[3] Notable alumni include current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Keir Starmer, former Home and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, former co-chairman of the Conservative Party Sayeeda Warsi, Piers Sellers (NASA astronaut) and six Nobel laureates.

[12][13] The university's history is linked to the development of Leeds as an international centre for the textile industry and clothing manufacture in the United Kingdom during the Victorian era.

In 1884, the Yorkshire College absorbed the Leeds School of Medicine and subsequently joined the federal Victoria University (established at Manchester in 1880) on 3 November 1887.

It decided to pay the unprecedented salary of £400 per annum to Hannah Robertson who took on a double role of "Mistress of Method" in the Education department and as the Tutor of Women.

This was partially due to the potential benefits independent universities had for the cities, whilst the institutions were also unhappy with the practical difficulties posed by maintaining a federal arrangement across broad distances.

[19] In December 2004, financial pressures forced the university's governing body (the Council) to decide to close the Bretton campus.

Activities at Bretton were moved to the main university campus in the summer of 2007 (allowing all Bretton-based students to complete their studies there).

A new logo was produced, based on that used during the centenary celebrations in 2004, to replace the combined use of the modified university arms and the Parkinson Building, which has been in use since 2004.

Midway through the broadcast a small group of protesters against the potential rise of student debt entered the building before being restrained and evacuated.

The university has risen to 13th place overall, which reflects impressive results in student experience, high entry standards, services and facilities, and graduate prospects.

The university have also constructed further modern buildings on the business school area of campus known as the Innovation Hub; costing £9.3 million.

The buildings were designed by the renowned Victorian architect Alfred Waterhouse R.A in red pressed brick and had dressings of Bolton Wood stone in a Gothic Collegiate style.

The currently proposed Leeds Trolleybus (northern line) will run past the campus, linking it with the city centre, Headingley and Lawnswood.

[36][37] Works of public art on campus range from Eric Gill's controversial 1923 World War I memorial Christ driving the Moneychangers from the Temple in the foyer of the Rupert Beckett Building to Simon Fujiwara's 2015 9 metres (30 ft) A Spire outside the Laidlaw Library and Liliane Lijn's 2019 Converse Column at the south east entrance to the campus.

It is a 36 hectare site with over 60,000 "regionally appropriate" trees, including oak, hazel, and willow, providing a base for research, teaching, social opportunities and carbon capture.

[45] The university library houses numerous archives, rare books and some objects in its Special Collections ranging from 2,500 BC to the 21st century.

[84] The University of Leeds welcomes more than 9,000 international students from over 170 countries each year, making its campus one of the most diverse and multicultural in the UK.

[86] In the 2016–17 academic year, the university had a domicile breakdown of 77:4:18 of UK:EU:non-EU students respectively with a female to male ratio of 61:39.

It is responsible for the proper management and financial solvency of the university, with major policy decisions and corporate strategy being subject to its approval.

The university holds a number of formal links with institutions from around the world to share teaching and research and facilitate staff and student exchanges.

The first, named in the 1904 charter, was businessman and chairman of the Council of the Yorkshire College,[90] Arthur Greenhow Lupton, of a prosperous and prominent family long connected with Leeds and its university.

Examples of such dedications include The Edward Boyle Library, Bodington Hall (accommodation named in honour of the first Vice-Chancellor) and The Roger Stevens Building.

These include The Who who recorded Live at Leeds at the venue (originally in 1970, and then returned in June 2006 to recreate the original show), Bob Marley and the Wailers (as heard on the remastered 2004 Deluxe edition of Burnin' ), Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and more recently Muse (recorded and played on MTV), The Strokes, Bloc Party, Manic Street Preachers, KT Tunstall, Arctic Monkeys, The Coral and Paul Weller.

[citation needed] A £20 million spending plan was sanctioned with the aim to add facilities to the university's sporting provisions, including a 25m, 8 lane swimming pool and a 200 station health and fitness centre (known as The Edge) which opened in May 2010.

[112] The university also offers a range of sporting opportunities for students to gain experience and develop their skills by volunteering within the local community.

Former Leeds students involved in international organisations and politics include multiple current and former UK Members of Parliament and politicians, including current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Keir Starmer, former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw,[121] and cabinet ministers Clare Short and Sayeeda Warsi.

The former President of Mongolia, Nambaryn Enkhbayar, Former President of Namibia, Hage Geingob, current Secretary General of the OECD, Ángel Gurría, Malaysia politician state of Terengganu, Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar and the former Secretary General of the Red Cross, Bekele Geleta, also studied at the university.

Alumni from the media and related areas include the former Editor of the Daily Mail newspaper, Paul Dacre, world music broadcaster and DJs Andy Kershaw and Liz Kershaw, Moda Operandi editor Tatiana Hambro, IMDb founder Col Needham as well as CNN International news presenter, Richard Quest.

[121] Former students in the field of science and technology include NASA astronaut Piers Sellers, Nobel Prize winner and president of the Royal Society George Porter, researcher into breast cancer and the development of cancer drug Tamoxifen V. Craig Jordan, Edmund Happold, founder of Buro Happold, and materials scientist Stephen Eichhorn.

St George's Field, part of the University of Leeds campus, is the former Woodhouse Cemetery, where is buried Pablo Fanque (William Darby), who was a black circus proprietor for 30 years during the Victorian period.