[1] The establishment of a university in Newcastle upon Tyne was first proposed in 1831 by Thomas Greenhow in a lecture to the Literary and Philosophical Society.

In 1834 the lectures and practical demonstrations moved to the Hall of the Company of Barber Surgeons to accommodate the growing number of students, and the School of Medicine and Surgery was formally established on 1 October 1834.

[9][10][11] On 25 June 1851, following a dispute among the teaching staff, the school was formally dissolved and the lecturers split into two rival institutions.

By 1908, the Newcastle division was teaching a full range of subjects in the Faculties of Medicine, Arts, and Science, which also included agriculture and engineering.

Further growth of both division of the federal university led to tensions within the structure and a feeling that it was too large to manage as a single body.

It is located to the northwest of the city centre between the open spaces of Leazes Park and the Town Moor; the university medical school and Royal Victoria Infirmary are adjacent to the west.

The building was constructed in three stages;[24] the north east wing was completed first at a cost of £18,000 and opened by Princess Louise on 5 November 1888.

The north-west front, forming the main entrance, was completed in 1906 and features two stone figures to represent science and the arts.

Much of the later construction work was financed by Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell, the metallurgist and former Lord Mayor of Newcastle, after whom the main tower is named.

In 1949 the Quadrangle was turned into a formal garden in memory of members of Newcastle University who gave their lives in the two World Wars.

[29] In 2017, a statue of Martin Luther King Jr. was erected in the inner courtyard of the Armstrong Building, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his honorary degree from the university.

It uses photovoltaic cells to help to power motorised shades that control the temperature of the building and geothermal heating coils.

They included a redevelopment of the south-east (Haymarket) façade with a five-storey King's Gate administration building as well as new student accommodation.

The main building provides 18 new teaching rooms, a Learning Resource Centre, a lecture theatre, science lab, administrative and academic offices and restaurant.

[40] In addition to the city centre campus there are buildings such as the Dove Marine Laboratory located on Cullercoats Bay,[41] and Cockle Park Farm in Northumberland.

[45] Popular Newcastle areas for private student houses and flats off campus include Jesmond, Heaton, Sandyford, Shieldfield, South Shields and Spital Tongues.

The Great North Museum: Hancock originally opened in 1884 and is often a venue for the university's events programme.

[59] Among the eminent economists having served in the Department (both as holders of the Sir David Dale Chair) are Harry Mainwaring Hallsworth and Stanley Dennison.

[61] The course offers an accelerated route towards the ACA Chartered Accountancy qualification and is the Business School's Flagship programme.

[61] In 2011 the business school opened their new building built on the former Scottish and Newcastle brewery site next to St James' Park.

[44] The Royal Victoria Infirmary has always had close links with the Faculty of Medical Sciences as a major teaching hospital.

The Staff Offices, the Alumni Lecture Theatre and seminar rooms as well as the Law Library are all located within the School buildings.

[72] Research areas include Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and ubiquitous computing, secure and resilient systems, synthetic biology, scalable computing (high performance systems, data science, machine learning and data visualization), and advanced modelling.

[77] The university's Hatton Gallery is also a part of the Great North Museum project, and remains within the Fine Art Building.

[1] Due to a decline in the intake of international students as of 2025, the university is undergoing 300 full-time job cuts to recover from a £35 million shortfall.

[95] 25.1% of Newcastle's undergraduates are privately educated, the thirteenth highest proportion amongst mainstream British universities.

[96] In the 2016–17 academic year, the university had a domicile breakdown of 74:5:21 of UK:EU:non-EU students respectively with a female to male ratio of 51:49.

The Union building was built in 1924 following a generous gift from an anonymous donor, who is now believed to have been Sir Cecil Cochrane, a major benefactor to the university.

[101] The Students' Union also employs around 300 people in ancillary roles including bar staff and entertainment organisers.

The Stan Calvert Cup[108] was held between 1994 and 2018 by major sports teams from Newcastle and Northumbria University.