The University of Reading celebrated the 90th anniversary of its Royal Charter in 2016. The focus of the celebrations took place on Thursday 17 March 2016, which marked 90 years since the Royal Charter was granted on the same date in 1926.

Founded in the 19th century as an extension College of the University of Oxford, Reading was the only University to be awarded a charter between the two world wars. Upon the granting of the Charter, Dr W. M. Childs became the University’s first Vice-Chancellor and students carried him through the grounds in celebration.

The University of Reading is among the top 30 UK universities in world rankings (ranked 27th out of 90 UK universities featured in the QS World University Rankings 2022) and is home to 23,000 students from over 160 countries.

We offer a wide range of programmes from the pure and applied sciences to languages, humanities, social sciences, business and arts. New research and the latest thinking continually feed into our teaching, with our academic staff working at the forefront of their fields of expertise, and we remain one of the most popular higher education choices in the UK.