The University of Surrey, based in Guildford, first validated courses for the Roehampton Institute of Higher Education in Roehampton, London in 1980 and in 1998 the two institutions decided to form an academic federation.
[1] The body was officially formed on 14 January 2000 between the two institutions and as part of the merger, Roehampton Institute was renamed University of Surrey, Roehampton.
[2] In October 2003, the University of Surrey Roehampton announced that it would submit an application for independent university title to the Department for Education and Skills,[3][4] and the application was submitted on 18 March 2004.
The application was considered by the Privy Council, and on 23 June 2004, it was announced that an independent University charter was to be granted.
[6] During the years of the Federal University, the sports teams from the component institutions competed with each other in various disciplines at the Federal Sports Day.