Cardiff University is a leading research university located in the Cathays Park area of Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom. It received its Royal charter in 1883 and is a member of the Russell Group of Universities. The university is consistently recognised as providing the best university education in Wales. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, almost 60 per cent of all research at Cardiff University was assessed as world-leading or internationally excellent – 4* and 3* the top two categories of assessment. Ranked number 122 of the world's top universities, Cardiff University celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2008. Before August 2004, the university was officially known as University of Wales, Cardiff.
The Aberdare Report of 1881 recommended the foundation of university colleges in North Wales and South Wales to complement the already established University College, Wales (now the University of Wales, Aberystwyth), in Aberystwyth.In 1931, the School of Medicine, which had been founded as part of the College in 1893 when the Departments of Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Pharmacology were founded, was split off to form the University of Wales College of Medicine. In 1972, the College was renamed University College, Cardiff.
In 2005, The Wales College of Medicine, which is part of the University, launched the North Wales Clinical School in Wrexham in collaboration with the North East Wales Institute of Higher Education in Wrexham and the University of Wales, Bangor and with the National Health Service in Wales. The university also has a popular Centre for Lifelong Learning which has been teaching a wide range of courses to the public for over 125 years. In June 2010, the University launched three new Research Institutes, each of which offers a new approach to a major issue. They are the Cancer Stem Cell Research Institute, the Sustainable Places Research Institute, and the Neurosciences & Mental Health Research Institute.
Cardiff University has a long standing tradition of providing the best education in Wales, as shown in its five year standing as the best centre of excellence in Wales in the Sunday Times League Tables. Cardiff is also the only university in Wales to be a member of the Russell Group of Research Intensive Universities.
Times Higher Education ranked Cardiff University 99th in the top 100 universities in the world in 2007, although by 2008 it had dropped 34 places to number 133 Cardiff has two Nobel Laureates on its staff, Professor Sir Martin Evans and Professor Robert Huber. A number of Cardiff University staff have been elected as Fellows of the Royal Society, these include Graham Hutchings FRS, professor of Physical Chemistry and Director of the Cardiff Catalysis Institute, School of Chemistry and Professor Ole Holger Petersen CBE FRS, MRC Professor and Director of Cardiff School of Biosciences.