The Royal Acaemy of Music (RAM) is a constituent college of the University of London (since 1999), and is one of the world's leading music institutions. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French eccentric harpist and composer Nicolas Bochsa and in 1830 was granted a Royal Charter by King George IV, "to promote the cultivation of the science of music and to afford facilities for attaining perfection in it by assisting with general instruction all persons desirous of acquiring knowledge thereof."