• In taking this step toward a full merger, the two Institutions are totally motivated by their commitment to the pursuit of academic excellence – in teaching, scholarship and research – across the full range of arts; humanities; social sciences; physical sciences; engineering and bio-medical sciences.
• Their vision is to achieve quality driven pre-eminence on the international scene – not just in the UK – recognising the increasing globalisation of education and research.
• Size for its own sake is not a driver. However, scale built on excellence does bring many potential advantages, including:
• Coherent estates and SRIF II strategy.
• Funding organic growth based on excellence in arts and humanities
• Optimal use of expensive and scarce research resources - already recognised in joint commitment to London Nanotechnology Centre, for example
• Capability to respond to research funding strategy based on regional centres of excellence.
• Possessing the interdisciplinary strengths essential to participation in important new research areas.
• Unrivalled clinical links with major general and specialist hospitals, thus encouraging translational research in biomedicine.
• Further improvements in quality, diversity of choice and innovation in undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.
• Greater opportunities for international partnerships in both teaching and research.
• Opportunities to improve student facilities.
• A major attraction to the best students and staff – particularly important in any new undergraduate funding regime.
• Strengthened IPR portfolio across all disciplines for commercialisation.
• Greater (non-competitive) appeal to potential benefactors.
• Opportunities to build on shared experience in developing access/reachout.
• Similar opportunities to share expertise across range of administration and support services.
• The opportunity to capitalise on a set of internationally famous specialist hospitals and their associated postgraduate institutes to promote clinical scientific research of the very highest calibre for the benefit of the NHS in general through facilitated collaborations and interactions.
About 3,000 research-active permanent academic staff;
About 3,600 research staff;
About 4,000 research students.
Supported by a total research income of £400 M. P.A.