De Montfort University

The university's origins trace back to 1870 with the founding of the Leicester School of Art. It evolved through several mergers to become Leicester Polytechnic in 1969. It was granted university status in 1992 under the UK's Further and Higher Education Act, adopting the name De Montfort University in honour of Simon de Montfort, the 13th-century Earl of Leicester credited with summoning the first directly elected English parliament. A major £136 million campus transformation project in the 2000s created its modern city centre facilities.