University College, Reading ===
The university owes its first origins to the Schools of Art and Science established in Reading in 1860 and 1870. In 1892, the College at Reading was founded as an extension college by Christ Church, a college of the University of Oxford. It opened in September of that year under the name of The University Extension College in Conjunction with the Schools of Science and Art, Reading, which was soon shortened the following spring to The University Extension College, Reading. The first president was the geographer Sir Halford John Mackinder, and the college's first home was the old hospitium building behind Reading Town Hall. The Schools of Art and Science were transferred to the new college by Reading Town Council in 1892.
The new college was incorporated in 1896 and was approved to participate in the Parliamentary grant to university colleges by the Commissioners of the Treasury in 1901, resulting in it changing its name to University College, Reading in 1902. Three years later it was given a site, now the university's London Road Campus, by the Palmer family (connected with the firm of Huntley & Palmers). The same family supported the opening of Wantage Hall in 1908 and of the Research Institute in Dairying in 1912.
=== University status ===
The college first applied for a royal charter in 1920 but was unsuccessful at that time. However a second petition, in 1925, was successful, and the charter was officially granted on 17 March 1926. With the charter, the college became the University of Reading, the only new university to be created in the United Kingdom between the two world wars. It was added to the Combined English Universities constituency in 1928 in time for the 1929 general election.
In 1947, the university purchased Whiteknights Park, which was to become its principal campus. In 1984, the university started a merger with Bulmershe College of Higher Education, which was completed in 1989.
=== 2006–present ===
In October 2006, the Senior Management Board proposed the closure …
