Which is the third oldest UK University?
Third-oldest university in England debate oldest rather than Oxford (charter 1248) and moves St Andrews (charter 1532) down to third oldest in Scotland, behind Glasgow (charter 1453) and Aberdeen (charter 1495). Related to this is the fact that most British universities have been created under acts of parliament (particularly the Further and Higher Education Act 1992) rather than by royal charter, and so would be missing entirely from an ordering drawn up by royal charter. While this does not entirely invalidate London's claim, it means that the critical question (besides whether official status should be the deciding factor at all) is whether Durham gained official
Third-oldest university in England debate fourth oldest university institution". The debate also spilled over into Scotland in 2007, when The Guardian mistakenly called Durham the "third oldest university in the UK" (rather than in England). In 2016, "Durham Magazine" published an article on the debate, concluding that "Despite all the above arguments, most people consider Durham to be England’s third oldest university". "The Telegraph" noted the debate in 2018, saying "Durham University claims to be the third oldest university in England (a title also claimed by University College London)". Judging a university's "foundation" as occurring at the earliest point to which teaching can be traced,