St Mary's University, Twickenham is a public university in Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, in South West London. Founded in 1850, it is generally acknowledged to be the oldest Roman Catholic university in the United Kingdom. It is committed to the mission of the Catholic Church in higher education. Formerly called St Mary’s University College, it was granted full university title by the Privy Council on 23 January 2014. Since July 2019, the university has hosted the Mater Ecclesiae College, whose Ecclesiastical faculties enshrined since 2013 in the "Bellarmine Institute" was brought in after the closure of Heythrop College, University of London earlier in 2019.
The university is also now responsible for validating the undergraduate degree programme at Union Theological College in Belfast, where it was previously claimed that students had "experienced bullying, as well as sectarian and homophobic attitudes", and a former professor was dismissed from longstanding employment after saying that he would be "heartbroken" if anyone accused him of being "bigoted against Catholic students or gay students or whatever", prompting Queen's University Belfast to review and ultimately terminate its hitherto longstanding relationship with the college.
The university is also now responsible for validating the undergraduate degree programme at Union Theological College in Belfast, where it was previously claimed that students had "experienced bullying, as well as sectarian and homophobic attitudes", and a former professor was dismissed from longstanding employment after saying that he would be "heartbroken" if anyone accused him of being "bigoted against Catholic students or gay students or whatever", prompting Queen's University Belfast to review and ultimately terminate its hitherto longstanding relationship with the college.