Bangor University () is a public research university in Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales. It was established in 1884 as the University College of North Wales (UCNW; ), and received a Royal Charter in 1885. In 1893 it became one of the founding institutions of the federal University of Wales. In 1996, after structural changes to the University of Wales, it became known as the University of Wales, Bangor (UWB; ). It became independent of the University of Wales in 2007, adopting its current name and awarding its own degrees.
The university has over 10,000 students across three academic colleges and eleven schools, as well as several large research institutes. Its campus makes up a large part of Bangor and extends to nearby Menai Bridge as well, with a second campus in Wrexham teaching some healthcare courses.
Its total income for 2022/23 was £178.0 million, of which 19% came from research grants, and it has an endowment of £8.2 million. Its alumni include several fellows of the Royal Society, as well as heads of state and Nobel Prize winners.
History University College
Origins In 1858, the British and Foreign School Society and Hugh Owen founded the Normal College, Bangor, for training teachers for its British Schools in Wales.
In October 1872, University College Wales, Aberystwyth opened, with 26 students. In October 1875, chapels in Wales raised the next tranche of funds from over 70,000 contributors.
The foundation of the University College of North Wales in 1884 was the result of a campaign for better higher education in Wales. In 1880, parliament appointed Lord Aberdare to chair a Departmental Committee on Intermediate and Higher Education in Wales and Monmouthshire, and in 1881 it published the Aberdare Report, which recommended the creation of two further university colleges in Wales, one in the south and another in the north."The birth of Bangor's university", BBC News, 25 September 2009, accessed 2 November 2025 At the beginning of 1883, a conference took place at Chester to consider the question of a college for North Wales, and this passed a resolution which created a committee for choosing a location and pursuing the matter."THE COLLEGE FOR NORTH WALES", Liverpool Mercury, Thursday 1 February 1883, p. 6 In January, Lord Penrhyn, Lord Lieutenant of Caernarvonshire, promised a contribution of £1,000."The College for North Wales", London Evening Standard, Friday 19 January 1883, p. 8 By May of that year, £6,000 had been raised for establishing such a college, and the British government had promised an annual grant of £4,000 towards its running costs."THE COLLEGE FOR NORTH WALES", Derbyshire Advertiser and Journal, Friday 4 May 1883, p. 6 As it became clear that the planning was likely to succeed, there was intense rivalry among the towns of North Wales over which was to be the home of the new college, and several of them established local committees to pursue their claims."COLLEGE FOR NORTH WALES", Leytonstone Express and Independent, Saturday 26 May 1883, p. 6 Bangor, Caernarfon, Conwy, Denbigh, Rhyl, and Wrexham were on the shortlist of the General Purposes Committee of the College for North Wales, and in the end Bangor was chosen.Portico of Penrhyn Arms Hotel, Bangor, historypoints.org, accessed 2 November 2025
The arrangements for the college's future were secured and settled by the General Purposes Committee and the Draft and Charter Committee in the first half of 1884. In May, a report was published which stated that the Penrhyn Arms Hotel, Bangor, had been leased from Lord Penrhyn for twenty years, at a rent of £200 a year, with the option to terminate the lease after seven or fourteen years."University College of North Wales", Wrexham Advertiser, Friday 2 May 1884, p. 8"North Wales College", Eddowes's Shrewsbury Journal, Wednesday 7 May 1884, p. 3 Work to adapt the hotel for use by the new college began in June."The North Wales College", Rhyl Record and Advertiser, Saturday 31 May 1884, p. 4 A College Council was established, chaired by Colonel the Hon. William E. Sackville-West, meeting initially at a hotel in Chester."UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF NORTH WALES", Liverpool Mercury, Monday 8 September 1884, p. 7 Henry Reichel, a 27-year-old Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, was appointed as the college's first Principal,REICHEL, Sir HARRY (HENRY RUDOLF) (1856 - 1931), first principal of University College, Bangor" Welsh Biography online, accessed 3 November 2025"Reichel, Sir Harry (Rudolf)", Who Was Who, online edition by Oxford University Press, December 2007, accessed 3 November 2025 and applications were invited for teaching positions."University College for North Wales", Eddowes's Shrewsbury Journal, Wednesday 10 September 1884, p. 8 It was announced that the college would open in the third week in October, and the Earl of Derby was invited to give an inaugural address."Opening of the University College for North Wales", Nuneaton Advertiser, Saturday 6 September 1884, p. 6 Sackville-West petitioned Queen Victoria for a Royal charter of incorporation for the college at Bangor, and it was hoped that this would be considered at a Privy Council meeting on 21 October."University College for North Wales", London Evening Standard, Saturday 13 September 1884, p. 5 The first Duke of Westminster, Lord Penrhyn, and others, gave scholarships, and in the second week of September examinations for these took place in several towns."UNIVERSITY COLLEGE FOR NORTH WALES", Manchester Courier, Saturday 13 September 1884, p. 5 The names of the scholars were announced on 20 September. Three of the six scholarships worth £50 a year each were awarded, and seven out of the eight scholarships worth £30 each."UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF NORTH WALES: The scholarships and exhibitions", North Wales Chronicle, Saturday 20 September 1884, p. 5 Others wishing to join the college as students were invited to send their names to the Registrar by 4 October, together with a birth certificate and "a satisfactory testimonial to character".UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF NORTH WALES: DATE OF REGISTRATION, OCTOBER 4TH", North Wales Chronicle, Saturday 27 September 1884, p. 1
There was a formal opening ceremony at the Penrhyn Arms Hotel, renamed as Penrhyn Hall, on 18 October 1884, and in the event the inaugural address was by the Earl of Powis, the college's first president.David Roberts (2009) Bangor University 1884–2009, University of Wales Press There was then a procession to the college including 3,000 quarrymen, as quarrymen from Penrhyn Quarry and other quarries had subscribed more than £1,200 for the college.The Times, Monday, 20 October 1884; pg. 7; Issue 31269; col F
Early years When the college opened in October 1884 it had just 58 students, who were to receive their degrees from the University of London. At the outset, it had academic staff teaching Greek, philosophy, mathematics, history, English, physics, and chemistry. It was incorporated by a Royal Charter in 1885.
