degree to the former British prime minister, William Gladstone.
The university's coat of arms dates from the 1880s. The shield features two red dragons to symbolise Wales, and an open book to symbolise learning. The crest, an eagle or phoenix above a flaming tower, may signify the college's rebirth after the 1885 fire. The motto is Nid Byd, Byd Heb Wybodaeth ('a world without knowledge is no world at all').
In the early 1900s, the university added courses that included law, applied mathematics, pure mathematics and botany. The Department for International Politics, which Aberystwyth says is the oldest such department in the world, was founded in 1919. By 1977, the university's staff included eight Fellows of the Royal Society, such as Gwendolen Rees, the first Welsh woman to be elected an FRS.
The Department of Sports and Exercise Science was established in 2000. Joint honours psychology degrees were introduced in September 2007, and single honours psychology in 2009.
The chancellor of the university is Dame Nicola Davies, who took up the position in January 2025. The visitor of the university is an appointment made by the privy council, under the royal charter of the university. Since July 2014, the holder of this office is Sir Roderick Evans.
In 2011, the university appointed a new vice chancellor under whom the academic departments were restructured as larger subject-themed institutes.
In 2022, the university celebrated its 150th anniversary, being established in 1872 (known at the time as The University College of Wales).
== Organisation and administration ==
=== Departments and Faculties ===
The university's academic departments, as well as the Arts Centre, International English Centre and Music Centre are organised in three faculties:
==== Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences ====
The Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) is a research and teaching centre which brings together staff from the Institutes of Rural Sciences and Biological Sciences and the Institute …
