About
The University of Bedfordshire is a public research university with campuses in Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, England. The university has roots in further and higher education from 1882: it gained university status in 1993 as the University of Luton. The university changed its name to the University of Bedfordshire in 2006, following the merger of the University of Luton with the Bedford campus of De Montfort University.
It is spread across five campuses: there are three in Bedfordshire, in Bedford and Luton; and two in Buckinghamshire, in Aylesbury (for students studying Nursing and Midwifery), and in Milton Keynes. It is also active in London and Birmingham, as well as globally, with a growing portfolio of international partnerships as far afield as Trinidad and Tobago, Egypt, Vietnam, Oman and Mauritius.
The university has around 20,000 students from over 100 countries, with around 40 academic partners, both in the UK and overseas, to deliver a range of course from foundation degrees to doctorates. More than 40% of its student population come from families with no history of participation in higher education. Around 70% are mature returners to education and over half are from black or ethnic minority backgrounds.
The current Chancellor is British journalist and author Sarfraz Manzoor.