The University of London is one of the world's leading academic institutions, internationally recognised as a centre of excellence.

Heythrop is one of the specialist Colleges of the University, teaching and researching in theology and philosophy. Heythrop has one of the finest libraries – over 200,000 volumes – of theological and philosophical literature in the UK. The library dates from the College's foundation in 1614, and has a particularly distinguished collection of pre-1801 imprints.