History of the University of Leicester
The university was founded as Leicestershire and Rutland University College in 1921. The site for the university was donated by a local textile manufacturer, Thomas Fielding Johnson, in order to create a living memorial for those who lost their lives in First World War. This is reflected in the University's motto Ut Vitam Habeant –"so that they may have life".
Students were first admitted to the college in 1921. In 1927, after it became University College, Leicester, students sat the examinations for external degrees of the University of London. Two years later it merged with the Vaughan Working Men's College, which had been providing adult education in Leicester since 1862. In 1957 the University College was granted its Royal Charter, and has since then had the status of a university with the right to award its own degrees. Leicester University won the first ever series of University Challenge, in 1963.