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Birkbeck, University of London, sometimes referred to by its former (and still legal) name Birkbeck College or by the abbreviation BBK, is a constituent college of the University of London
University of London

Based primarily in London, England, United Kingdom, the University of London is a federal mega university made up of 31 affiliates: 19 separate university institutions, and 12 research institutes....
. At the undergraduate level, it aims at working people who want to study for degrees in the evenings (adult education
Adult education

Adult education is the practice of teaching and educating adults. This often happens in the workplace, through 'extension' or 'continuing education' courses at secondary schools, at a college or university....
). At the postgraduate level, it offers many Master's degree
Master's degree

A master's degree provides a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of profession. Within the area studied, graduates possess advanced knowledge of a specialized body of theory and applied topics; high order skills in analysis, Critical thinking and/or professional application; and the ability to problem solving a...
 programmes that can be studied either part-time or full-time, though nearly all teaching is in the evening.






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Birkbeck, University of London, sometimes referred to by its former (and still legal) name Birkbeck College or by the abbreviation BBK, is a constituent college of the University of London
University of London

Based primarily in London, England, United Kingdom, the University of London is a federal mega university made up of 31 affiliates: 19 separate university institutions, and 12 research institutes....
. At the undergraduate level, it aims at working people who want to study for degrees in the evenings (adult education
Adult education

Adult education is the practice of teaching and educating adults. This often happens in the workplace, through 'extension' or 'continuing education' courses at secondary schools, at a college or university....
). At the postgraduate level, it offers many Master's degree
Master's degree

A master's degree provides a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of profession. Within the area studied, graduates possess advanced knowledge of a specialized body of theory and applied topics; high order skills in analysis, Critical thinking and/or professional application; and the ability to problem solving a...
 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 diverse research reputations. It also offers many continuing education
Continuing education

Continuing education is an all encompassing term within a broad spectrum of post-secondary learning activities and programs. The term is used mainly in the United States....
 courses leading to extramural
Extramural

Extramural means to study outside, but under the aegis of, a university or other institution. Extramural studies are taken by the student away from the physical campus, and are often used for those unable to attend classes....
 certificates and diplomas, as well as other short courses.

Location


Originally known as Birkbeck Literary and Scientific Institution, the main building is between Malet Street and Woburn Square
Woburn Square

Woburn Square is the smallest of the Bloomsbury Squares and owned by the University of London. Designed by Thomas Cubitt and built between 1829 and 1847, it is named after Woburn Abbey, the main country seat of the Dukes of Bedford, who developed much of Bloomsbury....
 in Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury

Bloomsbury may refer to:* Bloomsbury, an area in central London.* the Bloomsbury Group, an English literary group active around from around 1905 to the start of World War II....
, with a number of other buildings on nearby streets. Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf

Adeline Virginia Woolf was an England novelist and essayist, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literature literature figures of the twentieth century....
 fans will also be interested to know that Birkbeck's School of History of Art, Film and Visual Media is housed in Woolf's former Gordon Square
Gordon Square

Gordon Square is in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden, London, England . It was developed by Thomas Cubitt in the 1820s, as one of a pair with Tavistock Square, which is a block away and has the same dimensions....
 residence in Bloomsbury.

Many Birkbeck classes are taught at other locations across London. This is due to a combination of Birkbeck's widening participation
Widening participation

The goal of widening participation in higher education is a major component of government education policy in the United Kingdom; see role of the new Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills....
 strategy to make higher education accessible and also because nearly all classes on one day are taught at the same time, resulting in heavy competition for limited space.

In 2006 it was announced that Birkbeck will be expanding into East London
East London, England

East London is the name commonly given to the north eastern part of London, England on the north side of the Thames.The London boroughs that make up this informal area are London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, London Borough of Hackney, London Borough of Havering, London Borough of Newham, London Borough of Redbridge, London Borough of T...
, in conjunction with the University of East London
University of East London

The University of East London is a united Kingdom New Universities based on two campuses in East London, England. Founded in 1970 as North East London Polytechnic, UEL was formed from a merger of higher education colleges, including West Ham Technical Institute, in Stratford, London, and South East Essex Technical College in Barking....
. Initially space will be rented as well as utilising the University of East London Stratford Campus
University of East London Stratford Campus

The University of East London Stratford Campus is a campus of the University of East London situated in the Stratford, London area of east London....
, but the long-term aim is to construct a dedicated facility in Stratford
Stratford, London

Stratford, historically Stratford Langthorne, is a place in the London Borough of Newham in East London, England. It will be the primary location of the 2012 Summer Olympics....
. The project will be known as Birkbeck Stratford
Birkbeck Stratford

Birkbeck Stratford is the name for a project to expand the provision of part-time Higher Education in East London, England, to be made by Birkbeck, University of London in conjunction with the University of East London....
.

