Red Brick Universities

The Red Brick universities are six English civic universities established in the major industrial cities during the Victorian era, between 1900 and 1909: Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, and Sheffield. The term, coined by Edgar Peers in 1943, refers to the distinctive red brick buildings of these institutions, in contrast to the ancient stone of Oxford and Cambridge. These universities were founded to provide practical, vocational education for the growing industrial middle class and played a crucial role in democratizing higher education in Britain. Today, all six are members of the Russell Group and rank among the UK's top research universities.