University of Southampton

The University of Southampton (occasionally abbreviated as Soton) is a public research university located in Southampton, England. Southampton is a research intensive university and a founding member of the Russell Group of elite British universities.

The origins of the university date back to the founding of the Hartley Institution in 1862 following a legacy to the Corporation of Southampton by Henry Robinson Hartley. In 1902, the Institution developed into the Hartley University College, with degrees awarded by the University of London. On 29 April 1952, the institution was granted a Royal Charter to give the University of Southampton full university status. It is a member of the European University Association, the Association of Commonwealth Universities and is an accredited institution of the Worldwide Universities Network.

In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework assessing the research output of 154 British Universities and Institutes, Southampton was ranked 18th for GPA (15th among Russell Universities), 11th for research power (11th among Russell Universities), and 8th for research intensity (7th among Russell Group Universities).

The university conducts research in most academic disciplines and is home to a number of notable research centres. Southampton has leading research centres in a number of disciplines, e.g. computer sciences, engineering or management sciences, and houses world-leading research institutions in fields as varied as oceanography and web science.

The University of Southampton currently has 16,195 undergraduate and 7,840 postgraduate students, making it the largest university by higher education students in the South East region. The university has seven teaching campuses.