History


In 1823, George Birkbeck
George Birkbeck

George Birkbeck was a British physician, academic, philanthropist, an early pioneer in adult education and founder of Birkbeck, University of London....
, an early pioneer of adult education, founded the then "London Mechanics Institute" at a meeting at the Crown and Anchor Tavern on the Strand
Strand, London

The Strand is a street in the City of Westminster, London, England. It currently starts at Trafalgar Square and runs east to join Fleet Street at Temple Bar London, which marks the boundary of the City of London at this point, though its #History has been longer than this....
. Over two thousand people attended. However the idea was not universally popular and some accused Birkbeck of "scattering the seeds of evil."

Two years later the institute would move to the Southampton Buildings on Chancery Lane
Chancery Lane

Chancery Lane is the street which has been the western boundary of the City of London since 1994 having previously been divided between Westminster and Camden....
. In 1830, the first female students were admitted. In 1858 changes to the University of London
University of London

Based primarily in London, England, United Kingdom, the University of London is a federal mega university made up of 31 affiliates: 19 separate university institutions, and 12 research institutes....
'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
Fetter Lane

Fetter Lane is a street in the ward of Farringdon Without in London England. It runs from Fleet Street in the south to Holborn in the north.The earliest mention of the street is "faitereslane" in 1312....
, where it would remain for the next sixty-seven years.

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
World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
 delayed this until 1920. The Royal Charter
Royal Charter

A royal charter is a charter granted by a Monarch to create institutions or other forms of incorporated bodies . In the United Kingdom legal tradition a royal charter is in the form of letters patent....
 for the college was granted in 1926. The college's first female professor, Dame Helen Gwynne-Vaughan
Helen Gwynne-Vaughan

Major-General Dame Helen Charlotte Isabella Gwynne-Vaughan, GBE, was a prominent United Kingdom botanist and mycologist. She was educated at King's College London....
 began teaching botany
Botany

Botany, plant science, phytology, or plant biology is a branch of biology and is the Scientific method of plant life and development....
 in 1921.

During the Second World War
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
, Birkbeck was the only central University of London college to not relocate out of the capital. In 1941 the library suffered a direct hit during The Blitz
The Blitz

The Blitz was the sustained bombing of United Kingdom by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, in World War II. While the "Blitz" hit many towns and cities across the country, it began with the bombing of London for 57 consecutive nights ....
 but teaching continued. In 1952, the College moved to its present location in Malet Street.

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 later years it would go by the name of the Faculty of Continuing Education, then the School of Continuing Education. It is now called the Faculty of Lifelong Learning.

In 2002, it dropped the word College to become simply Birkbeck, University of London. However, the term Birkbeck College is still often colloquially used, 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
Higher Education Funding Council for England

The Higher Education Funding Council for England is a non-departmental public body of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills in the United Kingdom, which has been responsible for the distribution of funding to Universities and Higher Education in England since 1992....
 to expand its provision into East London
East London, England

East London is the name commonly given to the north eastern part of London, England on the north side of the Thames.The London boroughs that make up this informal area are London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, London Borough of Hackney, London Borough of Havering, London Borough of Newham, London Borough of Redbridge, London Borough of T...
, working with the University of East London
University of East London

The University of East London is a united Kingdom New Universities based on two campuses in East London, England. Founded in 1970 as North East London Polytechnic, UEL was formed from a merger of higher education colleges, including West Ham Technical Institute, in Stratford, London, and South East Essex Technical College in Barking....
. The partnership was formally launched on November 21 2006 and is called Birkbeck Stratford.

The School of Continuing Education


The current School of Continuing Education, which specialises in extra-mural studies did not become an integral part of Birkbeck until 1988 but has a long separate history.

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 1903 it became the Department of Extra-Mural Studies of the University of London
University of London

Based primarily in London, England, United Kingdom, the University of London is a federal mega university made up of 31 affiliates: 19 separate university institutions, and 12 research institutes....
 and it was integrated into Birkbeck in 1988. Initially known as the Centre for Extra-Mural Studies, it has also been called the Faculty of Continuing Education before adopting its current name in 2005.

Research and Teaching


Birkbeckcollege
While part-time undergraduate teaching remains the focus and mandate of Birkbeck, the college has recently begun to focus on progressive research in the arts and humanities.

The Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities was established in 2004, with the renowned but controversial Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek appointed as International Director. According to its website, the Institute aims to, among other things, "engage with important public issues of our time through a series of open debates, lectures, seminars and conferences" and "foster and promote a climate of interdisciplinary research and collaboration among academics and researchers". The launch of the Institute wasn't without controversy, provoking an article in The Observer
The Observer

The Observer is a United Kingdom newspaper published on Sundays. In about the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, it takes a Liberalism/social democratic line on most issues....
 newspaper titled "What have intellectuals ever done for the world?" which criticised the ostensible irrelevance and elitism of contemporary public intellectuals.

Meanwhile, the London Consortium
London Consortium

The London Consortium is a graduate school in the UK offering multidisciplinary Masters and Doctoral programs in the humanities and cultural studies at the University of London....
 graduate school -- a collaboration between Birkbeck, the Tate Galleries
Tate Gallery

Tate is the United Kingdom's national museum of British and Modern Art, and is a network of four art galleries in England: Tate Britain , Tate Liverpool , Tate St Ives and Tate Modern , with a complementary website, Tate Online ....
, the Institute of Contemporary Arts
Institute of Contemporary Arts

The Institute of Contemporary Arts is an modernism and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. It is located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch....
, the Architectural Association, and, until 1999, the British Film Institute
British Film Institute

The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:...
 -- has been running since the mid-1990s, offering masters and doctoral degrees in the interdisciplinary humanities and cultural studies, resourced and jointly taught by all the participating institutions.(Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities). Its permanent and adjunct faculty include figures such as Philip Dodd, Colin MacCabe
Colin MacCabe

Colin MacCabe is a British writer and film producer. He is distinguished professor of English and film at the University of Pittsburgh and professor of English and humanities at Birkbeck, University of London, and a visiting professor at the University of Exeter....
, Laura Mulvey
Laura Mulvey

Laura Mulvey was educated at St Hilda's College, Oxford, Oxford. She is currently professor of film studies and media studies at Birkbeck, University of London....
, Steven Connor
Steven Connor

Steven Connor is the Academic Director of the London Consortium and Professor of Modern Literature and Theory at Birkbeck, University of London....
, Marina Warner
Marina Warner

Marina Sarah Warner, Order of the British Empire, British Academy is a British novelist, short story writer, historian and mythography. She is known for her many non-fiction books relating in various ways to feminism and mythology....
, Juliet Mitchell
Juliet Mitchell

Juliet Mitchell is a British Psychoanalysis and Social Feminism, who is currently a fellow and serves as Professor of Psychoanalysis and Gender Studies at Jesus College, Cambridge, Cambridge University....
, Stuart Hall
Stuart Hall (cultural theorist)

Stuart Hall is a culture theory and sociologist who has lived and worked in the United Kingdom since 1951. Hall, along with Richard Hoggart and Raymond Williams, was an early and influential contributor to the school of thought that is now known as Cultural_Studies#Approaches or The Birmingham School of Cultural Studies....
, Roger Scruton
Roger Scruton

Roger Vernon Scruton is an England conservative philosopher....
, Salman Rushdie
Salman Rushdie

Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie is a British Indian novelist and essayist. He first achieved fame with his second novel, Midnight's Children , which won the Booker Prize in 1981....
, as well as Zizek. Its current chair is Anthony Julius
Anthony Julius

Anthony Julius is a prominent British lawyer and academic, best known for his actions on behalf of Diana, Princess of Wales and Deborah Lipstadt....
.

Science research at Birkbeck has a notable tradition. Physicist David Bohm
David Bohm

David Joseph Bohm was an United States-born Quantum mechanics physicist who made significant contributions in the fields of theoretical physics, philosophy and neuropsychology, and to the Manhattan Project....
 who made notable contributions to the theory of Quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics

Quantum mechanics is a set of principles underlying the most fundamental known description of all physical systems at the microscopic scale . Notable amongst these principles are both a dual wave-like and particle-like behavior of matter and radiation, and prediction of probabilities in situations where classical physics predicts certaintie...
 was professor of Theoretical Physics
Theoretical physics

Theoretical physics employs mathematical models and abstractions of physics in an attempt to explain experimental data taken of the natural world....
 from 1961-87 and Nobel Laureates Aaron Klug
Aaron Klug

Sir Aaron Klug, Order of Merit, President of the Royal Society is a Lithuanian-born United Kingdom chemist and biophysicist, and winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his development of electron crystallography and his structural elucidation of biologically important nucleic acid-protein complexes....
 and Derek Barton both worked in the faculty of crystallography
Crystallography

