Member institutions of the University of London

rdf:langString Member institutions of the University of London

rdf:langString Member institutions of the University of London are colleges and universities that are members of the federal University of London. The University of London was initially configured as an examining board for affiliated colleges, but was reconfigured as a teaching university for London, with many London colleges becoming schools of the university, in 1900. Since the 1990s it has trended towards much greater autonomy for its colleges. Common assessment standards by subject no longer exist across the university nor is shared teaching or cross-registration commonplace. The evolution towards greater decentralization within the university has had three major impacts functionally. First, member institutions have taken different approaches in emphasizing their ties to the federal university (for example in formal branding or via participation in shared services such as intercollegiate housing for London based students). Second, because select member institutions have autonomous degree granting powers apart from the federal university, while all students who complete their studies are deemed graduates of the federal university itself, only some students are deemed graduates of the specific member institution that supported their studies. For instance, the London School of Economics only awards LSE degrees and confers alumni status to students who complete some portion of their studies at the LSE. In contrast, the several thousand students studying on LSE directed degrees externally receive a University of London degree and are not deemed alumni of the LSE proper. Finally, the federal university has purposefully exercised little discipline over subject content or the development of new academic programs such that duplicate programs are commonplace. For example, eight member institutions now offer some version of a qualifying first professional degree in law, several have launched statistics programs to meet growing demand for the field.