Maryvale Institute

The College has existed in its current state since 1980, when it was established by Archbishop George Patrick Dwyer, on the site of St Mary's College, founded in 1794 for both the training of priests and the education of lay pupils. It was also, at one stage, the home of Saint John Henry Newman.^[1]

In 2024, in a new venture with St Mary's University Twickenham, Maryvale@StMary's, the BA Philosophy and the Catholic Tradition, MA in Catholic Applied Theologyand PhD in Theology began to be delivered at St Mary's University.^[2]

From Autumn 2025, Maryvale Higher Institute of Religious Sciences (HIRS) began a closer alignment with St Mary's College Oscott. While Maryvale remains separate and autonomous from the seminary, it delivers its distance-learning HIRS programmes (Ecclesiastical Bachelor of Divinity and Licence in Catechetics) from the college and benefits from its resources when students visit.^[3]

The Institute is located in the Archdiocese of Birmingham (UK), its president being the Most Reverend Bernard Longley, Archbishop of Birmingham. In 2011 Maryvale under new guidelines from the Vatican became the first Higher Institute of Religious Sciences in English-speaking world, and became associated with Notre Dame ecclesiastic faculty.^[4] Its Bachelor of Arts, MA and Doctoral (PhD) programmes are delivered through Maryvale@StMary's and are accredited by St Mary's University Twickenham (London).^[5] The validator of the Bachelor of Divinity and Licence in Catechetics programmes is the Faculté-Notre Dame, at the École Cathédrale de Paris.