Crystallography is the experimental science of determining the arrangement of atoms in solids. In older usage, it is the scientific study of crystals....
. Birkbeck is part of the Institute of Structural Molecular Biology, which includes the Bloomsbury Centre for Structural biology
Structural biology

Structural biology is a branch of molecular biology, biochemistry, and biophysics concerned with the molecular structure of biological macromolecules, especially proteins and nucleic acids, how they acquire the structures they have, and how alterations in their structures affect their function....
, established in 1998. This is a collaborative venture between Birkbeck College and University College London
University College London

University College London is a university institution and constituent college of the University of London based primarily in London, England, United Kingdom....
 and is a leading academic centre for translating gene sequences and determining protein structure
Protein structure

Proteins are an important class of biological macromolecules present in all biological organisms, made up of such chemical element as carbon,hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulphur....
 and function. It also includes the Bloomsbury Centre for Bioinformatics, a collaborative venture also between Birkbeck College and University College London for research into Bioinformatics
Bioinformatics

Bioinformatics is the application of information technology to the field of molecular biology. The term bioinformatics was coined by Paulien Hogeweg in 1978 for the study of informatic processes in biotic systems....
, Genomics
Genomics

Genomics is the study of the genomes of organisms. The field includes intensive efforts to determine the entire DNA sequence of organisms and fine-scale genetic mapping efforts....
, Systems Biology
Systems biology

Systems biology is a biology-based inter-disciplinary study field that focuses on the systematic study of complex interactions in biological systems, thus using a new perspective to study them....
, GRID computing
Grid computing

Grid computing is the application of several computers to a single problem at the same time -- usually to a scientific or technical problem that requires a great number of computer processing cycles or access to large amounts of data....
 and Text mining
Text mining

Text mining, sometimes alternately referred to as text data mining, roughly equivalent to text analytics, refers generally to the process of deriving high-quality information from text....
.

Statistics & Ratings


College

Birkbeck is often not included in British Newspaper University league tables, since these are usually based on the statistics for full-time undergraduates (of which Birkbeck had none in 2005-2006), but Birkbeck was ranked 13th in The Guardian
The Guardian

Sorry, no overview for this topic
's 2001 Research Assessment Exercise
Research Assessment Exercise

The Research Assessment Exercise is an exercise undertaken approximately every 5 years on behalf of the four UK higher education funding councils to evaluate the quality of research undertaken by British higher education institutions....
 league table and 26th by the Times Higher Education Supplement's equivalent 2001 RAE league table. Birkbeck also appears in the Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Shanghai Jiao Tong University , located in Shanghai, is one of the oldest and most influential universities in People's Republic of China. The university is under the jurisdiction of both the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China and Shanghai Government....
's Top 500 World Universities ranking; in 2007 it was placed in the 403-510 rank (after the first 100, universities are ranked in blocks of about 100).

Departmental

The Guardian
The Guardian

Sorry, no overview for this topic
's 2001 RAE subject ranking league tables put Birkbeck in the top 10 for research in the following subjects: English (1st), History (1st), History of Art (2nd), Philosophy (6th), Iberian and Latin American Languages (1st), Earth Sciences (4th), Law (9th), Economics and Econometrics (5th), and Politics and International Studies (5th).

Birkbeck's School of English and Humanities was rated 5* in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise, as were the School of History, Classics and Archaeology, the School of Crystallography, and the section for Spanish and Latin American studies within the School of Languages, Linguistics and Culture -- ranking these departments with, and in some cases above, Oxford and Cambridge.

Organisation


The college is divided into four faculties, the Faculty of Arts, the Faculty of Social Sciences, the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Lifelong Learning (renamed from the Faculty of Continuing Education in autumn 2007), which are sub-divided into 16 schools. The current President
President

President is a title held by many leaders of organizations, company, trade unions, university, and country. Etymology, a "president" is one who Wiktionary:Preside, who sits in leadership ....
 of the college is the historian Eric Hobsbawm
Eric Hobsbawm

Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm Companion of Honour, FBA, is a United Kingdom historical materialism and author....
.

Student life


As Birkbeck primarily offers part-time courses, often in the evenings, student life is less centralised than in other universities. It does not offer its own halls of residence, for instance, though Birkbeck students do have access to the University of London's intercollegiate halls.

