The University College of Nottingham opened in 1881, funded by Nottingham Corporation, and on land in the centre of the town. It expanded in student numbers and in the courses available, and in 1928 it moved to a new site at Highfields, three miles west of Nottingham city centre, given by the pharmaceutical entrepreneur Jesse Boot. In 1948, after much lobbying, the University College was awarded a Royal charter, allowing it to award its own degrees. Student numbers grew through the 1950s and 1960s, but speeded up with the opening of the Medical School in 1977, and then in conjunction with subsequent government policy. New campuses were opened: Jubilee in 1999, Kings Meadow in 2004, Derby Medical School also in 2004, and Malaysia and China the following year, 2005. Today it has roughly 44,000 students globally, of whom about half are from outside of the United Kingdom.
The book traces these developments, but with particular emphasis on students, and what it has been like to study at Nottingham since the 1880s. Based on the university's own sources, including oral testimony, and consistently placing local events in their nationaland international context, the book provides a detailed and entertaining history.

John Beckett is Professor of English Regional History at the University of Nottingham.