of University Education was founded with the aim of encouraging working people to undertake higher education. In 1903, it became the Department of Extra-Mural Studies of the University of London, and in 1988, was integrated into Birkbeck, first as the Centre for Extramural Studies and then as the School of Continuing Education. In 2009, the Faculty of Lifelong Learning was incorporated into the main college structure.
== Campus and location ==
Birkbeck is principally located between Malet Street and Woburn Square in Bloomsbury. The School of Arts, including the Department of English & Humanities, is housed in Virginia Woolf's former residence in Gordon Square, Bloomsbury. (Other notable former residents of the house include John Maynard Keynes, Vanessa Bell and Lydia Lopokova.) The building includes the Birkbeck Cinema. and the Peltz Gallery.
Many Birkbeck classes are taught at other locations around Bloomsbury, not only because Birkbeck is committed to widening participation in higher education, but also because nearly all classes on any one day are taught at the same time, resulting in heavy competition for limited space.
Birkbeck expanded into East London in November 2013. The Stratford campus transferred to the adjacent University of East London in July 2021.
A building on Euston Road was refurbished by Penoyre & Prasad to be used by Birkbeck in 2021.
In 2021 it was announced that Birkbeck would be leasing Student Central. After refurbishment, the building reopened during the 2022-23 academic year.
== Organisation ==
=== Faculties and schools ===
The college was previously organised into five schools comprising 19 departments, but was reorganised into three faculties comprising nine schools in 2023:
Faculty of Business and Law
Birkbeck Business School
Birkbeck Law School
Faculty of Humanities and Social Science
School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication
School of Historical Studies
School of Social Sciences
Birkbeck Centre for Counselling
Faculty of Science
School of Computing and Mathematical …
