Richmond, The American International University in London, is a private university in London, United Kingdom. Richmond was founded in 1972, by British educator Cyril Taylor. The university maintains two campuses in Greater London, in Richmond Hill and Kensington.
The university awards US degrees from the American state of Delaware,[6] where Richmond is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.[7][8] Until 2018, Richmond's UK degrees were awarded by the Open University; but from the 2018/2019 academic year, Richmond has been able to grant its own UK degrees, after receiving Taught Degree Awarding Powers from the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education.[9] This mean that all students at Richmond gain both a UK and US degree studying one programme.
Richmond was founded in 1972 by the social entrepreneur and politician Cyril Taylor, chairman of the American Institute For Foreign Study (AIFS), as Richmond College, The American College in London. It began teaching on the site of the former Richmond Theological College, part of the University of London, founded in 1843 as a Methodist theological college. AIFS had been previously using the college site for a number of years for their London study abroad programmes. AIFS purchased half of the college's 10-acre site for £300,000 (equivalent to £3.82 million in 2015), including the majority of its buildings and front lawns, to form a new American liberal arts college.[10] A second campus was opened on St Albans Grove and Ansdell Street in Kensington in 1978 for third and fourth year students as well as the college's US Study Abroad Programme.
In its early years Richmond served mainly to house study abroad programmes to US students, however this changed in 1981 when Richmond obtained a licence to award US undergraduate degrees from the Washington DC Board of Education and formal accreditation from the Middle States Association of Schools and Colleges (now the Middle States Commission on Higher Education).[10]
An expansion of the university's Kensington campus on Young Street was officially opened in March 1988 by Diana, Princess of Wales.