The University of Portsmouth is a university in the city of Portsmouth, England. It was previously known as Portsmouth Polytechnic until 1992, when it was granted university status through the Further and Higher Education Act 1992. The University was founded as the Portsmouth and Gosport School of Science and the Arts in 1869. Because of the dependence on shipping and trade to the city, the main function of the college was to train the engineers and skilled workmen who went on to work in the city docks, as well as at the large Royal Navy dockyard situated in Portsmouth. However, due to a decline in shipping and population since World War II, when large swathes of the city were destroyed by German bombing, the college was forced to diversify its syllabus and teaching in order to attract new students.