Victoria University is a federated university forming part of the wider University of Toronto, and was founded in 1836. The undergraduate section of the university is Victoria College, informally Vic, after the original name of the university; this is the name by which the university is most often called. Since 1928, Victoria College has retained secular studies in the liberal arts and sciences, through affiliation with the University of Toronto's Faculty of Arts and Science. Emmanuel College functions as its postgraduate theological college, and is affiliated with the United Church of Canada and the Toronto School of Theology. Victoria operated as an independent institution until its federation with the University of Toronto in 1890, relocating from Cobourg to Toronto. Victoria is situated in the northeastern part of the wider university campus, adjacent to St. Michael's College and Queen's Park, and among its residential halls is Annesley Hall, a National Historic Site of Canada. A major centre for Reformation and Renaissance studies, the university is home to international scholarly projects and holdings devoted to pre-Puritan English drama and the works of Desiderius Erasmus. History Victoria College was founded as the Upper Canada Academy by the Wesleyan Methodist Church. In 1831, a church committee decided to locate the academy on four acres (1.6 hectares) of land in Cobourg, Ontario, east of Toronto, because of its central location in a large town and access by land and water. In 1836, Egerton Ryerson received a royal charter for the institution from King William IV in England, while the Upper Canadian government was hesitant to provide a charter to a Methodist institution. This was the first charter ever granted by the British Government to a Nonconformist body for an educational institution. The school officially opened to male and female students on October 12, 1836, with Matthew Richey as principal. Although the school taught a variety of liberal arts subjects, it also functioned as an unofficial Methodist seminary. In 1841, it was incorporated as Victoria College, named in honour of Queen Victoria, and finally received a charter from the Upper Canadian Legislature. Victoria University formed in 1884 with the merger of Victoria College and Albert College in Belleville. In 1890, due to financial and geographic difficulties, Victoria University federated with the University of Toronto. In 1892, Victoria University moved from Cobourg to its current campus on Queen's Park Crescent, south of Bloor Street (at Charles Street