With the rest of the higher education sector, with the country, and with the world, we were saddened to learn of the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second.
She passed away after a lifetime of dedicated public service, aged nearly 97, at her residence at Balmoral. Our thoughts are with her family.
On her ascension to the throne in 1952, the UK had just 18 universities – she presided as head of state over a period where a UK university education went from a rarity to a meaningful aspiration for anyone in the world. In that year, she bestowed via the Privy Council a Royal Charter on the University of Southampton, the first of many to follow.