Birkbeck Students' Union offers a number of societies for students, as well as a football club that competes in the University of London league. It also provides student representation and support, a student magazine, a student shop and a bar. Birkbeck students also have access to the societies and clubs of the University of London Union
University of London Union

The University of London Union is the university-wide students' union for the University of London. It is the largest students' union in Europe, with over 120,000 students....
 (whose building ajoins Birkbeck's Bloomsbury site). Accordingly, London Student
London Student

London Student is the newspaper of the University of London Union. It began publishing in 1979. It is an editorially independent publication with ultimate control over content and editorial appointments vested in the elected full-time Editor....
 distributes at the Union.

The college arms include a lamp
Oil lamp

An oil lamp is a simple vessel used to produce light continuously for a period of time from a fuel source. The use of oil lamps extends from prehistory to the present day....
 and an owl
Owl

The Strigiformes are an order of bird of prey, comprising 200 species. Most are solitary, and Nocturnal animal, with some exceptions . Owls mostly hunt small mammals, insects, and other birds, though a few species specialize in hunting fish....
, symbolising the college's motto In nocte consilium (translated as "study by night"). Because of this, the student magazine is called Lamp and Owl. Since 2007 it was relaunched as The Lampanelle.

The original name of the institution was the London Mechanics' Institute. For this reason, the annual literary magazine published by the Birkbeck MA Creative Writing programme is called The Mechanics' Institute Review
The Mechanics' Institute Review

The Mechanics' Institute Review is an annual literary anthology published by Birkbeck, University of London, as part of its Master of Arts Creative Writing course....
.

The college has entered teams in University Challenge
University Challenge

University Challenge is a United Kingdom game show that has aired since 1962. The format is based on the United States show College Bowl, which ran on NBC radio from 1953 to 1957, and on NBC TV from 1959 to 1970....
 over the years, with varied results. In 1997 a team scored just 40 points - at that stage the lowest score since the series had been revived, though this has since been broken by New Hall, Cambridge
New Hall, Cambridge

Murray Edwards College is a women-only college in the University of Cambridge. It was founded as New Hall in 1954, at a time when Cambridge had the lowest proportion of women undergraduates of any university in the UK and when only two other colleges could admit women students....
, the University of Bradford
University of Bradford

The University of Bradford is a university in Bradford, West Yorkshire in the United Kingdom. Formed from a technical college in 1966, there are three campuses: the main campus, located on Richmond Road, the School of Health, on Trinity Road, and the School of Management, at Emm Lane....
 and the University Challenge: The Professionals team of Members of Parliament
Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative of the voters to a parliament. In many countries the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a unique title, such as senate, and thus also have unique titles for its members, such as senators....
. 1998 saw a reversal of fortunes when Birkbeck reached the final, losing to Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College, Oxford

Magdalen College redirects here, see also Magdalene College, CambridgeMagdalen College is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford of the University of Oxford in England....
. In 2003 Birkbeck again reached the final, facing another team of mature students from Cranfield University
Cranfield University

Cranfield University is a United Kingdom postgraduate education university based on two campuses, with a research-oriented focus. The main campus is at Cranfield, Bedfordshire; the other is at Shrivenham, Oxfordshire....
. On this occasion Birkbeck won.

Fellows of Birkbeck

  • Edward Davey
    Edward Davey

    Edward Jonathan "Ed" Davey a United Kingdom Member of Parliament. He is the Liberal Democrats representative for Kingston and Surbiton and was Chief of Staff to the party leader Sir Menzies Campbell....
     Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Kingston and Surbiton
  • Julia Goodfellow Chief Executive of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
  • Leonard Wolfson, Baron Wolfson
    Leonard Wolfson, Baron Wolfson

    Leonard Gordon Wolfson, Baron Wolfson is a United Kingdom businessman, the former Chairman of GUS , and son of GUS magnate Isaac Wolfson. He is a trustee of the Wolfson Foundation....


Notable Birkbeck people



  • Richard Melville Ballerand, SU president, governor, strategic policy adviser
  • Derek Barton crystallographer and Nobel Laureate for Chemistry, 1969
  • Antony Beevor
    Antony Beevor

    Antony James Beevor is a United Kingdom historian, educated at Winchester College and Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He studied under the famous historian of World War II, John Keegan....
     historian
  • Marian Bell
    Marian Bell

    Marian Bell is a United Kingdom economist, and was a member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee from June 2002 to June 2005.She was educated at Hertford College, Oxford and Birkbeck, University of London....
     member of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC)
  • J. D. Bernal
    J. D. Bernal

