UNIVERSITY NEWS LAST UPDATED : 09 SEPTEMBER 2022
Following the announcement yesterday (Thursday) of the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Birmingham City University's Vice-Chancellor has paid tribute to the Queen and her remarkable years of service, including granting the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire its Royal status in 2017. Since then, the Queen’s son Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, has been its patron of RBC.
Of the Queen’s death, Vice-Chancellor Professor Philip Plowden said: "We are deeply saddened to learn of the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
“On behalf of our university community, I want to express our sincere condolences to Her Majesty's family, and our thoughts are with them at this immensely difficult time.
"We pay tribute to the remarkable 70 years of dedication she gave to the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, and celebrate her achievement and her service across so many generations."
The Queen played a significant role in BCU’s 177-year history, and in 1955 formally opened a branch of the Birmingham Central Technical College, which later became part of BCU.
In 1973, it was the Queen's Mother who played a part in BCU's history, opening the forerunner to the RBC – then the Birmingham School of Music – in the city's Paradise Circus.
And in 2019, BCU was named the winner of a prestigious Queen's Anniversary Prize in recognition of its School of Jewellery's proud history of innovation spanning 130 years.