Is Aston University an “old” or “new” University and where does it fit into the history of UK Universities?
Aston is an “old”, research intensive university (ie not a “new” University or former Polytechnic). Our history dates back over 100 years and for many of our degree course areas we are older than the vast majority of UK universities. We were founded in 1895 and became the UK’s first elite College of Advanced Technology in 1956 and then granted Royal Charter to become Aston University in 1966. Other UK institutions granted University status at this time include Bath, Loughborough and City University, while at the same time Universities such as Warwick, Lancaster and UEA Norwich were created from scratch on out of town campus sites. Then, in 1992 many of the former Polytechnics were allowed to become Universities (for example Oxford Brookes, UCE, Nottingham Trent and Northumbria). These are now commonly referred to as “new” Universities. Aston University pioneered the sandwich programme and was one of the first UK Universities to offer degrees in areas such as business, management, compu