    John Desmond Bernal Fellow of the Royal Society was an Irish-born scientist known for pioneering X-ray crystallography....
     pioneer of X-ray crystallography
  • Annie Besant
    Annie Besant

    Annie Wood Besant was a prominent Theosophy, women's rights activist, writer and orator and supporter of Ireland and Indian self rule....
     prominent theosophist
  • George Birkbeck
    George Birkbeck

    George Birkbeck was a British physician, academic, philanthropist, an early pioneer in adult education and founder of Birkbeck, University of London....
     (1776-1841), doctor, academic, philanthropist and pioneer in adult education, founder of Birkbeck
  • Tessa Blackstone
    Tessa Blackstone, Baroness Blackstone

    Tessa Ann Vosper Blackstone, Baroness Blackstone, Privy Council of the United Kingdom is a United Kingdom politician and university administrator....
     Master of the College, House of Lords, ex-government minister, Vice-Chancellor of University of Greenwich
  • Tom Blundell
    Tom Blundell

    Sir Tom Leon Blundell, Fellow of the Royal Society Academy of Medical Sciences is a United Kingdom biologist and science administrator. As of 2009, he is the Sir William Dunn Professor of Biochemistry and head of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge....
     crystallographer, Fellow of the Royal Society
  • Andrew Donald Booth
    Andrew Donald Booth

    Andrew Donald Booth was a United Kingdom engineer, physicist and computer scientist who led the invention of the magnetic drum memory for computers and invented Booth's multiplication algorithm....
     Head of Numerical Automation
  • David Bohm
    David Bohm

    David Joseph Bohm was an United States-born Quantum mechanics physicist who made significant contributions in the fields of theoretical physics, philosophy and neuropsychology, and to the Manhattan Project....
     quantum physist
  • David Cox
    David Cox (statistician)

    Sir David Roxbee Cox Fellow of the Royal Society is a British people statistician.He studied mathematics at St John's College, Cambridge of the University of Cambridge and obtained his Ph.D....
     statistician
  • Andrea Christofidou
    Andrea Christofidou

    Andrea Christofidou is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Keble College, Oxford and Lecturer in Philosophy at Worcester College, Oxford. She has taught philosophy at the University of Oxford since 1992, and at Keble since 2001....
     philosophy academic
  • Steven Connor
    Steven Connor

    Steven Connor is the Academic Director of the London Consortium and Professor of Modern Literature and Theory at Birkbeck, University of London....
     professor
  • Diana Coole
    Diana Coole

    Diana Coole is Professor of Political and Social Theory in the School of Politics and Sociology, Birkbeck, University of London. Her main field of research covers, broadly, contemporary continental philosophy with special interests in poststructuralism , and feminism and gender in political thought....
     social scientist
  • Bernard Crick
    Bernard Crick

    Sir Bernard Rowland Crick was a British political theorist and democratic socialist whose views were often summarised as "politics is ethics done in public"....
     political theorist
  • Jennifer Donnelly
    Jennifer Donnelly

    Jennifer Donnelly is a historical fiction author best-known for her novel A Northern Light . She has also written The Tea Rose and The Winter Rose, as well as Humble Pie, a picture book for children....
     writer
  • H. R. Ellis Davidson
    H. R. Ellis Davidson

    Dr. Hilda Roderick Ellis Davidson was a United Kingdom antiquarian and academic, writing in particular on Germanic paganism and Celtic paganism....
     academic
  • John Driffill professor of economics
  • Tracey Emin
    Tracey Emin

    Tracey Emin Royal Academy#Membership is an England artist of Turkish Cypriots origin, one of the group known as Britartists or YBAs .In 1997, her work Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963?1995, a tent appliqu?d with names, was shown at Charles Saatchi's Sensation exhibition....
     artist
  • T. S. Eliot
    T. S. Eliot

    'Thomas Stearns Eliot', Order of Merit , was a poet, dramatist, and literary critic. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948. Among his most famous writings are the poems The Love Song of J....
     Nobel Laureate for Literature, 1948
  • Richard J. Evans
    Richard J. Evans

    Professor Richard Evans is a United Kingdom historian of Germany....
     professor, Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge
  • Dame Millicent Fawcett
    Millicent Fawcett

    Dame Millicent Fawcett Order of the British Empire LLD was an England suffragist and an early feminist.She was born Millicent Garrett in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, England....
     suffragist
  • Ben Fine
    Ben Fine

    Ben Fine is Professor of Economics at the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies. He is the author of a number of key works in the broad tradition of heterodox economics, and has made contributions on economic imperialism and social capital....
     professor
  • Orlando Figes
    Orlando Figes

