| Coat of arms of Imperial College London | |
| Year Adopted: | 1908 |
| Shield: | Per fesse in chief the Royal Arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in base or, an open book proper inscribed with the word "Scientia" |
| Armiger: | Imperial College London |
| Motto: | Latin: Scientia imperii [[decus et tutamen]] (no longer depicted) |
| Use: | Formal or ceremonial contexts, degrees and official documents, competitions |
The coat of arms of Imperial College London is an heraldic emblem used by Imperial College London. Edward VII granted the college the arms on the 6 June 1908 by royal warrant.[1] [2] [3] It is blazoned:
The open book with Latin: Scientia inscribed was later adopted by the then-new New South Wales University of Technology in 1952.[4] The historic constituent colleges, and their surviving constituent unions use their own emblems, with only the City and Guilds's emblem being a coat of arms.[5] Many of the historic medical schools which merged to form Imperial College School of Medicine also had their own coat of arms, although these are no longer used.[6] [7] On 5 June 2020, the college decided to remove the motto from the official rendition of the coat of arms, to address issues of colonialism. This was part of a wider effort to address racial inequality in college provisions following the murder of George Floyd and the ensuing focus on the Black Lives Matter movement.[2] [8] The motto, "Latin: Scientia imperii [[decus et tutamen]]", which is translated as "Scientific knowledge, the crowning glory and the safeguard of the empire", had always traditionally been shown with the crest, being depicted as such by Fox-Davies as early as 1915.[1] [9] Unusually for an English university motto, it was granted with the coat of arms, which prevented it being updated instead of simply not shown.[3]