Celebrating 125 years of academic excellence at Cardiff University

Western Mail

Cardiff University reaches its 125th anniversary this year. Lowri Jones charts its illustrious history

THROUGHOUT the latter half of the 19th century Cardiff was a world centre of energy and enterprise. People were drawn to it from all continents.

The streets and workplaces reflected a huge multi-cultural mix.

The age of steam was fuelled by the South Wales coalfields and the local docks became one of the busiest ports in the world. But the business of the day did not diminish the vision of the city’s founding fathers for the future. So when the Government of the day considered establishing a new university in Wales they seized their opportunity.

With huge public assistance they mustered a powerful argument in support of a university in Cardiff and backed it with funds raised from all quarters of society.

Cardiff University highlights 2007
Recognition as one of the world’s top 100 universities in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings;

Record research awards totalling more than £110m;

Nobel Prize for Medicine, the most prestigious prize in world science, awarded to Professor Sir Martin Evans, who joins Professor Robert Huber as the second Nobel Prize winner on the university’s staff;

The university’s Institute of Medical Genetics wins the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for excellence in higher education, the third time the university has earned the sought- after award;

A surgical technique pioneered by the School of Medicine wins the Best National Health Innovation Award;

Renowned Welsh tenor Dennis O’Neill joins forces with the university to create the Cardiff International Academy of Voice;

The School of Engineering’s Gas Turbine Research Centre opens;

Professor Jonathan Shepherd, Cardiff Dental School, receives the Stockholm Prize in Criminology.

Scientists from the School of Earth, Ocean and Planetary Sciences set sail to investigate an area thousands of square kilometres in extent in the middle of the Atlantic where the Earth’s crust appears to be missing;

The first major new translation in 30 years of the Welsh medieval masterpiece, The Mabinogion, is completed and published by Professor Sioned Davies from the School of Welsh.

When Cardiff was chosen there was rejoicing and a Royal Charter was granted.

Local people paraded through the streets to celebrate and the church bells rang all day.

The university was opened in 1883 with just a few professors, a small number of students and temporary premises in an old hospital. It had ambitions to appoint academic staff of the highest calibre, provide equal opportunity for men and women to access higher education and promote academic research.

And so, with only 13 staff, 151 students, 15 of whom were women, and an assortment of buildings, 27-year old John Viriamu Jones, a young and charismatic physicist with a love for entertaining and mountaineering, took up the post of principal of an establishment that would change the face of education in Wales.

Lord Aberdare, one of the founders, wrote how wonderful it would be for those involved in establishing the university to come back in a century to see the results of their work. The transformation which would confront him today – almost 125 years later – would amaze and delight him.

Cardiff, then just a town, is now the capital city of Wales, known throughout the world.

The university is now housed in Portland stone buildings making up Cardiff’s elegant civic centre.

They stand shoulder to shoulder with a range of the most modern buildings and facilities in the British university system, including the recently completed £21m School of Optometry and Vision Sciences, the investment of almost £30m in world-class scanning capabilities, including the £10m Cardiff University Research Imaging Centre, the £14m Life Sciences building and, at the Heath Park campus, the £11m Henry Wellcome building for Biomedical Research in Wales.

There is no doubt that Cardiff has come a long way. There are now 26,000 students and 6,000 staff.

There are 420 professors, many of whom are leaders in their fields, including two Nobel laureates. There are more than 220 distinguished honorary fellows across the world, supporting the university in different ways. Staff and students come from more than 110 countries.

Today, Cardiff University is one of the most successful, exciting, innovative and ambitious universities in Britain, advancing research, learning and teaching of international distinction and impact.

We are recognised in an independent peer-based ranking as one of the world’s top 100 universities and are Wales’ only member of the Russell Group of Britain’s top 20 research universities.

Cardiff is accredited by professional bodies, from medicine, to engineering, to law, optometry, pharmacy, accountancy, dentistry and many more.

It is a truly international institution with academic and commercial partners on every continent, including government agencies and national and multi-national organisations.

We recently secured a £25m deal with Biofusion Plc to create spin-out companies from university research.

Cardiff works with Nasa on structures for space and surveys the universe with the world’s most powerful telescopes.

Researchers are introducing new methods to reduce reliance on pesticides to protect crops. We also collaborate with health agencies in combating diseases, including HIV-Aids and Alzheimer’s. The scope of this research is international, including work with the World Health Organisation. We are at the forefront in biosciences, particularly in work to enable gene therapy.

It is these achievements and more that will be celebrated this year with our anniversary programme. As a milestone, 125 years provide a good opportunity both to reflect on past and present successes and to look to the future.

This year will provide a focal point to recognise those who have shaped Cardiff University and provide a springboard to encourage new communities to play their part in shaping the years to come.

Celebrations include concerts, award ceremonies, conferences, lectures, sporting and cultural and social events.

The year will also see the launch of our “125 for 125” appeal which aims to provide 125 further scholarships to help more students study at Cardiff.

The university is matching funding for the first £100,000 of donations made to the appeal.

Roots go back even further in time
One of Cardiff University’s parent institutions was founded even earlier in the 19th century.

The Cardiff Arts and Science Schools began in 1866, while the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire opened in 1883.

The Arts and Science Schools developed into the Cardiff Technical College which, in 1957, became the Welsh College of Advanced Technology. Ten years later the college turned into the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology (UWIST).

Meanwhile, the university college, established by Royal Charter, had adopted the public name of University College, Cardiff, and this became its established title when it was formally approved by the Privy Council in 1972. By then the city of Cardiff had, as neighbours within its civic centre, two university institutions – University College, Cardiff and UWIST .

The two merged in 1988 at around which time the institution became known by its public name of Cardiff University. Cardiff University and the University of Wales College of Medicine merged in 2004.

A history of sex equality
From the start Cardiff University set out to offer equal opportunities to men and women.

It was a founding principle of the university that it should be open to women students on the same terms as men.

The highest entrance scholarship offered to a student in the 1883 intake was made to a female student.

Millicent McKenzie was possibly the first woman to be addressed as a professor in Britain, and undoubtedly the first woman in Wales, and was elevated to be Professor of Education in 1904, in charge of training female teachers.

Aberdare Hall, a women-only hall of residence, was opened in 1893.

It was only the second women’s hall of residence to be built in the UK, and gave women from outside Cardiff the opportunity to attend university without the stigma associated with living alone in rented accommodation.

Times have changed, and today around half of the total student intake is female, female pro vice-chancellors help lead the university, many female professors are leading teaching and research, and efforts are made to further increase representation at the highest levels, which includes addressing the recruitment, retention and progression of students from a wide variety of non-traditional backgrounds.

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