of £234.2 million. The university also generates £559 million annually for the regional economy, and has one of the highest percentages of 1st and 2:1 undergraduate degrees.
UEA's alumni, faculty and researchers, include three Nobel Prize laureates, a co-discoverer of the Hepatitis C and D genomes, as well as the small interfering RNA, a co-inventor of the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, one President of the Royal Society, three Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences, six National Teaching Fellows, eight Fellows of the British Academy, and a number of Fellows of the Royal Society. Alumni also include CEOs, one current monarch and former prime minister, two de facto heads of state, one vice president, one deputy prime minister, two former Leaders of the House of Lords, along with winners of the Lasker Award, Booker Prize, Caine Prize and Costa Book Award.
== History ==
=== 1960s ===
Attempts to establish a university in Norwich were made in 1919 and 1947, but due to a lack of government funding on both occasions the plans had to be postponed. The University of East Anglia was eventually set up in April 1960 for biological sciences and English studies students. Initially, teaching took place in the temporary "University Village", which was officially opened by the chairman of the University Grants Committee, Keith Murray, on 29 September 1963. Sited on the opposite side of Earlham Road to the present campus, this was a collection of prefabricated structures designed for 1,200 students, laid out by the local architectural firm Feilden and Mawson. There were no residences with the vice-chancellor and administration being based in nearby Earlham Hall. UEA was one of the "plate glass universities" that were constructed during the decade to meet the demand for the expansion of higher education.
In 1961, the first vice-chancellor, Frank Thistlethwaite, had approached architect Denys Lasdun, an adherent of the "New Brutalist" trend in architecture, who was at that time building Fitzwilliam College, to produce …
