More US universities which should be in the UK

Another list or two of US universities and colleges which sound like they could be somewhere else. Or indeed share their names with people.

January 16, 2025

2–3 minutes

Diversions, East Midlands, International, league table, names, Ranking, US universities

A while back I published a ranking of some US universities which sound like they really should be in the UK. Given the shared history and the fact that there are thousands of colleges and universities in the USA, many of them with very entertaining names (to me at least), it’s perhaps unsurprising that there are some similarities with UK institutions.

A reminder then of the top 10 of US universities which really should be in the UK:

Barry University
Spalding University
Kettering University
Salisbury University
Iona University
Cumberland University
Boston University
Cleveland University
Monmouth University
Morningside College

East Midlands Regional list

Several of these do of course have their origins in the East Midlands. Digging deeper, beyond these first three in the above list…

Spalding University
Kettering University
Boston University

…there are a number of others:

Radford University
Mansfield University of Pennsylvania
Lincoln University
Hope College
Huntingdon College
Rutgers University- Newark
Stanford U [almost]
Paul Smith’s College [stretching it perhaps but he is from Nottingham]

OK, some of those are a bit ropey but it almost works.

Snap

Last time we also had a list of some of those institutions which share their names with existing UK universities. From Manchester to St Andrew’s and Suffolk to St Mary’s these are bound to confuse everyone if they decide to open a UK branch campus. There was also a list of US universities which shared their names with European towns and cities, from Brescia to Viterbo.

Beyond the ones previously identified there are also these institutions which may be from many countries beyond the US which could cause major satnav problems on open days:

Piedmont College
Peru State College
Wittenberg University
Carthage College
Linfield University
Valparaiso University
Siena Heights University
Villanova University
Lebanon Valley College
Vincennes University
Troy University
Athens State University
La Salle University
Transylvania University

There are more…

Named After Someone

Among all these universities and colleges there are also quite a few which feature first names. They sound less interesting than I am sure they are. Here is my personal top 10, some of which have surnames too: