade of the main building itself. The following year, a major redevelopment of the Malet Street building was opened.
It was announced in 2006 that Birkbeck had been granted £5 million by the Higher Education Funding Council for England to expand its provision into east London, working with the University of East London. The partnership was formally launched on November 21, 2006 and is called Birkbeck Stratford.
It is the largest College of the University of London not to award its own degrees, though it has Degree Awarding Powers, Birkbeck has chosen to hold these in reserve whilst it can award University of London degrees.
The School of Continuing Education
The School of Continuing Education (aka the Faculty of Lifelong Learning), which specialised in extra-mural studies did not become an integral part of Birkbeck until 1988 but has a long separate history. It has now been integrated into the main College.
In 1876, the London Society for the Extension of University Education was founded, boosting the aims of encouraging working people to undertake higher education. In 1988, the Department of Extra-Mural Studies of the University of London was incorporated into Birkbeck, becoming at first the Centre for Extra-Mural Studies. In 1903, it became the Department of Extra-Mural Studies of the University of London and it was integrated into Birkbeck in 1988. In 2009, the Faculty of Lifelong Learning was incorporated into the main College structure.