Special:Badtitle/NS90:Oral-History talk:Anthony Constantinides/The City University (in London, England)

The statement "The City University was created at the stroke of a pen." could mislead readers of this Oral History: it is true in a sense (just as it could be said that IEEE was created at a stroke of a pen in 1963). However, The City University was a development of an educational establishment which began in 1896, with a Department of Electrical Engineering founded in that year. From 1905, courses for the 'Internal' London University BSc degrees were run, and the Department had 'Recognised Teachers of the University of London' among its faculty. In 1957, it was one of ten 'Colleges of Advanced Technology' established to award the new 'Diploma in Technology, which was to be at the British university honours degree level, but with a much stronger industrial content and links than the traditional university engineering bachelor's degree programmes. The link with the University of London was maintained, which meant that in addition to continuing to run the courses for the London University BSc degree, graduate students could be registered for the University of London Master's and Doctoral research-degrees in engineering subjects. Supervision was by those faculty members at the Northampton College who were Recognised Teachers of the University of London, and the examination procedures were identical to those in the universities which formed the federal University of London (for example, including Imperial College, University College, King's College and Queen Mary College). Then in 1963, a government report recommended that all ten of the Colleges of Advanced Technology be given formal university status, and it was as a result of this that the Northampton College of Advanced Technology received a Royal Charter in 1964, and changed its name to The City University. There was a transitional period over which existing graduate students continued to be registered to receive their degrees from the University of London, while newer students were registered to receive City University degrees. I was a faculty member in the Department of Electrical Engineering at this time. Tony Davies (Emeritus Prof, King's College London)