New universities

The term new universities has been used informally to refer to several different waves of new universities created or renamed as such in multiples countries. In many cases, these are former polytechnics or professional colleges which receive the status of a university. The term is used e.g. in the United Kingdom, France, Poland, Sweden and Norway.

See also

New universities (United Kingdom)

The term new universities has been used informally to refer to several different waves of new universities created or renamed as such in the United Kingdom. Currently, the term is synonymous with post-1992 universities and sometimes modern universities, referring to any of the former polytechnics, central institutions or colleges of higher education that were given university status by John Major's government in 1992 (through the Further and Higher Education Act 1992) – as well as colleges that have been granted university status since then. Though referred to as new or modern, some were founded without university status as Polytechnics in the early to mid 19th century, an example of which is Royal London Polytechnic Institution which was established in 1838.

In the past the term was used to describe the then-new civic universities as early as 1928, such as Bristol University and the other red brick universities. It later came to be used to refer to any of the universities founded in the 1960s after the Robbins Report on higher education. These institutions are now known as plate glass universities.