ABOUT IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON

Imperial College London 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 Imperial Institute in 1888. Imperial College London was granted royal charter in 1907. In the same year, the college joined the University of London, before leaving it a century later. Through merging with several historic medical schools, the curriculum expanded to include medicine. In 2004, Queen Elizabeth II opened the Imperial College Business School.

Imperial has major campuses in South Kensington and White City and five other campuses across London. In 2016/17, Imperial had a total income of £991.2 million. It has the eighth largest endowment of any university in the United Kingdom, and the second largest of the universities in London. Research and teaching are organised by four faculties - science, engineering, medicine and business - which are subdivided into departments and centres. The university's emphasis is on technology and its practical application.

Imperial is a member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, European University Association, Global Alliance of Technological Universities, League of European Research Universities and the Russell Group. It is a founding member of the Imperial College academic health sciences centre, the Francis Crick Institute and MedCity.

Imperial is consistently ranked among the top universities in the world. In 2018 it ranked 8th in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, 8th in the QS World University Rankings and 27th in the 2017 Academic Ranking of World Universities. In 2015 Imperial was ranked by Reuters as the most innovative university in Europe. The medical school is ranked 4th in the world by Times Higher Education World University Rankings. Staff and alumni include 15 Nobel laureates (5 in Physiology or Medicine, 5 in Physics and 5 in Chemistry), 3 Fields Medalists, 74 Fellows of the Royal Society, 84 Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and 85 Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences. Alumni also include former heads of state of India and New Zealand; members of the House of Commons; and CEOs of multinational corporations.