[6] The college was built on land donated by Hull City Council and by two local benefactors, Thomas Ferens and G F Grant.

With the rapid expansion of student numbers which took place in the 1950s many academic departments were housed in temporary buildings, colloquially known as 'huts', which gave the campus the feel of an 'academic army camp'.

[7][8] The Dennison Centre on Cottingham Road was formerly the Brooklands Officers Hospital opened by the Red Cross in 1917.

The motto, Lampada Ferens (Bearing the Torch), incorporates the name of the university's founding father within a Latin pun.

[16] Within a year of the charter being granted applications to study at the new university had doubled, and in 1956 student numbers topped 1,000 for the first time.

[14] The period of rapid expansion of Hull University coincided with the vice-chancellorship of Sir Brynmor Jones (1956–1972), during whose time in office student numbers quadrupled.

Previously, the library had existed across two rooms in the Cohen Building, run by Agnes Cuming from its opening in 1929 until 1955.

However, student numbers doubled in this period, with the university becoming highly efficient in using its existing building stock.

[19] In 1972 George Gray and Ken Harrison created room-temperature stable liquid crystals in the university chemistry laboratories, which were an immediate success in the electronics industry and consumer products.

[19] In 2012, the university began the ambitious refurbishment of the Brynmor Jones Library, a £28 million project which will transform the 7 storey former workplace of Philip Larkin, into a learning hub suitable for students for years to come.

[23] The opening event of the whole year, from 1–7 January, included a multimedia projection called Arrivals and Departures which was greatly influenced by the work of Dr Nick Evans on migration patterns into and through Hull.

[24] In June 2024, University of Hull Vice-Chancellor Professor David Petley announced plans to cut up to 150 jobs (14% of the workforce) in response to a reduction in international student applications.

The main campus occupies a single, clearly defined site and is self-contained in regard to catering and entertainment for students and staff.

The large village of Cottingham on Hull's north-western outskirts housed for many years some of the university-owned student accommodation, although none are used for this purpose now.

The campus also contained basic amenities for study, such as computer labs, performance studios for students of Theatre and Dance related courses as well as dedicated music suites in the "Filey Road Studios" building opposite the campus.

In March 2015, it was revealed that the Hull College Group were the university's "preferred partners for taking forward the Scarborough Campus".

[32] Since September 2013, all undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses at the Leeds Conservatoire are validated by the University of Hull.

Notable centres for research include the Hull Immersive Visualisation Environment[36] (HIVE), the Institute for Estuarine and Coastal Studies[37] (IECS), the E.A.

A new biomedical research facility will bring academics from biology and chemistry together and will include Positron Emission Tomography with CT scanning (PET-CT) and two mini cyclotrons.

[citation needed] Most social science and law-related department housed in the refurbished Wilberforce Building.

Allam Medical Building contains mock clinical areas, wards, an operating theatre and a midwifery suite, within a simulated environment.

[citation needed] Established in August 1999, Hull University Business School has around 3,500 students from over 100 countries.

[50] The student union building comprises an on-site nightclub as well as a number of bars and catering outlets.

Student housing is based primarily in the terraced streets around the university campus itself, as well as around the Newland Avenue and Beverley Road areas of the city.

They include former MP and later Deputy Prime Minister Lord Prescott (John Prescott), former MP and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Lord Hattersley (Roy Hattersley), former Labour Party Leader in the European Parliament Richard Corbett, and former Labour MP and deputy leader Tom Watson, former Labour MP and author Chris Mullin, vaccinologist Dame Sarah Gilbert who was Project Lead on the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, social scientist Lord Giddens (Anthony Giddens), poet Roger McGough, journalist John McCarthy, film director, playwright and screenwriter the late Anthony Minghella.

The university's Brynmor Jones Library was the workplace of the poet Philip Larkin who served as its Head Librarian for over thirty years.