Imperial College London (officially The Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine as titled in its Royal Charter) is a British university in London specialising in science, engineering, medicine and business.
Imperial was placed 5th overall in the world in the 2009 Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings of universities worldwide, and was placed 26th in the Shanghai Jiao Tong Academic Ranking of World Universities.
Imperial College London is a member of the Russell Group of Universities, a part of the Golden Triangle, the IDEA League, the European University Association, AMBA, and the Association of Commonwealth Universities.
Imperial’s main campus is located in South Kensington in Central London, on the boundary between the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the City of Westminster (the Knightsbridge part), with its front entrance on Exhibition Road. Including Imperial’s other campuses, there is a total of 525,233 square metres (5,653,560 sq ft) of property which is the largest operational estate of any higher education institution in the UK.
Formerly a constituent college of the University of London, Imperial became independent of the university on 8 July 2007, the 100th anniversary of its founding.
Imperial College’s activity is centred on its South Kensington campus, situated in an area with a high concentration of cultural and academic institutions known as the Albertopolis; the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Royal College of Music, the Royal College of Art, the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Albert Hall are all nearby. Imperial College has two other major campuses — at Silwood Park (near Ascot in Berkshire) and at Wye (near Ashford in Kent).
The Imperial College NHS Trust runs multiple hospitals throughout Greater London and various medic lectures are conducted within these hospitals, including St. Mary’s Hospital, Charing Cross Hospital, Northwick Park Hospital & St. Mark’s Hospital and Hammersmith Hospital. In 1997, the parliamentary Imperial College Act 1997 officially transferred all the obligations, powers and property of Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, the National Heart and Lung Institute and the Royal Postgraduate Medical School to Imperial College. The expansion of the South Kensington campus in the 1960s absorbed the site of the former Imperial Institute, designed by Thomas Collcutt, of which only the 287 foot (87 m) high Queen’s Tower remains among the more modern buildings.
Extensive renovation continues throughout the College estate. Recent major projects include the Imperial College Business School, the Ethos sports centre, the Southside hall of residence and the Eastside hall of residence. Current major projects include the refurbishment of the Central Library and the reconstruction of the south-eastern quadrant of the campus.