[11] The university college underwent significant expansion in the 1920s, when it moved from the centre of Nottingham to a large campus on the city's outskirts.

The new campus, called University Park, was completed in 1928, and financed by an endowment fund, public contributions, and the generosity of Sir Jesse Boot (later Lord Trent) who presented 35 acres (14 ha) to the City of Nottingham in 1921.

[13] Boot and his fellow benefactors sought to establish an "elite seat of learning" committed to widening participation,[14] and hoped that the move would solve the problems facing University College Nottingham, in its restricted building on Shakespeare Street.

Boot stipulated that, whilst part of the Highfields site, lying south-west of the city, should be devoted to the University College, the rest should provide a place of recreation for the residents of the city, and, by the end of the decade, the landscaping of the lake and public park adjoining University Boulevard was completed.

[15] University College Nottingham was initially accommodated within the Trent Building, an imposing white limestone structure with a distinctive clock tower, designed by Morley Horder, and formally opened by King George V on 10 July 1928.

During this period of development, Nottingham attracted high-profile lecturers, including Albert Einstein, H. G. Wells, and Mahatma Gandhi.

In 1933–34, the Departments of Electrical Engineering, Zoology and Geography, which had been combined with other subjects, were made independent; and in 1938 a supplemental Charter provided for a much wider representation on the Governing Body.

The D.H. Lawrence Pavilion houses a range of cultural facilities, including a 225 capacity theatre space, a series of craft cabinets, the Weston Gallery (which displays the university's manuscript collection), the Wallner gallery, which exists as a platform for local and regional artists, and a series of visual arts, performance and hospitality spaces.

[23][24] Jubilee Campus, designed by Sir Michael Hopkins, was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1999, and is approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) from University Park.

Additional investment of £9.2 million in Jubilee Campus was completed in 2004, with a second building for Nottingham University Business School opened by Lord Sainsbury.

The campus was expanded in 2009 to house a new institute of public health and a specialist centre for tobacco research.

The campus is centred on the historic manor of Sutton Bonington and retains many of its own botanic gardens and lakes.

King's Meadow Campus was established in 2005 on the former Central Independent Television Studios site on Lenton Lane.

The first stage in this strategy was the establishment in 1999 of a campus in Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia, a short distance from Kuala Lumpur.

The £40 million Ningbo campus was completed in 2005, and was officially opened by John Prescott, the UK's Deputy Prime Minister, in February 2006.

The SNAA will deliver joint courses in Shanghai including periods of study in Nottingham, with teaching and research at undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral levels.

Other innovations at the university include cochlear implants for deaf children and the brace-for-impact position used in aircraft.

In 2015, the Assemble collective, of which the part-time Architecture Department tutor Joseph Halligan is a member, won the Turner Prize, Europe's most prestigious art award.

GEP was established in the Nottingham School of Economics in 2001, and conducts research activities structured on the theme of globalisation.

[60] In the 2016–17 academic year, the university had a domicile breakdown of 78:5:17 of UK:EU:non-EU students respectively with a female to male ratio of 55:45.

[78] Nottingham is ranked 2nd in the UK (after Oxford) and 13th in the world in terms of the number of alumni listed among CEOs of the 500 largest companies worldwide.

The Union has the largest student-run RAG organisation outside of the US, "Karnival" (abbreviated to "Karni"), which raised £1.61 million in 2012.

The halls are generally named either after counties, districts, or places in the East Midlands or significant people associated with the university.

[88] On 14 May 2008, Hicham Yezza, a member of staff, and Rizwaan Sabir, a postgraduate student, were arrested at the University of Nottingham and were detained for six days under the Terrorism Act 2000.

The university informed the police after finding an edited version of the al-Qaeda training manual the student was using for his research.

[91] For a 2011 conference of the British International Studies Association, Thornton prepared a paper which alleged the university had engaged in systematic persecution against Yezza, Sabir, and junior academics in the department.

[94] In 2011, a campaign was launched calling for the reinstatement of Rod Thornton and for a public inquiry into the university's actions.

In the 2020–21 academic year, students of the University of Nottingham organised large-scale campaigning against the university management team and specifically the Vice-Chancellor, Shearer West, for wider academic, welfare, and financial support for students, due to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic.

[97][98][99] As of 4 February, the university administration initiated a safety net policy, for a variety of assignment types, in partial compliance with student demands.

At the start of the 2021–22 academic year, Patrick McKinney, Bishop of Nottingham, appointed Fr David Palmer to position of Catholic Chaplain to the university.