    Orlando Figes is a multiple-award-winning British historian of Russia, and Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London....
     professor in history
  • Rosalind Franklin
    Rosalind Franklin

    Rosalind Elsie Franklin was an English people biophysicist and X-ray crystallography who made important contributions to the understanding of the fine molecular structures of DNA, viruses, coal and graphite....
     crystallographer
  • Hugh Gaitskell
    Hugh Gaitskell

    Hugh Todd Naylor Gaitskell was a British politician, leader of the Labour Party from 1955 until his death in 1963....
     lecturer
  • Marcus Garvey
    Marcus Garvey

    Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr., Order of National Hero , was a publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, Black Nationalist, Pan-Africanist, and orator. Marcus Garvey was founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League ....
     Harlem Renaissance Writer
  • Julia Goldsworthy
    Julia Goldsworthy

    Julia Anne Goldsworthy is a United Kingdom politician. She is the Liberal Democrats Member of Parliament for Falmouth and Camborne and shadows the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government in the British House of Commons....
      Liberal Democrat MP for Falmouth and Camborne
  • Julia Goodfellow professor, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Kent
  • A. C. Grayling
    A. C. Grayling

    Anthony Clifford Grayling is a United Kingdom philosophy, atheist and author. He is Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London, University of London and a supernumerary fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford....
     prominent philosopher
  • Bear Grylls
    Bear Grylls

    Bear Grylls , real name Edward Michael Bear Grylls, is a British adventurer, television presenter and writer currently best known for his television series Born Survivor ....
     adventurer
  • John Joseph Haldane
    John Joseph Haldane

    Professor John Joseph Haldane K.H.S. is a notable British philosopher and broadcaster and a member of the Scottish aristocratic family of Haldane....
     Philiosopher
  • Kenneth Hare
    Kenneth Hare

    Fredrick Kenneth Hare, Order of Canada, Royal Society of Canada was a Canada climatologist and academic, who researched atmospheric carbon dioxide, climate change, drought, and arid zone climates and was a strong advocate for preserving the natural environment....
     Master of the College
  • Eric Hobsbawm
    Eric Hobsbawm

    Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm Companion of Honour, FBA, is a United Kingdom historical materialism and author....
     professor and President of the College
  • Paul Hirst
    Paul Hirst

    Paul Hirst was a British sociologist. He became Professor of Social Theory at Birkbeck, University of London.He studied at the University of Leicester and the University of Sussex before taking up a lectureship at Birkbeck College in 1969....
     professor


  • Vernon Ingram
    Vernon Ingram

    Vernon M. Ingram Fellow of the Royal Society was a German American professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology....
     Fellow of the Royal Society
  • C. E. M. Joad
    C. E. M. Joad

    Cyril Edwin Mitchinson Joad was an English philosopher and broadcasting personality. He is most famous for his appearance on the The Brains Trust, an extremely popular BBC Radio wartime discussion programme....
     professor
  • Mark H Johnson Professor in Neuroscience
  • William Joyce
    William Joyce

    William Joyce , the man generally associated with the nickname Lord Haw-Haw, was a fascist politician and Nazism propaganda broadcaster to the United Kingdom during the Second World War....
     (Lord Haw-Haw
    Lord Haw-Haw

    Lord Haw-Haw was the nickname of several announcers on the English language propaganda radio programme Germany Calling, international broadcasting by Nazi German radio to audiences in Great Britain on the medium wave station Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk and by shortwave to the United States....
    ), fascist politician and Nazi propaganda broadcaster
  • Peter J. King professor
  • Aaron Klug
    Aaron Klug

    Sir Aaron Klug, Order of Merit, President of the Royal Society is a Lithuanian-born United Kingdom chemist and biophysicist, and winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his development of electron crystallography and his structural elucidation of biologically important nucleic acid-protein complexes....
     crystallographer and Nobel Laureate for Chemistry, 1982
  • Ramsay MacDonald
    Ramsay MacDonald

    James Ramsay MacDonald was a British politician and twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He rose from humble origins to become the first Labour Party Prime Minister in 1924....
     first Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
  • John McDonnell MP Politician
  • Denis MacShane
    Denis MacShane

    Denis MacShane is a politician in the United Kingdom. He is the Labour Party MP for Rotherham , and was the Minister of State for Europe at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office until the ministerial reshuffle that followed the United Kingdom general election, 2005....
     politician
  • Leonard Mandel
    Leonard Mandel

