Owens College

Owens College, Manchester, was founded by John Owens, a cotton-spinner of Manchester, who in 1846 bequeathed a sum of nearly £100,000 to establish a college of non-sectarian character. The original college, erected in 1851, was replaced by new buildings in 1873. The endowment having been raised to more than £260,000 by the gifts of Charles Clifton (1874), Charles Beyer (1876), and others, the college was in 1880 combined with others into the Victoria University. The various colleges composing this University - Owens College, the Yorkshire College, Leeds, University College, Liverpool, and the Manchester and Salford College for Women - are intended, in spite of their distance apart, to occupy the same position and discharge the same functions in its scheme as the Oxford and Cambridge colleges do in that of the ancient universities. The number of such colleges will be increased as opportunity occurs. A prescribed course of study in one of them is necessary to obtain a degree. Degrees are conferred in arts. science, law, and medicine. Women are admitted on the same terms as men.