Imperial College London (officially The Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom. Its founder, Prince Albert, envisioned an area composed of the Victoria and Albert Museum, Natural History Museum, Royal Albert Hall, and the Imperial Institute. His wife, Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone for the first building in 1887. Today, Imperial College London consists of four main campuses: South Kensington campus (which houses all of the non-medical faculties), White City campus (which is home to Imperial’s School of Medicine), Silwood Park campus (the location of Imperial’s Faculty of Life Sciences), and North Campus at Harrow (which is home to business school).
With more than 16,000 students from over 130 countries and nearly 9,000 staff members working across its campuses, Imperial College London is one of the largest universities in the United Kingdom. It also has one of the most diverse student populations: approximately 40% of its students are from outside the UK.
Imperial College London is organised into three main Faculties – Engineering; Business; and Natural Sciences – each consisting of multiple schools and departments. It also has a fourth faculty dedicated to medicine which comprises several constituent parts including clinical medicine, experimental medicine & bioengineering sciences.
The college’s emphasis on science and technology has earned it a reputation as one of the leading technical universities in the world. its graduates include 15 Nobel laureates (including Alexander Fleming – discoverer penicillin) , 3 Fields Medalists , 2 Prime Ministers , 1 President . Other notable alumni include Tim Berners-Lee (inventor World Wide Web) Hinton(developer deep learning)and Stephen Hawking . In 2018/19 QS World University Rankings placed it 8th overall in world while THE world university rankings placed it 9th
Imperial College London was established in 1907 by Royal Charter as a merger between Royal School Of Mines , City And Guilds Of london Institute And Westminster Hospital medical school . It became part British Empire’s contribution towards education development during colonial era with many Indian students attending college helping shape future India . After WW2 college developed rapidly adding new departments such facilities like computing centre(1957) first atomic reactor(1958) nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy(1959). All these developments led to imperial playing crucial role Britain’s scientific research establishment placing 6th REF 2014 . Research conducted by academics at imperial led discovery Graphene CRISPR quantum dots dark matter gravitational waves COVID-19 vaccine candidate AZD1222
Imeprial today provides wide range undergraduate courses covering arts humanities along with STEM subjects giving opportunity for interdisciplinary studies .It ranked 1st place Guardian university guide 2020 for eight subjects ranging from Aeronautical engineering to business economics . For postgraduate studies it ranked 5th place Complete university guide 2020 having strong focus on employability skills 96% postgraduates were employed or engaged further study six months after graduating according to DLHE survey 2016/17 report Notable alumni have gone work prominent positions around globe taking their knowledge gained at imerial making positive impact society