UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL

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The University of Bristol received its royal charter in 1909 although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Bristol, which had been in existence since 1876.
The university is organised into six academic faculties composed of multiple schools and departments running over two hundred undergraduate courses, in the Tyndalls Park area of the city. Bristol is a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities, the European-wide Coimbra Group and the Worldwide Universities Network, of which the university's previous vice-chancellor, Eric Thomas, was chairman from 2005 to 2007. In addition, the university holds an Erasmus Charter, sending more than five hundred students per year to partner institutions in Europe. The university does not have a main campus but is spread over a considerable geographic area with most of its activities, concentrated in the area of the city centre, referred to as the 'University Precinct'.