The University of Hertfordshire (UH) is a public research university in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. It is based primarily in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Its antecedent institution, Hatfield Technical College, was founded in 1948 and was identified as one of 25 Colleges of Technology in the United Kingdom in 1959. In 1992, Hatfield Polytechnic was granted university status by the British government and subsequently renamed the University of Hertfordshire. It is one of the post-1992 universities.
Hertfordshire is mainly based at two campuses: College Lane and de Havilland. The university has six schools: Hertfordshire Business School, Creative Arts, Education, Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Hertfordshire Law School, and Physics, Engineering and Computer Science.
As of 2024, it has around 34,000 students, including more than 19,000 international students that together represent 110 countries, making the university host the highest proportion of international students (outside of London) in England. The university is one of Hertfordshire's largest employers with over 3,400 staff, 2,045 of whom are academic members of staff. The annual income of the institution for 2021–22 was £317.5 million of which £9 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £305.3 million. Hertfordshire is a member of University Alliance, Universities UK and European University Association.
History
Origins
The original campus for the university was at Roe Green in Hatfield, where it was founded as a technical college with a particular focus on training aerospace engineers for the aerospace industry that was then a feature of Hatfield. The Gape family of St Michael's Manor in St Albans owned the land at Roe Green from the late 17th century. In the 1920s they sold it to Hill, a farmer, who then sold it to Alan Butler, chairman of the de Havilland Aircraft Company who lived at Beech Farm nearby. In 1944 he donated of land at Roe Green to be used for educational purposes. In 1948 building commenced. The first principal, W. A. J. Chapman, began work on 1 January 1949, and in spring 1952 the 33 full-time and 66 part-time teachers were appointed. Hatfield Technical College opened with 1,738 students in September 1952, and in December it was formally opened by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. It was the first large technical college to be established in England after the war. Students attended the college on part-time or full-time courses.
In 1958 it was renamed Hatfield College of Technology, and by 1960 it offered four-year sandwich diplomas in technology. In 1961 it was designated a regional college in England and Wales by the Ministry of Education. The governors purchased a digital computer at a cost of £29,201 in 1962 so that a computer science degree could be established. The Council for National Academic Awards was formed in 1965 and Hatfield College was recognised for 13 honours degree courses.
Sir Norman Lindop became the Principal of the College of Technology in 1966. A year later L.E. Haines was made Chair of Governors, but he died shortly afterwards and was replaced by F. Bramston Austin. A year later, Bayfordbury was acquired for the college.
20th century
In 1969 Hatfield College of Technology became Hatfield Polytechnic, offering honours degree courses in engineering and technology. In 1970 an observatory was built on the Bayfordbury Campus. Wall Hall and Balls Park Teacher Training Colleges merged in 1976 to become Hertfordshire College of Higher Education. In the same year Hatfield Polytechnic took over Balls Park. By 1977 more than ten per cent of the 4000 students came from more than forty different countries. The Students' Union Social Centre opened in 1977.
In 1982 John Illston succeeded Sir Norman Lindop as the director. A sports hall was built on the Hatfield Campus in 1984 and the number of students in that year was more than 5000. The number of staff, in the same year, had increased to 824.
Neil Buxton became its director in 1987. The following year, Sir Ron Dearing and Buxton signed an agreement that gave the polytechnic accreditation from the Council for National Academic Awards. Hatfield was one of only 21 polytechnics, colleges and Scottish Central institutions to be accredited at the time. Hatfield was also, in that year, one of eight polytechnics accredited for research degrees. In 1989 it was given corporate status.
After John Major announced in 1991 that polytechnics were to be abolished, Hatfield Polytechnic announced its intention to apply for university status. In 1992 it became the University of Hertfordshire and Sir Brian Corby became the first Chancellor. It was the first university to run a bus company by making Uno bus public. The Hertfordshire College of Health Care and Nursing Studies and the Barnet College of Nursing and Midwifery merged with the university in 1993.
In 1992, Hatfield Polytechnic was granted university status by the British government and subsequently renamed University of Hertfordshire. Its antecedent institution, Hatfield Technical College, was founded in 1948 and was identified as one of 25 Colleges of Technology in the United Kingdom in 1959.
In 1994 the St Albans Cathedral was chosen to hold the university's graduation ceremonies. The same year saw the first publication of league tables and Hertfordshire was named as the top new university. In 1995 its law school moved to St Albans. Sir Ian MacLaurin was appointed chancellor in 1996 and in 1997 the Learning Resource Centre opened.
21st century In 2000, Olivia de Havilland, cousin of Geoffrey de Havilland, visited the university to mark the inauguration of a project to build a new campus named after her cousin. The university's 50th anniversary was celebrated in 2002, by which time it had 21,695 students. In 2003 Tim Wilson succeeded Neil Buxton as vice-chancellor and the de Havilland campus opened.
