Universities in the United Kingdom have generally been instituted by Royal Charter, Papal Bull, Act of Parliament or an instrument of government under the Education Reform Act 1988; in any case generally with the approval of the Privy Council, and only such recognised bodies can award degrees of any kind. Undergraduate applications to almost all UK universities are managed by UCAS - the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service.
Most universities in the country may be classified into 6 main categories:
- Ancient universities - the seven universities founded between the 12th and 16th centuries.
- The University of London, The University of Wales and Durham University - which were chartered in the 19th century.
- Red Brick universities - the six large civic universities chartered at the turn of the 20th century before World War I.
- Plate Glass universities - the universities chartered in the 1960s (formerly described as the 'new universities').
- The Open University - Britain's 'open to all' distance learning University (est. 1968).
- New Universities - the Post-1992 universities formed from polytechnics or colleges of Higher Education.
