The University of York was founded in 1963 with 200 students. Since then, it has expanded to 11,000 students and has over 30 academic departments and research centres.


From its inception, the University has concentrated on strong viable departments and teaching and research of the highest quality. The quality of York's teaching has received many accolades. York and Cambridge top the teaching league with the highest scores in official teaching assessments.

York is also rated 6th out of 172 Higher Education institutions for research, with 18 of its 23 departments rated 5 or 5*. In the last Research Assessment Exercise, carried out by the Higher Education Funding Council for England in 2001, York out performed all the large civic universities, see the full set of results here.

The University has a collegiate system in which most staff and all students are members of colleges. Further information is available at www.york.ac.uk/univ/coll/.

The main campus at Heslington is a 200-acre landscaped park, well known for its lake and wildfowl. Here the colleges and academic buildings are on a level site within walking distance of each other. Proximity to the historic city of York makes the University a popular choice and provides a pleasant working and residential environment.

The University has plans to expand its campus at Heslington East.

Former students of the University include Editor of the Sunday Times, John Witherow; former Director-General of the BBC Greg Dyke; authors Jung Chang and Helen Dunmore; comedian Harry Enfield, and 10 MPs.

The Vice-Chancellor of the University is Professor Brian Cantor. York's fifth Vice-Chancellor, he joined the University in October 2002.


The Chancellor of the University is Greg Dyke, former Director-General of the BBC. He is the University's fifth Chancellor and took up his position in August 2004.