The name of your higher education provider matters. I’ve explored before how, in Britain, we have evolved a different tradition to naming universities than in other countries. Having been prompted to think about this again, I have widened this to look at all the OfS providers. There are 423 providers on the register, I think 39 of them are named after a person.
There’s an issue about the title of the provider. The OfS register lists some trading names, but not all. So, I have gone for the legal name. That means we get Andrew Bonar Law, whose name is on the memorial trust that Ashridge trades under. The first name on the list is John Ruskin; there are two providers who effectively trade under his name; but Ruskin College is now part of West London (and OfS does not list that as a trading name).
The difference between the trading name and the legal name is a very old one. One fun question is, apart from Isaac Wolfson, how many people have a college at both Oxford and Cambridge named them? The complication is the legal name – what we all know as ‘New College’ is ‘The College of St Mary of Winchester in Oxford, commonly known as New College’. It’s ‘new’ to distinguish from another St Mary’s college – except that one is ‘The House of the Blessed Mary the Virgin, in Oxford, commonly called Oriel College, of the Foundation of Edward the Second of famous memory, sometime King of England’. This was followed by the College of St Mary Magdalen, which tends just to be called Magdalen.
So, to follow that with OfS providers I think* there are two people that more than one place is named after. They are both saints called John.
| UKPRN | Provider title | Person |
| 10000291 | Anglia Ruskin University Higher Education Corporation | John Ruskin – writer and art critic gave the opening address at the Cambridge School of Art in 1858 |
| 10008899 | The Ashridge (Bonar Law Memorial) Trust | Andrew Bonar Law was Prime Minister, a memorial fund established a college |
| 10007760 | Birkbeck College | George Birkbeck established the Mechanics Institute in 1823 |
| 10007811 | Bishop Grosseteste University | Robert Grossteste was bishop of Lincoln in the 13th century |
| 10000961 | Brunel University London | Isambard Kingdom Brunel, civil and mechanical engineer |
| 10001165 | Cardinal Newman College | St John Henry Newman, Educator and Cardinal |
| 10026921 | Christ the Redeemer College | Jesus Christ |
| 10007761 | Courtauld Institute of Art | Samuel Courtauld was an industrialist and art collector |
| 10015688 | David Game College Ltd | Dave Game started a college in 1974 |
| 10001883 | De Montfort University | Simon De Montfort, earl of Leicester in 13th Century |
| 10067355 | Dyson Technical Training Limited | James Dyson is an industrialist, his company established the institute |
| 10032288 | The Edward James Foundation Limited | Edward James gave his estate to the West Dean College |
| 10088214 | S P Jain London School of Management Limited | Sahu Shreyans Prasad Jain was an Indian businessman and parliamentarian |
| 10040812 | Harper Adams University | Thomas Harper Adams bequeathed the estate in 1892 |
| 10003193 | Hugh Baird College | Hugh Baird was a longstanding councillor on Bootle Council |
| 10003212 | Hult International Business School Ltd | Bertil Hult founded EF in 1965, the Arthur D Little School of Management was purchased and renamed in 2003 |
| 10003284 | Inchbald School of Design | Michael Inchbald – then huspand of the founder |
| 10009527 | Istituto Marangoni Limited | Giulio Marangoni, started a fashion school in Milian 1935 |
| 10082570 | Kaplan International Colleges U.K. Limited | Stanley Kaplan founded a college preparation company in Brooklyn |
| 10003957 | Liverpool John Moores University | John Moores, founder of Littlewoods |
| 10030391 | London Churchill College Ltd | Presumably Winston Churchill |
| 10009612 | Luther King House Educational Trust | Martin Luther King, minister and activist |
| 10004432 | Morley College Limited | Samuel Morley endowed a college for working men and women |
| 10030129 | Nelson College London Limited | Presumably Horatio Nelson |
| 10007832 | Birmingham Newman University | St John Henry Newman, educator and cardinal |
| 10004930 | Oxford Brookes University | John Brookes, long-serving principal of Oxford Technical College |
| 10005072 | Peter Symonds College | Peter Symonds, a 16th century merchant, gave money for an almshouse which became a school |
| 10007775 | Queen Mary University of London | Queen Mary, consort of George V |
| 10005378 | Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance | Marie Rambert founded a dance company that the school developed from |
| 10005523 | Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance | Rose Elizabeth Bruford established a Training College of Speech and Drama in 1950 |
| 10005553 | Royal Holloway and Bedford New College | Thomas Holloway was an inventor of patent medicines |
| 10006093 | Spurgeon’s College | Charles Spurgeon founded a pastors college in 1856 it was renamed after him in 1923 |
| 10037449 | University of St Mark & St John | St Mark and St John the Evangelists |
| 10007843 | St Mary’s University, Twickenham | St Mary |
| 10030776 | St Mellitus College Trust | St Mellitus was bishop of London in 604 |
| 10007782 | St. George’s Hospital Medical School | St George, patron saint of England |
| 10008017 | Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance | Rudoph Laban, dance innovator, founded a guild in 1945 |
| 10005736 | Unified Seevic Palmer’s College | William Palmer founded a charity school in 1706 |
| 10007713 | York St John University | St John the Evangelist |
Many more higher education providers have formerly been named after people. Owens, Mason and Hartley became Manchester, Birmingham and Southampton. The waves of mergers in the 1960s and 1970s on the formation of polytechnics and then consolidation of teacher training colleges saw the end of Constantine, Lanchester and Rutherford (Teesside, Coventry and Northumbria). The process went on in the 2000s with King Alfred being dropped.
Although there are colleges at Oxford and Cambridge named after Jesus Christ, I’m holding that only one provider is named after him. I think that Canterbury Christ Church University is named after the cathedral, so I’ve left it out on the same grounds I’ve left out St Helens College as its named after the town and not directly the saint. The same applies to Leeds Beckett – the name is after the park which was named after a banker – but not a person himself you’d want to name a university after. I’m also leaving out Brierley Price and Prior as although BPP have retained that as the brand, the university just refers to the initials now.
A clear contrast with the US here is that, excluding owners of colleges or linked companies, very few English providers are still named after pure benefactors – just Courthald, James, Harper Adams, Holloway, Palmer and Symonds.
* Ok – so I’ve broken the rules I set out. The University of Essex online, which is a separate provider, is run by Kaplan Online Learning (Essex). It does its best not to look like a separate provider, so I’ve cheated.
This may be updated as people point out mistakes – I left out Rose Bruford & S P Jain for example.
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