Our history
The history of the University is entwined with the history of our city and region. Manchester was the world’s first industrial city, and its radical spirit generated a unique and innovative form of higher education.
The University, in its present form, was created in 2004 through the amalgamation of the Victoria University of Manchester and the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST). After 100 hundred years of working closely together both institutions agreed to form a single university, and on 22 October 2004 they officially combined to form the largest single-site university in the UK.
We continue to build on the innovative and inspiring history of these organisations, both in our ground-breaking research and as a centre of educational excellence.
Find out more
Select resources and books on our history
Resources
Books
- H. B. Charlton (1952), Portrait of a university, 1851-1951: to commemorate the centenary of Manchester University, (Manchester : Manchester University Press, 1951)
- D.S. Cardwell (ed), Artisan to graduate: essays to commemorate the foundation in 1824 of the Manchester Mechanics' Institution, now in 1974 the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1974)
- Pullan, Brian (ed) (2007), A portrait of the University of Manchester, (London: Third Millennium Publishing, 2007)
- Pullan, Brian and Michele Abendstern, A history of the University of Manchester, 1951-73, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000)
- Brian Pullan with Michele Abendstern, A history of the University of Manchester, 1973-90, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004)