UK universities are often grouped into categories reflecting phases of expansion.
These include the Ancient, or Oxbridge alliance, the University of Oxford (founded c.1096) and the University of Cambridge (c.1209, chartered in 1231). Both were founded on collegiate principles and organised into smaller constituent colleges, with students taking lessons and often residing in individual college buildings that retained their own autonomy, rather than being administered a centralised department. Newer institutions followed in varying scale and character, the earliest of these “prototype Redbrick” universities being Durham (founded 1832, chartered 1837), and Manchester. Before each of these institutions secured their Royal Charter, degree accreditation was provided by University College London, later known as the University of London (founded 1826, chartered 1836). A second wave of civic Redbrick universities followed, unlike the Oxbridge structure and were mainly non-collegiate. By the 1950s, the so-called Whitetile universities formed. When the 1960s began, there was a boom in new universities, through the design and construction of contemporary campus institutions and the elevation of the Colleges of Advanced Technology (such as Salford) to newly created civic university status. Many instiutions expanded rapidly like with the creation of the Maxwell Building. The term The Plateglass Universities has since been used more broadly to describe universities who received their Royal Charter during the 1960s, originally popularised by Michael Beloff, an English barrister and former President of Trinity College, Oxford.