Queen Mary has a long, proud and distinctive history built on four historic institutions stretching back to 1785 and beyond.
Our founding institutions are: St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College, London Hospital Medical College, Westfield College and Queen Mary College.
All four institutions were founded to improve the lives of people with less privilege. St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College and The London Hospital Medical College were established to improve the health of the local communities in the City and east London. Westfield College and Queen Mary College provided education to women and working class communities in the East End, respectively, at a time when these groups faced extreme barriers to education.
At Queen Mary University of London, we believe that a diversity of ideas helps us achieve the previously unthinkable.
Throughout our history, we’ve fostered social justice and improved lives through academic excellence. And we continue to live and breathe this spirit today, not because it’s simply ‘the right thing to do’ but for what it helps us achieve and the intellectual brilliance it delivers.
Our reformer heritage informs our conviction that great ideas can and should come from anywhere. It’s an approach that has brought results across the globe, from the communities of east London to the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.
Queen Mary University of London is a leading research-intensive university with a difference – one that opens the doors of opportunity to anyone with the potential to succeed.
Key facts
- Our history dates back to 1785, with the founding of The London Hospital Medical College, England’s first official medical school.
- We are a Russell Group university, operating across five campuses in London and at sites across Europe and Asia.
- In the 2023 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings, we were ranked 16 in the UK, and 124 globally.
- Our annual income in 2022/23 was £666.3m (excluding capital grants), of which £133.8m was research income (excluding capital grants).
- Queen Mary ranks at 120 in the 2025 QS World University Rankings, confirming its position as one of the world’s top universities.
- We ranked 92nd in the world and 9th in the UK in the 2024-25 edition of the influential US News and World Report Best Global Universities rankings.
Our community
- We have over 32,000 students on degree programmes and over 5,700 members of staff.1
- Our students are drawn from over 170 nationalities: approximately 41 per cent are from overseas.
- Queen Mary was recognised as the most inclusive Russell Group university in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2021. The authors noted: “Queen Mary continues to prove that social inclusion and academic success are not mutually exclusive.”
- Of our London domestic undergraduate students, more than 93 per cent are from state schools; 72 per cent are BAME, and 46 per cent are first into higher education.
Research and innovation profile
- For the quality of its research, the University is ranked 14th in the world and 5th in the UK according to the THE World University Ranking 2024, and joint 7th in the UK according to the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF2021).
- We have a strong track record on research spin-outs and student start-ups – one Queen Mary spin-out, ApaTech, sold for $330m in 2010.
- Our BioEnterprises Innovation Centre in Whitechapel supports drug discovery start-ups and has created over 500 science jobs.
- We have partnerships with major industrial firms such as Pfizer, IBM, and Huawei.
World-leading research
- We have nine Nobel Prize winners among our former staff and students.
- Research carried out by Queen Mary's Professors Jonathan Grigg and Chris Griffiths highlighted the effects of air pollution on children and was instrumental in the introduction of the London Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ).
- Queen Mary astronomers led the international team of scientists who discovered a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Solar System.,.and many more.
World-leading teaching
- We offer over 240 degree programmes across three faculties: Humanities and Social Sciences, Science and Engineering, and Medicine and Dentistry.
- We were the first Russell Group institution to offer degree apprenticeship programmes. Our degree apprenticeship in social change, launched in 2019, is widely considered to be a world first.
- We are home to the Blizard Institute, including the Centre of the Cell – the world’s first science education centre within working biomedical research laboratories – and the recently opened Neuron Pod, both of which are central to our public engagement work...and many more.
A truly global university
- Queen Mary’s presence in Paris, Malta and Singapore, and its ground-breaking transnational education programme in China, mean that our staff and students collaborate across the world.
- Our Global Policy Institute connects Queen Mary researchers with overseas policymakers, industry and academics to ensure our research influences policy solutions worldwide.
- We are ranked at number 7 in the world for international outlook – based on the proportion of international staff and students, citations and internationally co-authored papers (THE 2024).
Skills, aspirations and social capital
- Queen Mary's economic and social impact was analysed in a 2023 report, whose findings are a testament to our impact at a local and national level.
- For every £1 Queen Mary spent in 2021, we generated £7 of economic benefit (higher than the Russell Group average).
- We contribute a total economic impact of £4.4 billion to the UK economy and support 13,865 FTE jobs.
- Through the University's recruitment agency, QTemps, students can find placements on or local to campus during or after their degree....and many more
- Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) has been ranked among the top 100 universities in the world in the latest edition of the respected QS World University Rankings.
- 14th in the world for research quality
- QMUL is rated particularly highly for the number of international students on campus. With students and staff from more than 150 countries, it is ranked as the world’s 25th ‘most international’ university for students.
- The university is ranked 19th amongst UK institutions and 10th in the UK for both research impact and staff to student ratio.
- In the 2019/20 international university rankings, it is ranked 13th best global university in the UK (U.S. News and World Report) and 151–200 (Academic Ranking of World Universities).
- In the national rankings for UK universities, Queen Mary ranked 41st by The Complete University Guide 2020, 49th by The Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide 2020 and 83rd by The Guardian University Guide 2020.
- Queen Mary has produced many notable alumni in various fields of work and studies around the world with several alumni having become notable leaders in their respective fields. There are nine Nobel Laureates amongst Queen Mary's alumni, current and former staff.
- The university ranks 51st in the world in the CWTS Leiden Ranking 2018. The 2019 U.S. News & World Report ranks Queen Mary as 13th in the UK.
Subject
- In 2019, QS World Universities ranked both the schools of Law and English Literature and Language at number 32 in the world, with the schools of Geography, History, Linguistics and Medicine all making the top 100.
- Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry have been ranked as the 15th best medical school in the UK by The Guardian and, globally, is ranked 9th by the QS World University Rankings.
- According to Times Good University Guide 2020 strong subject areas for Queen Mary University are Dentistry (5), Medicine (8), Materials Technology (11) and Drama, Dance, and Cinematics (17).
- The Guardian in 2018 ranked the School of Law as 3rd best in the UK.