The relationship with the University of London continued until 1893, when the college became a founding constituent institution of the federal University of Wales. In that year, the "Bangor dispute" led to the closure of the Women's Hall. Its head, Frances Hughes, who was in the eye of the storm, resigned from the college.
20th century In 1903, the city of Bangor donated a 10-acre site at Penrallt for a new college building, and funds for it were raised by local people. The new building, now known as Main Arts, was opened in 1911.
During the Second World War, paintings from national art galleries were stored in the Prichard-Jones Hall at UCNW, to protect them from enemy bombing. They were later moved to slate mines at Blaenau Ffestiniog. Students from University College London were evacuated to continue their studies in a safer environment at Bangor.
During the 1960s, the university shared in the general expansion of higher education in the United Kingdom following the Robbins Report, with many new departments and new buildings. In 1967, the Bangor Normal College, now part of the university, was the venue for lectures on Transcendental Meditation by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at which the Beatles heard of the death of their manager, Brian Epstein.
Student protests at UCNW in the 1970s focused mainly on calls to expand the role of the Welsh language. Radical students would disturb lectures held in English and paint slogans in Welsh on the walls of the Main Building, resulting in some suspensions of these activists. In the early 1980s, the Thatcher government even considered closing down the institution. Around this time consideration began of mergers with two colleges of education in Bangor: St Mary's College, a college for women studying to become schoolteachers, and the larger and older Normal College. The merger of St Mary's into UCNW was concluded in 1977, but the merger with Normal College fell through in the 1970s and was not completed until 1996.
Alongside the eventual merger of Normal College, the North Wales College of Nursing and Midwifery merged with the university in 1992, forming a new Faculty of Health Studies. A year later it also took over the small North Wales College of Radiography.
Independence and development The university made a formal application for degree-awarding powers in 2005. The 2007 a change of name to Bangor University, or Prifysgol Bangor in Welsh, was instigated by the university following the decision of the University of Wales to change from a federal university to a confederal non-membership organisation, and the granting of degree-awarding powers to Bangor University itself.
As a result, every student starting after 2009 gained a degree from Bangor University, while any student who started before 2009 had the option to have either Bangor University or University of Wales Bangor on their degree certificate.
Despite the effective abolition of the federal university system, a research and enterprise partnership with Aberystwyth University was agreed in 2006, with £11 million of funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales.
Expansion and financial issues Under John Hughes' leadership as Vice-Chancellor from 2010 to 2018, there were several new developments including the opening of St Mary's Student Village, and the first-ever collaboration between Wales and China to establish a new college, which involved Bangor University and the Central South University of Forestry and Technology (CSUFT).
In 2014, the university secured a £45M loan from the European Investment Bank, to assist the university in developing its estates strategy. In 2016, the university opened Marine Centre Wales, a £5.5M building on the site of the university's Ocean Sciences campus in Menai Bridge, which was financed as part of the £25 million SEACAMS project, partly funded through the European Regional Development Fund.
In May 2017, Bangor became the fourth Welsh university to review its cost base to make savings of £8.5M. The university responded and introduced several cost-saving measures including a reorganisation of the structure of Colleges and Schools and the introduction of a voluntary severance scheme, and several compulsory redundancies was reduced from the initial estimate of 170. In addressing its financial challenges, Bangor University also reorganised some subject areas in 2017, which involved introducing new ways of coordinating and delivering adult education and part-time degree programmes, continuing to teach archaeology, but discontinuing the single honours course, and working with Grwp Llandrillo Menai to validate the BA Fine Arts degree.