Leeds Metropolitan University
Leeds Metropolitan University is a university with campuses in Leeds and Harrogate, Yorkshire, England. It came into existence as a chartered university in 1992; prior to this date it was known as Leeds Polytechnic. As of May 2006, the overall number of students at the University is officially given as 'over 53,000'.
Professor Simon Lee is the Vice-Chancellor of the university. On July 11th 2005 Brendan Foster took over as Chancellor from Leslie Silver OBE, the former Leeds United chairman. The university recently opened a multi-million pound Learning Centre building named in honour of Leslie Silver.
In 2004 the university announced that it would not charge the full rate of £3,000 per year (a figure of £2,000 was announced instead) for tuition fees from September 2006, unlike most other universities in England.
In November 2006, the University won the award for the 'outstanding contribution to the local community' at the annual higher education awards ceremony hosted by the Times Higher Education Supplement. It also came second in the main category, 'the University of the Year', which was won by the University of Nottingham. In this category, the University was highly commended for its 'low-charging, high impact' strategy.
Tracing the foundation back to 1824, Leeds Metropolitan University has been providing access to learning in Leeds for over 175 years.
Our earliest predecessor college, the Leeds Mechanics Institute, was founded in 1824, becoming Leeds Institute of Science, Art and Literature in 1897, and afterwards the Leeds College of Technology.
Founded in 1846, another early component of Leeds Met was the Leeds College of Art which was to become one of the leading schools of art in the country, nurturing the talents of internationally renowned artists including Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. Today, Leeds Met’s Faculty of Art & Society is proud to be the direct descendent of this eminent institution.
A year earlier in 1845 Leeds College of Commerce was founded. The origins of Leeds Met’s Faculty of Business & Law are to be found in the College of Commerce.
The Yorkshire Training School of Cookery, renamed Yorkshire College of Education & Home Economics in 1966, was founded in 1874. Known for many years as the ‘Pud School’, our Tourism, Hospitality & Events School, continues its traditions in a modern context.
These four colleges were brought together in the late 1960s on a site at Calverley Street. Known as the Central Colleges of Art, Commerce, Housecraft and Technology they were to form Leeds Polytechnic in 1970.