Queen Mary, University of London

Age: 124

History: Queen Mary was formed in 1887. Its first home was the People's Palace, designed as an educational, cultural and social hub for east Londoners. Queen Mary's association with the University of London began in 1915. Westfield College, established in 1882, was the first college aimed at preparing women for University of London degrees. Following a merger in 1989, Queen Mary and Westfield College was formed. In 1995, Queen Mary merged with two leading medical colleges, St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College and the London Hospital Medical College, to create Barts and The London, Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry. In 2000, the college adopted its present title of Queen Mary, University of London.

Address: Queen Mary consists of four campuses across central and east London. The largest of these campuses is at Mile End, in the old East End of London. Three other campuses are based at West Smithfield, Whitechapel and Charterhouse Square (plus the Centre for Commercial Law Studies is housed in Lincoln's Inn Fields - the heart of 'legal London').

Ambience: Deeply urban and very London. Set in the multicultural melting pot of the East End, it's close to Brick Lane with good links into the city.

Vital statistics: Queen Mary is one of the leading colleges in the federal University of London, with 16,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students, and an academic and support staff of around 3,000. Its reputation sparkles thanks to high-profile professors such as Prof. Lisa Jardine, from the school of English and drama, who won the Times Higher Education Supplement's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006 and Prof. Peter Hennessy, from the department of history, who won the same award in 2008.

Added value: Queen Mary has invested over £200m in new facilities in the last six years. A new medical school building - the Blizard - was opened on the Whitechapel Campus in 2005, while developments at the Mile End campus include a new biochemistry building. Also at Mile End, the award-winning Westfield Student Village boasts 2,000 study bedrooms, a café-bar, launderette, restaurant and bank, plus a new £6m gym and fitness centre, opened in September 2008.

Easy to get into? No. Courses ask for up to 410 UCAS entry points.

Glittering alumni: Graham Chapman, late Monty Python member; writer Malcolm Bradbury; Lord Robert Winston; Professor Sir Michael Lyons, the first chairman of the BBC Trust; Ruth Prawer Jhabvala CBE, Oscar and BAFTA Award-winning screenwriter, who received the 1975 Man Booker prize for her novel Heat and Dust; Bruce Dickinson, lead singer of Iron Maiden; The Rt Hon Peter Hain MP, shadow Welsh secretary; Sarah Waters, award-winning author of Tipping the Velvet and The Night Watch.

Transport links: Excellent. By tube it's just 15 minutes from Oxford Circus.

Who's the boss? Professor Simon Gaskell recently stepped into position.

Teaching: 24th out of 116 in the Complete University Guide.

Research: 11th out of 115 in the Research Assessment Exercise.

Overall ranking: Came 36th out of 114 in the Complete University Guide.

Nightlife: The so-cool-it-hurts clubs and bars of Shoreditch and Spitalfields are nearby.

How green is it? Awful - came 135th out of 142 universities graded by People and Planet for its 'Green League 2011', failing to score an award.

Any accommodation? Yes. Queen Mary's Mile End campus is the largest self-contained student campus in London and - with a total of over 2,000 bed spaces in flats and maisonettes - one of the largest in Britain. College rooms start from £91 per week.

Cheap to live there? Nope, it's London, and with the east becoming trendier by the day, prices are only going to go up. Expect to pay £100 plus for a room in a shared house or flat.

Sports ranking: 84th in the BUCS league table.

Fees: £3,375 per year for full-time undergrads starting in 2011. Queen Mary is proposing to charge the maximum tuition fee of £9,000 per year as of 2012.

Bursaries: The Queen Mary Bursary of up to £1,129 per year is available to 2011 applicants who are in receipt of a full maintenance grant and with a family income of less than £25,000. The college plans to offer £1,500 each year to students with a family income of less than £25,000 per year in 2012.

Prospectus: 0800 376 1800: www.qmul.ac.uk

UCAS code: Q50