Hertfordshire Sports Village also opened in 2003.Brave Herts The Guardian, 23 September 2003 In 2005 the university launched the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Postgraduate Medical School and School of Pharmacy to enhance medical education, training and research in the region.Corporate Plan HertsDirect In 2006 the university opened its School of Film, Music and Media. The university opened the MacLaurin building in 2007, named in honour of its former chancellor Lord MacLaurin followed by a new law building in 2011.Case Study – University of Hertfordshire Law Court Building Breathing buildings During this period, Hertfordshire became a lead academic sponsor of Elstree University Technical College, a university technical college which opened in September 2013.Elstree University Technical College HertsDirect Hertfordshire is also the academic sponsor of Watford University Technical College
In 2010, Tim Wilson announced his intention to retire as vice-chancellor after more than 19 years at the university.
In 2011, Quintin McKellar replaced Tim Wilson as vice-chancellor of the university. Also on the same year, the Hatfield Beacon was restored and repositioned at the new Law School site. In the following year, the Kaspar project received a £180,000 donation from an international grant making foundation, which was used to further the university's research into the use of robotics to support the social development of children with autism.
In 2015, Hertfordshire adopted a policy of naming its buildings after people or organisations with a significant local or regional impact. These include Kate Bellingham, British engineer and television presenter and Alistair Spalding, chief executive and artistic director of Sadler's Wells Theatre. All of the halls are named after influential alumni who the university feels represent the attributes of Hertfordshire graduates. In these two cases, the halls were named in recognition of Bellingham and Spalding's attributes of intellectual depth and adaptability and professionalism, employability and enterprise. In the same year, the University of Hertfordshire was announced as one of the first recipients of the Race Equality Charter which is an initiative that recognises excellence in advancing racial equality in higher education. The charter was launched by the Equality Challenge Unit at the start of the 2015 academic year.
In 2020, the University of Hertfordshire Observatory celebrated its 50th anniversary, and revealed an eight-year-long exposure photograph, breaking the record of longest exposure. The artist, Regina Valkenborgh, was a Master's student in August 2012, when she set the pinhole camera attached to one of the telescope domes in the Observatory. The camera was then forgotten, and rediscovered in September 2020 by the Observatory's Principal Technical officer. The photograph registered the path of the sun over the sky during the 2,953 days it was exposed to it.
In 2024, the University of Hertfordshire hosted the European Maccabi Youth Games from 28 July to 6 August. This marked the first time the event was held in the United Kingdom, bringing together 900 young Jewish athletes from 14 countries, including Great Britain, United States, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, South Africa, Hungary, Austria, Slovakia, France, Italy, Argentina, and Israel.
In November 2025, following a routine UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) audit in June, the university was placed on a student visa "action plan" by the Home Office due to identified shortcomings in monitoring international students' immigration status and record-keeping. At least eight other UK higher education institutions have been placed on action plans in 2025. The university remains licensed to sponsor student visas.
Organisation and administration
The university was established as an independent Higher Education Corporation in 1989 under the terms of the Education Reform Act (1989). The institution is an exempt charity. The board of governors has responsibility for running the university, while the academic board is responsible for academic quality and standards, academic policies, research and scholarship. The vice-chancellor oversees its day-to-day running. The current chancellor is Grace Ononiwu and the current vice-chancellor is Anthony Woodman.
The following people have been vice-chancellors of the university. Neil Buxton (1987-2003) Tim Wilson (2003–2010) Quintin McKellar (2011–2025) Anthony Woodman (2025–present)
The university runs on a three-term calendar in which the academic year is divided into three terms: Autumn (September–December), Spring (January–April), and Summer(April–May). Full-time undergraduate students take three to four courses every year for approximately eleven weeks before their quarterly academic breaks. The school year typically begins in late September and ends in mid-May.
Schools The university offers over 700 degree courses in its 6 schools of study, within which there are around 50 academic departments and 24 research centres. Hertfordshire Business School Creative Arts Education Health, Medicine and Life Sciences Hertfordshire Law School Physics, Engineering and Computer Science
Charity Being a Higher Education Corporation created by the 1988 Education Reform Act as amended by the 1992 Act, the University of Hertfordshire is an exempt charity as defined under the various Charities Acts.
The University of Hertfordshire has due regard to the Charity Commission's guidance on the reporting of public benefit, and particularly its supplementary guidance on the advancement of education, in accordance with the requirements of HEFCE, the Higher Education Funding Council for England, as the principal regulator of English higher education institutions under the Charities Act 2006.
The university has entered an agreement with the Office for Students (OFS) to demonstrate that access to programmes of full-time undergraduate education should not be limited on grounds of individual financial circumstances.