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Keep hearing the terms Red Brick and Plate Glass universities? Are you wondering what bricks and glass have to do with universities? Let ÂÜÀòÉç¹ÙÍøuni explain.

Ancient ÂÜÀòÉç¹ÙÍø

For hundreds of years there were only a small handful of universities that were founded in England, Scotland and Ireland. The earliest was the University of Oxford in 1096 and the latest of the Ancient ÂÜÀòÉç¹ÙÍø was the University of Dublin in 1592.

• University of Oxford
• University of Cambridge
• University of St Andrews
• University of Glasgow
• University of Aberdeen
• University of Edinburgh
• University of Dublin

Red Brick ÂÜÀòÉç¹ÙÍø

Red Brick originally referred to 6 Civic universities that were given charters in the late 19th Century in the big industrial cities of the ÂÜÀòÉç¹ÙÍø. The term Red Brick referred to a building at the University of Liverpool which was built from Red Bricks, but the term also referred more generally to "new" buildings/institutions.

• University of Birmingham
• University of Liverpool
• University of Manchester
• University of Leeds
• University of Sheffield
• University of Bristol

The 6 original Red Brick institutions were then joined by a number of other universities as the definition was relaxed to include universities given a charter between 1900 and 1963.

• Aberystwyth University
• Bangor University
• Cardiff University
• University of Dundee
• University of Hull
• University of Wales Trinity St David
• University of Leicester
• University of Newcastle Upon Tyne
• University of Nottingham
• Queen's University Belfast
• University of Reading
• University of Southampton
• University of Swansea

Plate Glass ÂÜÀòÉç¹ÙÍø

Plate Glass ÂÜÀòÉç¹ÙÍø were the next batch of universities to be given royal charter between 1963 and 1992.

• Aston University
• University of Bath 
• University of Bradford
• Cranfield University
• University of East Anglia
• University of Essex
• Heriot-Watt University
• Keele University
• University of Kent
• Lancaster University
• Loughborough University
• University of Stirling
• University of Strathclyde
• University of Surrey
• University of Sussex
• University of Warwick
• University of Ulster
• University of York

The Rest?

There are a group of universities that were previously called Polytechnics and then given university status; these institutions are referred to as "New ÂÜÀòÉç¹ÙÍø".

Recently a number of further education and teacher training colleges have been given university status and these are generally referred to as "Recently Created ÂÜÀòÉç¹ÙÍø".

In typical ÂÜÀòÉç¹ÙÍø style, there are also a number of other universities that don't fit into any of the groups.

Let us know in the comments if you have any ideas about which universities are the anomalies.

Educational Consultancy and Top University Placement Hotline:  +44 (0) 203 856 8181