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Founded in 1963 as one of seven new build universities in the 1960s. Initially comprising a main campus (now known as Heslington West) and King's Manor in the city centre, a new campus is under construction and is known as Heslington East. These two main campuses exist to the south-east of York surrounding the village of Heslington, and the city is about a 20 minute walk away. The university has a collegiate system, with seven undergraduate and one post graduate colleges and all members of the university are assigned to a college. For more information see the university website Link

The original Heslington campus at the University of York is now referred to as Heslington West to differentiate it from the more recent Heslington East campus. Construction began on this campus in 1964, building on the grounds of Heslington Hall. The Hall still remains housing various administrative arms of the university. The west campus is built around a large artificial lake with Central Hall in the middle of the campus. As well as students, the university is home to large numbers of waterfowl, especially geese and ducks as well as several black swans. Running through the north of the campus is University Road, with Chemistry, Alcuin College, the library and a few other buildings to the north of it. On the south west Heslington Lane runs from Heslington to Fulford splitting Halifax college and 22 acres sports fields from the rest of the campus.

The University of York was built with a collegial system in a similar way to Cambridge, Oxford and Durham, although here the colleges are principally for accommodation and social reasons rather than for academic teaching (although the colleges are commonly used for splitting teaching into smaller groups). The first college was Derwent (named after the nearby river) in 1965, quickly followed by Langwith (named after the nearby common) and in 1968-9 by Vanbrugh (after John Vanbrugh the architect), Goodricke (after John Goodricke the astronomer) and Alcuin (after Alcuin of York). Wentworth (after Thomas Wentworth), the post graduate only college, was formed in 1972 and completed the originally envisaged colleges. In 1990 James college (after Lord James of Rusholme) was added, initially post-graduate only, it allowed undergraduate entry from 1993. Halifax only came into being as a college in 2001, although the buildings had existed as overflow accommodation (known as Halifax Court) for several years previous. With university expansion onto Heslington East campus several colleges are departing from their original locations (Goodricke has already moved, Langwith will be soon), with neighbouring colleges acquiring the buildings.

The first of the colleges to be built at the university, Derwent is situated at the head of the lake on Heslington West campus next to Heslington Hall. The college consists of 4 original accommodation blocks (A, B, C & D) as well as the nucleus comprising the bar and porters' lodge along with several academic departments (Philosophy & Politics). Derwent also has additional accommodation in Eden's Court, adjacent to Halifax college. More recently Derwent has expanded across University Road and has two accommodation blocks (E & F) between Chemistry and Heslington Church (along with two block for Langwith on the same site - hence commonly referred to as Derwith).