Celebrating
40 Years as Part
of the University
of London

HRH the princess Royal, Chancellor of the University of London

The year 2021 marked the 40th anniversary of the election and installation of Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal as Chancellor of the University of London, succeeding Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother. She is our tenth Chancellor and the longest serving.

In her years of public service, our Chancellor has consistently championed education and especially the education of women and girls. 

That commitment resonates perfectly with our own history and mission. As a University, we are proud to have been the first in the UK to admit women to degree courses back in 1878. We also extended that access by pioneering global distance education. Distance and flexible learning remains an especially important route to higher education for women, as it allows students to combine study, work and family life.

As well as her role with us, The Princess Royal has official duties with more than 300 organisations, most notably with the international charity Save The Children; serving as President between 1970 and 2017 and, more latterly, as Patron. 

She is also globally recognised as a role model, not only for her work ethic, but for her personal success as an equestrian. She competed with the British Eventing Team for more than five years and became an Olympian in the discipline at the 1976 Montreal Games.

She continues to maintain her connections with the Olympics movement, bringing insight and experience to her role as British member of the International Olympic Committee. She took part in London’s successful bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games and was a member of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games. She has been President of the British Olympic Association since 1983.

Her years of public service began, aged 18, when, fittingly, she formally opened an education centre in Shropshire, England. Since then she has carried out more than 20,000 public engagements across the UK and throughout the world. These include supporting the University and Member Institutions at a wide range of engagements each year.

HRH The Princess Royal

The University is indebted to The Princess Royal for her decades of service to education and the valuable contributions she continues to make as Chancellor.  

Read more about The Princess Royal: royal.uk/the-princess-royal