    Leonard Mandel was the Lee DuBridge Professor Emeritus of Physics and Optics at the University of Rochester when he died at the age of 73 at his home in Pittsford, New York....
     nuclear physicist
  • John Redcliffe Maud Master of the College
  • Mark Mazower
    Mark Mazower

    Mark A. Mazower is a United Kingdom historian. His expertise is of Greece, the Balkans and 20th century Europe. He currently is professor of history at Columbia University in New York City....
     professor
  • Louis Mordell
    Louis Mordell

    Louis Joel Mordell was a British mathematician, bat in number theory. He was born in Philadelphia, USA, in a Jewish family of Lithuanian extraction....
     researcher
  • Laura Mulvey
    Laura Mulvey

    Laura Mulvey was educated at St Hilda's College, Oxford, Oxford. She is currently professor of film studies and media studies at Birkbeck, University of London....
     professor
  • Sir Timothy O'Shea
    Timothy O'Shea

    Sir Timothy Michael Martin O'Shea, Royal Society of Edinburgh is the current Vice-Chancellor and Principal of The University of Edinburgh in Scotland, United Kingdom....
     Master of the College, Principal of the University of Edinburgh
  • Nikolaus Pevsner
    Nikolaus Pevsner

    Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, Order of the British Empire, was a German-born British scholar of art historian and, especially, of history of architecture....
     professor
  • Ben Pimlott
    Ben Pimlott

    Professor Ben Pimlott was a leading historian of the post-war period in Britain. He made a substantial contribution to the literary genre of political biography....
    , professor
  • Ehsan Masood
    Ehsan Masood

    Ehsan Masood is a writer and journalist based in London, writing mainly about science, international development and the politics of the Muslim world....
    , writer and journalist
  • Ernest Millington politician
  • Nissim Ezekiel
    Nissim Ezekiel

    Nissim Ezekiel was a poet, playwright, editor and art critic. He was a foundational figure in postcolonial India's literary history, specifically for Indian writing in English language....
     student
  • Arthur Wing Pinero
    Arthur Wing Pinero

    Sir Arthur Wing Pinero was an English actor and later an important dramatist and stage director....
     student
  • J. Philippe Rushton
    J. Philippe Rushton

    John Philippe Rushton is a psychology professor at the University of Western Ontario, Canada, most widely known for his work on intelligence quotient and race and intelligence, particularly his book Race, Evolution and Behavior....
     student
  • Richard Sambrook
    Richard Sambrook

    Richard Sambrook is the Director of the BBC World Service and Global News, and former Director of BBC News and BBC Sport.Sambrook was educated at Maidstone Technical High School, at the University of Reading where he received a BA in English and at Birkbeck, University of London where he received an MSc in Politics....
     broadcaster
  • Roger Scruton
    Roger Scruton

    Roger Vernon Scruton is an England conservative philosopher....
     professor
  • Helen Sharman
    Helen Sharman

    Helen Patricia Sharman, Order of the British Empire, , is a United Kingdom chemist. She was the first Briton in space, visiting the Mir space station aboard Soyuz TM-12 in 1991....
     chemist and cosmonaut
  • Ron P. Smith pro vice master and professor of economics
  • Martin Sola professor
  • Laurie Taylor
    Laurie Taylor (sociologist)

    Laurence "Laurie" John Taylor is a United Kingdom sociology and radio presenter from Liverpool....
     sociologist
  • Kitty Ussher
    Kitty Ussher

    Katherine Anne "Kitty" Ussher is a politician in the United Kingdom. She has been the member of Parliament for Burnley since the UK general election, 2005 and is a member of the Labour Party ....
     politician
  • Alexander Van de Putte alum, former teaching fellow, futurist
  • Sidney James Webb, 1st Baron Passfield
    Sidney James Webb, 1st Baron Passfield

    Sidney James Webb, 1st Baron Passfield Privy Council of the United Kingdom was a British socialist, economist and reformer who is typically mentioned in the same breath as his wife, Beatrice Webb....
     founder of the London School of Economics
  • Ralph Vaughan Williams
    Ralph Vaughan Williams

    Ralph Vaughan Williams Order of Merit was an England composer of symphony, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film Film score. He was also a collector of England folk music and folk song; this also influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, which began in 1904, many folk song arrangements being set as hymn tunes,...
     lecturer
  • Barbara Wootton lecturer
  • Samir El-Youssef
    Samir El-Youssef

    Samir El-Youssef is a Palestinian writer and critic, who was born in Rashidia, a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon, where he lived until he was ten, before moving to Sidon....
     writer


External links