One of the two private universities in the UK with a royal charter is the University of Buckingham (UB). It was first established in 1973 as the University College at Buckingham (UCB) and is situated in Buckingham, England. By royal charter, it received university status in 1983. The university and Margaret Thatcher have a long history together. The first private university in the UK was established when she approved the establishment of the university college in 1973 while serving as education secretary and again as prime minister in 1983. She also took a break from politics in 1992 and was appointed the second chancellor of the institution, a position she held until 1998. The university is a part of the Independent Universities Group, which was founded in January 2015 by eight for-profit and nonprofit organizations with the authority to confer degrees and/or the designation of university. The group's mission is to separate its members from more "shady" for-profit universities and to become "the Russell Group of the alternative industry." The institution is one of the 26 English universities that include a school of medicine, which means that it educates medical professionals at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.